Fifteen Minutes a Day
Fr. Ed was ordained to the priesthood in May 2000 for the Archdiocese of Boston. He held three different parish assignments in the Archdiocese from 2000-2010 before his appointment to the Faculty of Saint John’s Seminary, where he was Dean of Men and Director of Pastoral Formation from 2010-2022. Fr. Ed is currently the Administrator of Sacred Heart Parish in Waltham, MA and Spiritual Director & Liaison for the Office for Homeschooling of the Archdiocese of Boston. He is the Spiritual Director for the World Apostolate of Fatima in the Archdiocese and a perpetually professed member of the Institute of Jesus the Priest of the Pauline Family.
What a beautiful month! No matter where you live – in the North or the South, the East or the West, in the city or the suburbs, in little villages or on the largest of farms, by yourself or with others – the month of October will bring to us who believe tremendous graces from our truest homeland: Heaven! This is because the month of October is dedicated to Our Most Blessed Mother, Queen of Heaven and Earth, and She desires that we, Her children, turn to Her and trust Her with our every petition as Her ‘little children.’
In fact, with so many things to pray for, whether for an end to a pandemic that has spread all around the world or to heal someone you love who is going through a difficult time, the Virgin Mary is our surest advocate before Her Divine Son, bringing our most intimate, personal requests before His Divine Throne. In return for this favor, She simply asks us to do one thing: pray the Rosary daily!
On this Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary celebrated every October 7th we are reminded of how much grace is released upon the world when it is prayed with devout intention, quiet meditation and sincere faith. For almost 800 years this simple pious prayer has built up families and ended wars, united peoples of different lands and brought about the miraculous. The most popular rosary adage for the past 70 years has come to us from the Venerable Fr. Patrick Peyton, C.S.C., “The family that prays together, stays together!” The Rosary has been a sure instrument to strengthen marriages and build up families, to strengthen the Church and build up the Faith!
Likewise, it was Blessed James Alberione, the founder of the worldwide Pauline Family of ten Institutes and Congregations, who leaned upon his tender affection and abiding devotion to Our Lady, Queen of Apostles to build one of the largest religious families in the history of the Church. It was his pure Marian faith that has garnered over 10,000 spiritual sons & daughters on several continents and throughout numerous countries around the world, truly believing and often reciting his own Marian adage, “Always, everything was built more with the rosary than with other means.”
For many families separated by geography and distanced due to the pandemic, using live-video conferencing platforms has united them for a mere 15-minutes a week to pray together the holy Rosary. Sometimes it is parents and children, even grandchildren praying for someone who is away at college or looking for a job, using the means of social media to virtually link up to recite the most powerful prayer of the Rosary. All to respond to Her request in Fatima over 100 years ago: “Pray the rosary daily.”
Sometimes it would be quite easy to fall prey to the words of the world that this beautiful prayer or that 15-minutes a day cannot make a difference; that this little prayer is too simplistic or that reciting the same prayers over and over have little effect on the world stage; yet, we know quite differently and clearly history has proven quite otherwise. Therefore ,we turn once again to the Holy Family, the Family of Nazareth, for our inspiration to recommit to this daily prayer, to the mission of the Church and for the reason we do all that we do: to Build the Faith!
Let us look to the saints of a new generation, of a new century, a new millennium, to inspire us once again in these most challenging times. We turn to the faith of one little girl who taught us that so much is possible when we truly ask our Most Blessed Mother in confidence, for surely, “Nothing is impossible with God!”
Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us! Little Christina Dangond, pray for us!
