At the Hour of Our Death and NOW!

Maybe you noticed a little booth in the corner of the Ministry Fair last weekend. There were two young girls, 11 and 12 year old parishioners, who were displaying a variety of hand-tied rope rosaries, and some of their favorite bead rosaries next to a sign up that said, "Living Rosary of Girls (Must be 16 or younger)."

The premise of their sign-up was that each volunteer would promise to pray one decade of the rosary each day for the intentions of life and their vocations.  The girls are about half way done with their signup. They are hoping to get a full 20 girls (one for each decade) plus one to pray the opening and closing prayers. Girls can (obviously) pray more than just one decade per day, but this is a commitment to pray everyday so that together a full rosary is said for their special intentions.

I have to admit... I would never in a million years have thought to do that when I was 11 years old. Rosaries were prayed by the old people in church and when someone died. I figured I would probably grow up and pray the rosary, but not "now."

I think that their idea started because one of the girls' moms (Geneveve L., a CGS catechist, a parishioner here, and also one of my baby sisters) decided to start something similar a couple of years ago with a group of moms. "The Living Rosary of Moms" was an idea she got from reading about the teenage years of Pope St. John Paul the Great and a group of young men that formed a Living Rosary even before he discerned the priesthood.

Geneveve decided to throw it out there and see if she could find 19 other people who would pray together each month. A couple of years later, she now has 89 woman who have joined together to form more than 4 full rosaries prayed each day for our vocations as wives and mothers, for the vocations of our children, and any special intentions we might have together. Apparently this witness had quite the impact on her daughter who is now setting up her own LR group.

October is the "Month of the Rosary" and is as good a time as any to discover the power of this devotion.

The mysteries we reflect on are a powerful way to think more deeply about the life of our Lord, the prayers themselves are composed from the words of scripture ("Hail, Full of Grace" Luke 1:28 and "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb" Luke 1:42), and the difference that this simple discipline of prayer can make in your life is immeasurable. Mary's whole life points directly to Jesus. Spend time with her in the Rosary! Not only does she promise to be with us "at the hour of our death," but also "now." So there is no better time to begin!

Click here to join in our CGS Living Rosary that runs for the month of October!