Pastor's Letter | October 4

10/4/20

Dear St. Joseph Parish Family,

The Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary is this Wednesday. In these times of trouble, we need Mary's support and prayers more than ever and thus I encourage everyone at St. Joe's to pray the rosary for our Church, city, and country. If you're not in the habit of saying the rosary, start with one decade and expand to the whole rosary (5 decades per day). You can also say it together with your family or roommates. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, go to the Rosary Confraternity webpage and it will explain how to pray the rosary and provide much information about this ancient devotion.

The rosary is powerful. Catholics for centuries have used it for a reason– because it works! In fact, Dominicans wear the rosary on our left side because that is the side on which a knight wore his sword. Our enemies are not humans, but spiritual enemies, and so our weapon is a spiritual weapon– the rosary. 

Finally, here's one hint for praying the rosary. The point of the rosary prayer is not to simply say the spoken prayers, but to use those prayers to silence the chatter in our minds so that we can focus on the mystery to which each decade is dedicated. These mysteries center on Christ's salvific work and thus our mediation upon them helps us to encounter Christ and be joined to Him. The goal of the rosary is not repetition, but contemplation. With practice, the rosary can be a central pillar of your spiritual life and a source of much grace and inner peace and joy.

God Bless,

Fr. Boniface