By Fr. Bill Kneemiller
For The Catholic Messenger
I believe that our church and culture are experiencing great challenges currently. More than ever, we need the intercessory prayers of Our Blessed Mother Mary that guide us straight to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. We need the rosary!
Why? When we pray the rosary we are reliving the key moment of the annunciation of the birth of Christ — the single greatest event in all history! In Luke’s Gospel, the angel Gabriel comes with the message, straight from God the Father: “Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you…. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus.” (Luke: 1:28-31) When we pray our rosary, we are experiencing Jesus coming into our world, through our Blessed Mother.
The devout praying of the rosary and its mysteries allows us to unite our lives with Christ’s mysteries, his sufferings and his joys. Through this great union of our lives with the mysteries of Christ, we are enriched and transformed and elevated to relive the moment of the divinity of Christ coming into our humble world. As Paul related, “yet, I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me.” (Gal. 2:20).
On Sept. 23, St. Mary Parish in Davenport will host a showing of the DVD “Power in my Hands” at 3 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. in the parish center to prepare for the national Coast to Coast Rosary Campaign on Oct. 7.
The video features testimonies from celebrities, scholars, clergy and others who pray the rosary.
I encourage all of you to participate in the national rosary campaign on Oct. 7. If you can, join us at 3 p.m. that day at St. Mary’s to pray the rosary in English or in Spanish.
And remember, the next time you pray the rosary, ask for the grace to pray from the heart and to experience something of that pure, immaculate love of our Blessed Mother who was a living tabernacle for Jesus Christ coming into our sorrowful world to take on its sorrow and give us his peace and divine love!
(Father Bill Kneemiller is chaplain at the Kahl Home in Davenport.)
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