One heavy-laden-looking lady approached me for spiritual counseling and we ended up encouraging one another for unceasing prayers. After a year, we met again and she narrated a beautiful testimony about her psychotic husband.
“Since the time you advised me to pray the Holy Rosary for my husband, I started to pray for him unceasingly. I cannot believe that we are starting to make up for our shortcomings and mend our broken hearts. I appreciated the evident conversion of my husband. There is hope in prayer. Prayer is indeed powerful.”
Maria has been suffering from deep frustrations due to her son’s unbearable stubbornness. Her son, Jotam, started to skip classes and went along with his bad peer. During the enhanced community quarantine, he rarely went home. When classes started in August, he skipped doing his modules and decided to quit school altogether.
One afternoon, after the anticipated Sunday mass, Maria approached me and told her story. She was crying.
Listening is indeed an apostolate. I just listened to her complaints and frustrations, and felt her mixed emotions. I simply advised her, “Let us pray together for your son and we hope for the best. Let us pray the Holy Rosary every day.”
Two months passed, I met Maria again at the Sagada Cooperative. She looked brighter compared to the time she was ventilating her struggles. She shared that her son went back to school and presented himself to the principal.
Why do we pray? “Prayer cannot be reduced to the spontaneous outpouring of interior impulse. To pray, one must have the will to pray and one must learn the sacred tradition within the believing and praying church, the Holy Spirit teaches the children of God how to pray. (CCC 2650)
Jesus taught us how to pray. One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” (Luke 11:1) In response to this request the Lord entrusts to his disciples and to his church the fundamental Christian prayer. (CCC 2759) Jesus taught the “Our Father,” the most beautiful prayer and the summary of the whole gospel. (CF CCC 2761)
“The tradition of Christian prayer is one of the ways in which faith takes shape and grows, especially through the contemplation and study of believers who treasure in their hearts the events and words of the economy of salvation, and through their profound grasp of spiritual realities they experience.” (Dei Verbum 8)
If Jesus taught us the “Our Father,” His mother teaches and encourages us to pray the Holy Rosary.
The Roman Catholic Church is being criticized because of the Holy Rosary. I exhort both the Roman Catholic faithful and those belonging to other religious groups who do not practice the Holy Rosary, respect is the bottomline. If we cannot pray the Holy Rosary for some reason, then let us not criticize.Who knows, we may be among the spiritual beneficiaries.
To my brethren belonging to other religious groups who don’t practice the Holy Rosary, please respect our way of praying. If you are not comfortable with it, refrain from despising and mocking our Marian devotion. Praying the Holy Rosary will be a prudent way of showing respect.
To my fellow Catholic faithful, let us not be ashamed of the Holy Rosary. It is our unique way of praying and meditating. It is one of the beautiful features of Roman Catholics.
Whether people will believe or not, the Holy Rosary has a power when prayed. Believers or not will all benefit from the Marian blessing. If you cannot pray the Holy Rosary with us, your respect is already a prayer in itself.
The Holy Rosary as it revealed itself in my regular praying is summarized into: (1) It is pondering on the life of Jesus. (2) It is praying with Mama Mary. (3). It is meditating on the gift of salvation. (4) It is sustaining intimacy with God. (5) It is a litanical prayer for forgiveness of sins; for conversion of sinners; for the conversion of communists; for peace; for Covid to end; for the healing of Covid-19 patients and those in anxiety and depression; and for the protection of frontliners.
Let us have time with Mama Mary especially on the month of the Holy Rosary, October. Let us experience miracles and victories.
It’s a happy and inspiring experience to be with the Basic Ecclesial Communities of Sagada praying the Holy Rosary every evening.
Kilong Catholic Mission is indeed a beautiful community of young people who can pray and lead the Holy Rosary. I am proud to say that our youth are indeed very alive in their prayers and very alive with Mama Mary to pray for peace, forgiveness, and spiritual conversion.
Reach me at [email protected] or at 0908-727-6735.
April 27, 2024
