Handmaids and Warriors Newsletter: August 2026

This is Alice’s August newsletter.  I explained Alice’s monthly newsletter here.  This month focuses on the Assumption and Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Before the newsletter, let us pray: For Pope Leo XIV

Hail Mary, full of grace…

Hail Mary, full of grace…

Hail Mary, full of grace…

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle; be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil; may God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.

 

Handmaids of Mary

St. Michael’s Warriors

 

August 2026 Newsletter

SALVE REGINA

  

In the month of August we celebrate two main feast of the Blessed Mother: the Assumption on August 15^th and the Coronation on August 22^nd.

However, Mary did not stay in heaven.  She left the glories of heaven many times to continue to nurture her children.  Once, in the year 1208, she appeared to St. Dominic and said to him, “Dear Dominic do you know the weapon the Blessed Trinity  wants to use too reform the world?  It is the rosary.  I want you to preach my rosary.”  This apparition is considered the birth of the Rosary. 

MOTHER OF MERCY, OUR LIFE, OUR SWEETNESS, AND OUR HOPE

Mary as our loving Mother is calling us to heed the messages of her apparitions as they are meant for our times, especially the messages of Fatima.  We should not be caught off guard as Mary has told us how communism would spread and wars would escalate.  When we turn the news on, we are hearing the message of Fatima happening today.

She has given us the weapons to combat the evils of our day, and we need her protection by wearing the Brown Scapular and saying the rosary. 

TO THEE DO WE COME MOURNING AND WEEPING IN THIS VALLEY OF TEARS

We are praying the St. Michael prayer and three hail Mary's for the church and the Pope.

TURN THEN MOST GRACIOUS ADVOCATE YOUR EYES OF MERCY TOWARDS US

Besides the rosary Mary wants us to remember the seven Sacraments as well.  Sacramentals are one of the means the church enables us to participate in her treasures of grace and to show her love and solicitude for us.

The Sacramentals:

There are seven: the Crucifix, the Sign of the Cross, Holy Water, Blessed Candles, Blessed Palms, Scapular, and Medals.

Last month we covered the Crucifix, the sign of the Cross, and Holy Water. 

This month we will do two more: Blessed Candles and Blessed Palms.

And in September, Scapular and Medals.

O CLEMENT O LOVING O SWEET VIRGIN MARY

Blessed Candles:
It is the wish of the church that candles used in liturgical functions be made form pure beeswax.
The number of candles to be used at various services is regulated by church law.
For a solemn Mass; 4 or 6.
For a Low Mass 2.
For Benediction and Exposition 12
Solemn Exposition such [as 40 hours) 20

Candles are blessed and used throughout the year on the feast of the Purification of Mary symbolic of the journey of  Mary and Joseph to the Temple to present Jesus “light of the World.”

No Catholic home should be without Blessed Candles.  They should be used in times of danger, especially in storms or other calamities and also in times of sickness in order to invoke the protection of God.

Blessed candles are placed in the hand of the dying, symbol of divine light that is to guide them through the valley of death to the realm of everlasting happiness.

Candles that burn near the coffin of the departed are to remind us that the body was the temple of the Holy Ghost, that it received the grace of Baptism and will rise again through the merits of  Christ.

Pious Customs have established the practice of burning candles before the altar to honor the Divine Heart of Jesus truly present, and to plead for special graces and blessings.

Blessed Palm
Every Catholic is familiar with the ceremony of the blessing of the palms on Palm Sunday.

The ceremony recalls the triumphal entry of our Savior into Jerusalem. The palm is an emblem of Victory won by Christ over sin, death, and hell.

The church in blessing the palms refers to the olive branch brought by the dove to Noah after the subsiding of the waters as a symbol of peace established between heaven and earth and the abundant overflowing of Divine mercy.  The branches are green and symbolize grace.

Blessed palms should be reverently preserved in the home as a holy sacramental to ward off the assaults of the devil and to obtain God’s protection.  Old palms should be burned and not allowed to lie around or be cast aside where it might be disrespectfully treated.

