ATLANTA--A sunlit Sunday in October was graced with the additional light of prayer as hundreds of people met to recite the rosary in honor of Mary.

Each October since 1972 an outdoor rosary has been recited in the Archdiocese of Atlanta in an event known as the Rosary Rally. This year it was held Oct. 15 at Holy Spirit Church. It originated with the Legion of Mary group at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception 24 years ago.

In his homily during a holy hour that followed, Archbishop Donoghue lauded the prayer form of the rosary, which combines the recitation of three familiar prayers with meditations on the life of Jesus.

"So complete is the rosary as a prayer that by faithfully reciting its parts while contemplating its mysteries, we come to know, almost by intuition, the New Testament," the archbishop commented.

By reflecting upon the mysteries, "we come to know the mysteries of our own life," he said. Those mysteries include pain and sorrow and death, he said, but "we return always to the glory of God's promise that we shall rise with Christ."

At a very human, comforting level, he said, the value of the rosary is its physical presence in a time of distress.