October 2025

Here we are on the cusp of October — the golden, rosary-drenched month that Our Lady has claimed as her very own — and my heart is already racing with anticipation. As I write this in the fading September light of 2025, with the solemnity of the Holy Archangels still ringing in our ears, the entire Church is preparing to enter what promises to be the most Marian month of this entire Jubilee Year of Hope. Under the gentle, steadfast guidance of our beloved Pope Leo XIV, whose pontificate continues to unfold like a living encyclical on tenderness and truth, October will be fifteen decades of pure grace: missionaries and migrants flooding Rome, consecrated souls radiant in the streets, Marian movements turning the Eternal City into one vast rosary procession, and every single day crowned with the beads that have conquered battles and converted souls for centuries.

The liturgical calendar of October 2025 could not be more perfectly ordered by Providence. We begin on Wednesday, October 1, with our little St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, the patroness of missions whose shower of roses is already falling upon the Jubilee pilgrims. The very next day, October 2, we honor our Holy Guardian Angels — and oh, how we will need their protection as millions more make their way to the Holy Doors. Then comes Saturday, October 4, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, when the Jubilee of Missionaries and the Jubilee of Migrants and Refugees will converge in one breathtaking weekend of grace. Expect to see habits from every continent, languages from every tongue, and rosaries clutched by hands that have crossed oceans in search of safety.

The following weekend, October 11–12, will bring the Jubilee of Consecrated Life — mark these dates in red on your calendars, my sisters! Tens of thousands of nuns, monks, friars, and consecrated virgins will process through Rome in their habits and veils, a living witness to the world that Christ still has brides who choose Him alone. And immediately after, October 18–19, the Jubilee of Marian Movements and Spirituality will transform the city into one continuous rosary prayer. The candlelight procession on Saturday evening, October 18, from St. Peter’s to St. Mary Major is already being called the most beautiful event of the entire Holy Year. And crowning it all, of course, is Tuesday, October 7 — the Solemnity of Our Lady of the Rosary, the victory of Lepanto, the triumph of the beads themselves. This year, with the Jubilee graces flowing like rivers, that feast will feel like heaven breaking open.

Our Holy Father Leo XIV has made it clear that October belongs to Mary. His Wednesday audiences will move indoors to the Paul VI Hall to accommodate the crushing crowds expected for the Marian celebrations, and he has asked every parish in the world to renew the consecration to the Immaculate Heart on October 7. His prayer intention for October, carried in the Pope Video, is for the final session of the Synod on Synodality — that the Church may learn to listen as Mary listened at the Annunciation. World Mission Sunday falls on October 19 this year, perfectly aligned with the Marian Jubilee, and the Holy Father will send a special message urging every Catholic to become “a missionary of the Rosary.”

Our bishops are preparing with particular fervor. October is Respect Life Month in many countries, and with the Jubilee fire still burning, expect even more powerful statements, rosary processions outside abortion clinics, and diocesan pilgrimages focusing on the sanctity of life from conception to natural death. Many American bishops are organizing massive Living Rosary events in stadiums, where thousands will form human beads beneath the October sky. In preparation for their November plenary assemblies, several conferences are holding special October synods on the role of the laity in the missionary Church — perfectly timed with the Rome events.

For our priests and seminarians, October will be a month of quiet martyrdom and great joy. Seminaries are already planning intensified rosary devotions — many have committed to fifteen decades daily for the intentions of the Holy Father and for vocations. Parish priests will be hearing confessions for hours after every Marian event, and the lines will stretch into the night as souls moved by the Jubilee seek mercy before the great feasts. This is our moment, dear lay faithful, to surround our priests with ferocious prayer — First Thursday Holy Hours on October 2 dedicated to them, spiritual bouquets delivered on the feast of St. Thérèse, notes of gratitude slipped into the confessional grate.

And our nuns — oh, my dear hidden brides of Christ — October will crown you queens before the entire world. The Jubilee of Consecrated Life will be your great public witness, when the Church will see the radiant faces (and veils) that usually pray behind grilles. St. Thérèse on the 1st, St. Francis on the 4th, St. Teresa of Ávila on the 15th — every week brings a feast dear to contemplative hearts. Cloistered communities are already preparing to receive an avalanche of prayer intentions for the Marian Jubilee; many are offering special plenary indulgences for enrolled deceased souls if you send names before October 7. The hidden prayer pouring from those monasteries during October will be the true engine of grace for the entire Holy Year.

My dear ones, let us prepare now. Begin the 54-day Rosary Novena if you haven’t already — many are starting on August 24 so that the glorious mysteries land precisely on Christmas. Stock up on blessed rosaries to give away. Plan your own parish rosary processions, your family decade each night beneath the October stars. Make October the month you finally teach someone who has never held a rosary how to pray it.