Since August is also the feast of Edith Stein, Carmelite, it is hard not to mention her connection in this letter.  There is so much persecution of the Catholic faithful today such as in Nigeria, China, and many other places in the world.  Edith Stein is a model for those who are persecuted simply because of their nationality or religion.  She died with her arms around the little children who were dying with her in Auschwitz, a women’s motherly love embracing them in their last moments.

Mary’s motherly love is our hope for today’s world of persecution, with her rosary to defeat Satan and all his wiles and wickedness.

PRAY FOR US, O HOLY MOTHER OF GOD, THAT WE MAY BE MADE WORTHY OF THE PROMISES OF CHRIST.

 

Alice

Handmaid of the Handmaids and the St. Michael Warriors.…

Faith Filled Friday: St. Dominic Receiving the Rosary

October 7^th was the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.  Last year I wrote up a detailed post on the history of the feast day, how it was originally called the Feast of Our Lady of Victory and linked to the Battle of Lepanto.  Read that post because it was very informative.  

I know it’s a few weeks late but I took the pictures and I want to post them.  The pastor at our parish, Fr. Eugene, loves sacramental and seems to have an affinity for statues and relics.  When the feast day of a particular saint comes around, Fr. Eugene will set up a statue of that saint off to the left side of the altar decorated with flowers.  Now this year for Our Lady of the Rosary he set up a small statue of the Blessed Mother handing St. Dominic a rosary. 

Before I get to the pictures, let me tell of the legend of how we got the rosary.  In 1208, it was held that St. Dominic prayed to the Virgin Mary for help in overcoming the Albigensian heresy in southern France and she in a vision gave him the rosary.  From John Roskoski at Catholic365:

 

It was during this time that the tradition of the Rosary comes to us. The form in which it has come down to us will best be stated in the words of P. Corneluis de Snecka, a disciple of the French Dominican Alan de la Roche:

 

We read that at the time when he was preaching to the Albigenses, St. Dominic at first obtained but scanty success: and that one day, complaining of this in pious prayer to our Blessed Lady, she deigned to reply to him, saying: ’Wonder not that you have obtained so little fruit by your labors, you have spent them on barren soil, not yet watered with the dew of Divine grace. When God willed to renew the face of the earth, He began by sending down on it the fertilizing rain of the Angelic Salutation. Therefore, preach my Psalter composed of 150 Angelic Salutations and 15 Our Fathers, and you will obtain an abundant harvest.’

 

The place of the revelation was the church of Prouille and the time was 1208. The claim of place and time are most strongly supported by the tradition of the Dominican Order. Pope Leo XIII affirmed over and over the Dominican origin of the Rosary and in a letter to the Bishop of Carcassone (1889), he accepts the tradition of Prouille as the place where the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to St. Dominic, revealing this devotion. The tradition that Mary first revealed the Rosary devotion to St. Dominic is supported by 13 popes. St. Dominic went into the villages of the heretics, gathered the people, and preached to them the mysteries of salvation – the Incarnation, the Redemption, Eternal Life. As the Holy Virgin had taught him to do, he distinguished the different kinds of mysteries and after each short instruction he had ten Hail Marys recited. St. Dominic found great success in this new devotion, bringing about the conversion of the Albigensians.

Well, it is a disputed story, but we Dominicans believe it. 

Here is a picture of the statue at my parish, St. Rita’s Church in Staten Island, NY, and then a zoomed in picture.

 

 

Afterwards I asked Fr. Eugene where that statue was normally placed.  I had never seen it before.  He said it was in his office.  I found that strange.  Fr. Eugene is a Lay Carmelite.  Why would he have a statue f St. Dominic in his office?  Then I remembered.  St. Rita many years back had a chapter of Dominican Sisters at the parish, teaching at the parish school. 

Well, it made my Dominican heart jump for joy when I saw it at Mass.