Pray rosary as “spiritual weapon”
VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI urged Christians to seek intercession, protection and personal encounter with Christ through the “simple but efficient prayer” of the rosary, especially during the Marian month of October.
Greeting the faithful on the eve of the Oct. 7 celebration of the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, the Holy Father spoke of the rosary as “a particular prayer of the Church and a spiritual weapon for each of us,” Catholic News Agency/EWTN reported.
He prayed that the meditation of Jesus and Mary’s life through the rosary might be, “for all of us, light on the evangelical path of spiritual renewal and conversion of the heart.”
The pope went on to invite youth “to make the rosary your daily prayer.” He encouraged those suffering from illness to use the rosary “to grow in confident abandonment in God’s hands.”
Finally, he exhorted newlyweds “to make of the rosary a constant contemplation of the mysteries of Christ.”
The Holy Father’s remarks on October as a month of special Marian devotion echoed “Superiore Anno,” Pope Leo XIII’s 1884 encyclical on the recitation of the rosary.
“We have therefore resolved that in this coming month of October, in which the sacred devotions to Our Virgin Lady of the Rosary are solemnized throughout the Catholic world, all the devotions shall again be observed which were commanded by us this time last year,” the 19th century pontiff stated. “ We therefore decree and make order that from the 1st of October to the 2nd of November following in all the parish churches, in all public churches dedicated to the Mother of God, or in such as are appointed by the Ordinary, five decades at least of the Rosary be recited, together with the Litany.
“If in the morning, the Holy Sacrifice will take place during these prayers; if in the evening, the Blessed Sacrament will be exposed for the adoration of the faithful; after which those present will receive the customary Benediction,” Pope Leo XIII continued. “We desire that, wherever it be lawful, the local confraternity of the Rosary should make a solemn procession through the streets as a public manifestation of religious devotion.”
In the Archdiocese of San Francisco, a group prays the rosary daily at just about every parish.
The young adult group at St. Dominic Parish in San Francisco prays the rosary before its Wednesday meeting. At St. Ignatius Church, a group prays the rosary before the noon Mass.
Church of the Nativity parishioners say the rosary daily after the 7:30 a.m. Mass and after the 8 a.m. Mass on Saturdays. And because the church is open 24 hours a day for Eucharistic Adoration, someone says a rosary just about every hour on the hour, said Wendy Ames, secretary of the Menlo Park parish.
Students at St. Veronica School in South San Francisco say a decade of the rosary daily in the morning school assembly, with rosaries distributed by student volunteers. Each class takes a turn leading a decade over the course of a week.
“It’s a wonderful Catholic tradition, and we are now passing it on to the children so they can pass it on to the next generation,” said pastor Father Charles Puthota, who noted that parishioners also say the rosary daily after the 6:30 a.m. and before the 8:30 a.m. Masses.
From October 15, 2010 issue of Catholic San Francisco.
