To Live the Great Commandment: Love of God and Love of Neighbor

Diocesan and Parish Census 2024

---

Father Johns Weekly Message

Honoring Mary in the month of October

Will you pray the Rosary with your Holy Family Catholic Community and families daily in this month of October? The month of October is devoted to Mary and praying the Rosary. It is a month during which we need to increase our Marian spirituality. It is good to get a statue or Holy picture of Our Lady and place it at a prominent place in your home. You can decorate it with a bouquet of flowers or in your own creative way. In our Churches we have placed the statue of Our Lady. You can always bring your kids and the elderly or sick members of your family to pray the Rosary in Church. You can light candles at the grotto and pray inside the Church.

Some Protestants have asked me, “What is the purpose of having the rosary devotion in the month of October?” We, Catholics have great respect and great love for Mary, the Mother of God. Many of us have our personal experiences or favorite memories with Mother Mary and those experiences or memories have kept our families and us closer to Her.

Everything the Church teaches about Mother Mary is meant to teach us something about Jesus Christ. She always points us to Jesus, Her Son. Only mothers know much about their children, thus Mother Mary too knows Her Son well. She will help us to increase our love for Jesus day by day. Just as our earthly mothers will not let their sons and daughters down, our Heavenly Mother too will never let us down and she will continue to guide us towards the heavenly path.

How did Mother Mary grow so significantly in my spiritual life? During my younger days we could only eat dinner in the family after the rosary. This is how l began building an affection towards Her. In my seminary days we had a peripatetic (walking) Rosary before dinner.  We would walk at least 20-30 minutes around our Seminary College compound reciting the rosary and end it at the grotto in a company of two or three seminarians.  That is how the Rosary became an important part of my prayer life. I urge all of you to teach your children and others to love the Rosary and to develop a habit of praying it through your example and encouragement.

“The Mother of Christ and of the Church is always with us. She walks with us always, She is with us.” Particularly, in the month of the Rosary, we Catholics should honor Her. As we begin praying our rosary daily this whole month, we will be able to feel that she is on our side and we shall gain many rewards through Her intercession to Her Son, Jesus Christ. As we give honor to Her in this month, let us ask Her to pray for our needs and the needs of others. May she help us in our faith as we treasure Jesus in our hearts and in our homes ultimately bringing peace to our lives.

In this month of October, let us consider this beautiful prayer of the Rosary as a means that we too can use in order to draw closer to Jesus and Mary by meditating on the great mysteries of our salvation and pray for the spiritual and communal growth of the Holy Family Catholic Community. Let us therefore “grab those beads and enter into the mysteries of this time-honored contemplative prayer. Looking for spiritual peace: Say the rosary. Looking for physical rest: Say the rosary. Looking for insights into God’s will for you: Say the rosary. Looking to understand the life of Christ: Say the rosary. Looking for strength during difficult times: Say the rosary.  Looking for resolution of a special intention: Say the rosary. The benefits are endless, including a deeper sense of hope and compassion. In the simple words of Saint Anthony Claret, “When people love and recite the rosary, they find it makes them better.” Mary joins us, she fights at our side. She supports Christians in the fight against illness and the forces of sin and evil especially through prayer, through the rosary. The blessed mother shared in the struggles of her son, Jesus Christ. She suffered along with him, and so when Jesus resurrected, she was also given redemption.  Pope Francis reminds us that praying the Rosary prepares our hearts to receive God’s grace and teaches us to place ourselves in the hands of God, allowing him to guide our steps along the path of our faith journey. Praying the Rosary allows us to make room for God, to glorify his name, and to make him truly present in our lives.

We also celebrate in October Respect Life Month. I recommend that the Catholic Community of Holy Family to give witness of its dedication to the month of Rosary and Respect Life Month in two ways: First, I invite and encourage families to pray the Rosary together every day; second, I strongly recommend that Rosary be communally prayed half an hour before every WEEKDAY AND WEEKEND celebration of the Eucharist. Again, OCTOBER ROSARY FOR LIFE SPECIAL PRAYER INTENTION is for all of us here on earth to be treated with dignity and respect from conception until natural death. To you, who shine on our journey as a sign of salvation and hope, do we entrust ourselves, O Clement, O Loving, O Sweet Virgin Mary. Amen. God bless, Fr, John

Mission Statement

To live the Great Commandment
Jesus said to him, 'You shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, and with all your mind.'  And
'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'
Matthew 22: 37-38