Praying the Rosary in Community

By Ferran Tarradellas

Kraainem (04 December 2005).- T
On 15th of April, 1912, the Titanic crashed against an iceberg and sank slowly. Its radiotelegraphists, Jack Phillips and Harold Bride remained, until the end, in his communication room sending once and over again a single message: S0S (acronym for Save our souls). Their heroic action saved hundreds of lives. With the same spirit, a group of parishioners met the 4 Saturdays of October to send a single and repeated message to our Lady in Heaven: “Pray for us sinners now and in the hour of our death”.

This gathering, far from being heroic was a pleasant one. We had the chance to pray together –and in several languages- one of the oldest, and however, most actual of the Christian prayers. In her last apparitions in Fatima, Lourdes, and more recently, in Medjugorje, Virgin Mary asked Christians to pray this ancient prayer for the salvation of the world. In the same line, Pope John Paul II published in October 2002 a beautiful letter on the Rosary encouraging this devotion, and adding 5 new misteries (called luminous) to the 15 contemplated traditionally.

Rosary was born among the Christian people, who tried to imitate the prayers of the first monks. They recited the 150 psalms every day, and since most of Christians were illiterate, replaced them with “Heil Marys”, that they prayed when reflecting on the main episodes of Jesus life and our salvation.

Being October the month traditionally dedicated to the Rosary by the Parish council gave green light to the idea of having a community praying of the rosary, and the Parish printed a short brochure with an explanation of how to pray. Cheap rosaries were also distributed for free among the Parishioners that attended different masses. There is also, in the web site of the Parish a page dedicated to the Rosary in the prayers section. In this page, you can download printable PDF versions of the brochure and the pope’s letter. Since the experience was a nice one, it is possible that we repeat this community prayer in May for the month of Mary: you are by now all invited!

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