Weekend Wisdom - October 5th, 2025
Praying with Jesus’ Mother
October not only marks the beginning of the holiday season for popular culture, but it begins the ordinary time journey to the end of the Catholic liturgical year. October is a particularly unique time for Catholics because it is the month of the Holy Rosary. We have many incredible Marian feasts throughout the year, but none that call us more intimately into the life of Jesus.
While the Rosary has a long and storied evolution, church tradition holds that the Blessed Mother appeared to St. Dominic in 1208 and gifted him with the practice of prayer that today we call the Rosary. St. Dominic then began to preach this prayer as a spiritual weapon to combat the Albigensian heresy, a movement in southern France that denied the goodness of the body and the material world. It has been a tool of spiritual protection and growth since.
Tradition holds that there are several promises Mary gave to St. Dominic as an encouragement to lean on the life of Jesus and the intercession of the person who knows him best, Mary. Mary promised that when we accept her invitation to pray with her through the practice of the Rosary it will:
Offer the greatest graces of God in our lives
Be a powerful armor against hell - destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies
Cause virtue and good works in us
Obtain for us the mercy of God
Withdraw from our hearts our love of the world and help us desire eternal things
Save our souls from being unprepared for Heaven
Prevent us from being overwhelmed by misfortune
Convert our sinfulness
Help us grow in grace and become worthy of eternal life
Save us from dying without the sacraments of the Church
Give us during our life and death the light of God and the plenitude of His graces, which will allow us to at the very moment of our death to participate like the saints in paradise
Deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary
Obtain all we ask in the recitation of the Rosary
Aid in all our necessities if we share the practice of the Rosary
The recitation of the Rosary and the promises fulfilled above are not some kind of Catholic magic. The Rosary is a practice of prayer given to us by Mary because she knows the power of her Son’s story and the power of His love. She knows that when we take the time to pray and reflect on His life that our lives will be transformed. In a world that values information, Mary gives us in the Rosary a tool for transformation. She invites us into a way of prayer that slows down the chaos and focuses our minds and hearts on what is true.
The Rosary can be prayed in so many ways, unique to your circumstances and needs. My sister prays her Rosary as a meditative prayer on her commute to the hospital each day. I was first taught to pray the Rosary by way of intercession. I dedicate a decade or each Hail Mary to a particular prayer intention or theme. I most frequently use a sliding decade of beads with a safety pin at the top that I pin to my pants, purse or even my pillow to pray as I fall asleep. There are Rosary apps like Hallow that will guide you through your Rosary. The Rosary is recited before daily Mass a couple of days a week at SFX and during monthly Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. It will begin being recited before 8am weekend Mass at St. Mary starting this weekend. AND this month, we have two opportunities to pray a living Rosary with students in our communities @ NDDP on October 8th at 8:30am and at St. Mary on October 22nd at 6:15pm. You can also go to Relevant Radio to join a family Rosary initiative in your own home!
- Amberly Boerschinger, Director of Communications
