“I hope people fall in love,” Father Mark-Mary Ames, a Franciscan Friar of the Renewal, the host of “The Rosary in a Year” podcast, said during a virtual press conference Oct. 28. “I hope our listeners and those who make this journey with us … fall in love with the rosary because they experience it as … a privileged door for encounter with Our Lord and Our Lady.”
Born into an aristocratic family in 1799, Blessed Pauline Jaricot used her influence to not only help spread the Gospel, but rejuvenate devotion to the rosary and highlight deplorable conditions of the working class.
Today, 32 years after his death, his legacy of promoting prayer and the rosary continues through Holy Cross Family Ministries, which offers prayer events, formation ministries and family-focused media.
On Oct. 18, Aid to the Church in Need will host its annual “One Million Children Praying the Rosary” campaign, inviting children — as well as families, parishes, catechists and teachers — to join in reciting the rosary that day, pledging their intention to do so at ACN’s dedicated website for the initiative, millionchildrenpraying.org.
Thousands of pilgrims from across the country gathered at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington Sept. 28 to honor Mary, the Mother of God, and her gift of the rosary.
“Hunting has given me time to reflect and pray. The more time I spend in the world around me, the more connected I feel to God,” Leo Van Beck said.
Very much on the beaten path of tourists and pilgrims to Rome, a frescoed ode to the rosary is visited by as few as a dozen people a day.
Scott Kieffer, the director of discipleship for St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Community in Maple Grove, Minnesota, is 26 lakes away from completing his endeavor to pray a rosary in the 250 to 300 lakes in the Twin Cities urban metro area.
Kieffer set out to accomplish this goal in 2017, looking for ways to connect with nature while praying. Eventually, this endeavor became good rest for Kieffer, who described the experience as a personal spiritual retreat.
