Kathryn Hogan
During the month of October, we celebrate our Mother Mary and reflect on the Rosary.
In the 16th century, Pope Pius V grouped the long-standing custom of praying to Mary into three sets of mysteries: the Joyful Mysteries, the Sorrowful Mysteries, and the Glorious Mysteries. In 2002, Saint Pope John Paul II supplemented the three sets of mysteries with a fourth: the Luminous Mysteries.
We pray the Rosary to participate in Mary’s life, to grow closer to her experiences, and share in her life with her Son, Jesus Christ. As we pray and meditate on the mysteries, we can better appreciate the life of our Savior. We can put ourselves into the Mystery and live the moment with our Lord.
I vividly remember those evenings in the early 1960’s when my mother and my brothers would kneel around her bed and pray the rosary. My father was an army officer serving a tour in Vietnam—we prayed for his safety and his safe return home. We continued the tradition for a long time after his return home! I have prayed the rosary for favors granted and for favors requested.
I remember many years ago watching a film about the life of Christ. and the Redemptorist priest came on at the end of the film (no, not a video!) and said that we should always remember that Mary can do anything Christ can do… Christ does it through his will, but Mary does it through prayer. That thought has stayed with me throughout my life, giving me hope and inspiriation.
This October, let us pray the rosary for ourselves, for our families, our faith communities, and our Church. Let us pray it for peace in the world, the health of the Holy Father, for the unborn, the sick, the marginalized, and for those babies who will not be born. Try to pray it daily, alone or with loved ones, friends or fellow parishioners. We demonstrate our faith in Mary, who will intercede to her Son for us, by praying the Rosary.
This month you will be treated with stories, reflections, and thoughts from the staff at Verbum. They have volunteered their reflection this month that we all may grow closer as Catholics.
I pray that you feel the love our mother Mary has for you, and I bid you peace,
Yes. It is important to pray to Mother Mary for the intentions mentioned; and, i wish to expand this spectrum to include all of God’s children who are different from us in any way, be it the ‘enemy’, the ‘different’, the ‘opposition’, the ‘outsider’, the ‘uncomfortable’, the ‘objectionable’, the ‘hateful’. Yes, those of whom i sometimes wish were not a part of my family picture.
But whose picture am i looking at? Is it a picture of my selective family? Or, is it a picture of God’s selective Family?
God has a selective family? Yes.
God created all. God chose all creation. For what purpose did God choose me? God did not exclude me from creation.
God selected me, as God selected you. God selected all. God is good.
As i slowly learn to know God, i grow in more awe and in more love with God, resulting in my wanting to be more like God – ‘to serve as He serves’.
So, i pray with you, for your intentions and for the needs of God’s selective family, as God hears our needs from Mother Mary of all.