We celebrated Our Lady of the Rosary on October 7th of each year. Within the context of this celebration the Church has established the month of October as the month of the Rosary. All are invited to pray the Holy Rosary either as a family, in a group, or personally.
Here in the parish we have been making the invitation to pray the rosary as a family, and here in the church we have been praying the rosary on Fridays and Saturdays at 6:00 PM.
The prayer of the Holy Rosary is very important because it is a powerful weapon that is able to shield us against the enemy’s ambushes. The Virgin Mary always protects us from all evil as our good mother.
The prayer of the Holy Rosary also unites us as a family and as a community. Although each of us has our personal way of praying to God, the Holy Rosary gives us the opportunity to be in communion with others. The prayers we do in the Rosary are usually the first prayers we learn when we are children.
It is important to mention that with the recitation of the Rosary we are not worshiping Mary. Because in the church we do not worship the Virgin Mary. It is a prayer in which we venerate her for her very important role in the history of salvation for having been the means through which the Savior of the world, that is Jesus, came to us.
I know there are some people who do not like praying the rosary because they think it is monotonous and repetitive. In reality it is repetitive, in the sense that the “Hail Marys” and “Our Fathers” are repeated, but the Rosary is a meditative prayer because before praying the Our Father and Hail Mary, the mystery about which one is going to meditate is introduced. For example, on Thursdays we pray the Luminous Mysteries—or mysteries of Light, and there is a decade dedicated to the institution of the Eucharist. The idea is that while we pray the Our Father and those ten Hail Marys, we can meditate on that great gift that Jesus left us in the Eucharistic celebration.
I personally want to share with you that every time I pray the Holy Rosary I finish with an immense peace in my heart and I can feel the protection of Mary, as my mother, who intercedes to God for my needs.
I invite you to try and pray the Holy Rosary and ask the Virgin especially for the gift of peace and unity for your family. You are going to see the difference that the Virgin Mary makes in our life when you pray the Holy Rosary.