Homily: Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary
Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary-----“A Prayer That Can Touch Us All”
“Knock and the door will be open to you.” The reading from the gospel of Luke alludes to personal prayer. Prayer is considered by some to be creative time wasting. For others it is a time of resting in the embrace of God.
Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Rosary. The Rosary is an interesting prayer form, but it is not totally unique to Catholicism. Other religions have their prayer beads as well. There is something reassuring about holding something physical (cross, bible, prayer beads) as we commune with God.
If we study different types of prayer, we know that we have rote prayer. We have prayers of meditation. We also have contemplative prayer. We also can engage in what we call centering prayer. The unique thing about the rosary is that it can use all these prayer forms.
When we say the rosary, we know that we say rote prayers. We repeat the Our Father, Hail Mary and doxology over and over. But we do not want to race through these prayers. However, that is the temptation when we say the rosary in a large group. My preference is to go through the rosary at my own pace. For me it is much more meaningful as a personal prayer.
We also use meditation when we say the rosary. Most of the mysteries are based on a scriptural story. A good practice is to take a moment to read the parts of the Bible that the mysteries of the rosary are based on as between decades of the rosary.
The rosary is also a contemplative prayer. When we are involved in a contemplative prayer like centering, we usually have a word or short prayer that we repeat to draw us back when our mind wanders. The Hail Mary is a short prayer that draws us into contemplation.
In the rosary we can reflect on the basic teachings of the faith as we say the creed. We also can recall the life of Christ as we use the various mysteries. The rosary is a very profound spiritual exercise. If we haven’t used this prayer recently. Today might be a good time to do so.
Reflection Questions:
- When is the last time I said the rosary? What keeps me from using it?
- Am I familiar with the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary? Why is the addition helpful to use?
Dear Parishioners,
We continue to make progress on our Capital Campaign. The overall campaign goal for Seton, Christ the King and Sacred Heart was five million dollars. We have exceeded that amount now. This is truly a great achievement. Sacred Heart still has a way to go to make our financial goals, but we have drawn much closer to our original target. If you have not gotten your contribution in, please do so.
Please pray for the success of the campaign. I always like to ask one of the saints to be a patron of a financial campaign. I have been asking Fr. Damian DeVeuster to pray for this campaign in a special way for a while. He is the Belgium saint I most admire. He was known for his ministry to lepers. I would think as a Belgium and as one who took care of the infirmed, he is sympathetic to the needs those who are physically challenged in our parish.
I invite you to pray for his intercession as well:
St. Damien, brother on the journey,
happy and generous missionary,
who loved the Gospel more than your life,
who for love of Jesus left your family,
teach us to give of our lives and resources
with a joy like yours,
to be I solidarity with others,
to celebrate and contemplate the Eucharist
as the source of our commitment.
Help us to renew the church of Sacred Heart
So that we will be ready for a new century.
We ask this through Christ Our Lord. Amen.
May Our Lady and all the Angels and Saints watch over you today.
Fr. Mark