HOW WE MAY SPANK AND RENDER SATAN AND ALL DEMONS POWERLESS TO ATTACK US WITH THE MOST HOLY ROSARY

The awesome efficacy of the Rosary was revealed to John Bosco in this thrilling dream which I re-tell below.

One hot Italian summer in 1862 John Bosco dreamed he was at home in his brother's house deep in the rustic farmlands.  All his students were on vacation with him. While the boys were playing, John Bosco was approached by a stranger who asked him to leave the company of the boys and follow him. The stranger took John to a nearby field and pointed out a gigantic snake that was hideously ugly.  The serpent reached 20 feet tall.  The stranger produced a rope and made a suggestion that horrified John Bosco, he invited him to take one end of the rope in both his hands, and said he would take the other end and that together they would snap the rope at the snake's back.  John balked, and refused outright; he called the stranger crazy and said he did not want the snake to retaliate and attack him. After the stranger had calmly assured John repeatedly, he agreed to the prank as he saw it, and he and the stranger spanked the snake with the rope.

Suddenly the snake sprang up and struck back at the rope, but this contortion caused the snake to curl its body into a noose that ensnared itself! The snake's body had become the lasso that constricted it. Next, the stranger tied his end to a nearby pear tree, and took the end that had been in John Bosco's hands, and tried it to an iron lattice of a window in the house. The snake was apoplectic with anger, and squirmed violently to free itself, but as it fought against its own body, the snake was reduced to pieces of nasty meat and soon only a long backbone remained.

At this stage John's students had flocked around him, and they watched with John as the stranger showed them that the rope formed the words, "Hail Mary", and gave his audience this explanation, "The snake is the devil, whereas the rope stands for the Rosary, a succession of Hail Marys with which we can strike, conquer and destroy all of Hell's demons."

This fantastical dream happened 158 years ago, but many of us find ourselves reacting as John Bosco did when he was invited to spank Satan's back. We think that to slap Satan will mean he will turn and destroy us. Rather it is the contrary, if we do not use the rope to agitate Satan into trapping himself then he is free to attack us. In the battle against Satan and all demons, attack is the best defense.

A longer account of this dream (and 39 other dreams) may be found in the book, 40 Dreams of St John Bosco which you may buy at The Spirit Daily Store.

This month of March 2020, my blog is devoted to the dreams of John Bosco, and you may read my earlier post on how penance preserves innocence. Why the dreams of John Bosco? Namely because we are in the month of St Joseph's feast day, and St Joseph was instructed in a dream that he was to be a husband to Our Lady.