I know everyone who regularly prays the rosary will testify to the many graces obtained for others and ourselves by this great means of prayer that Our Lady gave us. St. John Paul II called it a golden chain to heaven. Mother Teresa rarely had it out of her hands. This is my testimony.
I used to suffer from anxiety and depression a lot and my prayers were nearly always worried petitions about this and that. When I joined the Legion of Mary, I was asked to pray 5 decades daily and at first it was difficult, like learning anything worthwhile is.
I came to understand that we are helped by Our Lady to think about and even enter into life of Jesus in the different mysteries of the Rosary. Personally I think it's as well to commit yourself to perhaps just two decade or mysteries a day and do it prayerfully, reading first the Gospel meditation for that mystery given in the many rosary leaflets.
We come to know and love Jesus more and He enlightens us about our lives and decisions. I think there is an invisible channel of Grace which goes out from our prayer to our loved ones, living and dead and to all in this very needy world when we do our best to pray the rosary every day.
I read that Our Lord said to St. Margaret Mary, and I believe it's to each of us, 'You take care of Me and My affairs and I will take care of you and yours'. So I decided just to give all my own concerns through Our Lady to Jesus, very briefly, when I start the Rosary and then offer the Rosary for the Intentions of His Sacred Heart.
I think Our Lady helps us to visualise each Gospel mystery as we pray and try to keep Jesus company in that event. I can't begin to say what a difference all this has made to me and my life and hopefully to all those I pray for.
Sometimes we may not have the time and space to spend half an hour on the Rosary, which is what it takes me. I've found that it's not very good leaving it until last thing at night because I just fall asleep. But we can pray the Rosary as we walk along or sit on the bus and if we find it hard to meditate or even to concentrate on the words, I believe Our Lady makes our poor prayers more presentable like the good Mother she is.
In the Legion we sometimes visit very sick people and we just put the Rosary beads into their hands. All they can do is hold or squeeze them and we can see the comfort Our Lady brings them. I look around on the bus and think why do we plug ourselves into the internet and music or worry all the time, when we can plug in to Heaven at least some of the time through the Rosary?
I have been thinking a great deal about my experience at Reconciliation this past Saturday. I felt an intense and unexplainable urge to go and confess my sins when I woke up that morning. I try to go every six weeks or so, but this was no routine visit to the priest for me. I needed to unburden myself of the numerous venial sins I had committed since I last participated in this Sacrament.
Purest Gold: God's Refining Fire in our Lives »
After salvation, many young Christians wonder if there's anything more to their newfound faith than just the security blanket of "being a Christian." Time and time again, God shows himself as a "refiner," and our lives are as gold. God started leading me in this study to understand what He was doing in my life, as well as in the lives of others.
Picking up my pen to write this column, I couldn’t imagine how time flies. Since the last publication of this column I have gone through a lot, especially the loss of my dear mother to whom I dedicate this article. Not only her, but seems I lost a whole generation of my close family.
How to Achieve Business Excellence »
“Do you see a man who excels in his work? He will stand before Kings; He will not stand before unknown men.” Proverbs 22:29
Spiritual Development for our Youth »
Most of us youth in today's fast moving world are easily thrown off by difficulties and worries.
The theme of conversion is a thread that runs all through Lent, but conversion takes on different aspects throughout the phases of Lent. The first two and a half weeks focused on the interior turning of hearts; the liturgy urges the faithful to reflect and examine consciences thoroughly.
Saint Josephine Bakhita »
Feast Day: February 8
Patron Saint Of: Sudan
Saint Josephine Margaret Bakhita was born around 1869 in the village of Olgossa in the Darfur region of Sudan. She was a member of the Daju people and her uncle was a tribal chief. Due to her family lineage, she grew up happy and relatively prosperous, saying that as a child, she did not know suffering.
Catholics Must Fast More Intensely This Lent»
The Norbertine Canons of St. Michael's Abbey have created this digital Lenten retreat so that you can journey through this holy season alongside them. If you want to have one of your best Lenten seasons yet, join us in our Lenten Program "The Great Fast" - https://theabbotscircle.com/the-great-fast-join
When Your Faith Is Put to the Test - Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon»
Friends, we come now to the Second Sunday of Lent, and we’re on both dangerous and very holy ground with the first reading from the twenty-second chapter of Genesis. The ancient Israelites referred to it as the “Akedah,” which means the “binding”: Abraham binds and is ready to sacrifice Isaac at God’s command.
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