Print Issue: January 16, 2003

Fifteen Saturdays, A Rosary Meditation, Begins Jan. 25

By Kay Martinez, Special To The Bulletin

LITHONIA-In October 2002, Pope John Paul II proclaimed a "Year of the Rosary" for the Catholic Church worldwide. When he did so, he brought forth from the church's treasures a practice hidden from most until then-the Fifteen Saturdays.

In his apostolic letter issued at the beginning of the 25th year of his pontificate, he exclaimed, "The Rosary is my favorite prayer. A marvelous prayer." While that love of his was familiar to the faithful, what was unveiled was a valuable means of praying the rosary.

Formerly found mostly in Italian parishes, the Fifteen Saturdays are a devotion that many more may take up during this year.

In this archdiocese, on Jan. 25, the Fifteen Saturdays will begin with the 8 a.m. Mass at Christ Our Hope Church, 1786 Wellborn Road, Lithonia. Father Jack Durkin, the pastor, will celebrate the Mass.

To follow this practice, on 15 consecutive Saturdays (or Sundays) one commits to attend Mass and receive holy Communion, pray five mysteries of the rosary and contemplate and live one of the 15 traditional mysteries. The initial worldwide date is the last Saturday (or Sunday) of January as a rule, with the celebration honoring Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompei. The completion is always May 8. A second possible starting date is the last Saturday of June with the end of observance the first Sunday of October.

This devotion is like a jewel. Each of the 15 days, through prayers and readings, the devotee meditates with Mary on the corresponding mystery and how it manifests God's love. The climax is participation in the Eucharist, the supreme celebration of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. This emphasis reflects the guidance given in the pope's apostolic letter on the rosary.

The book on the Fifteen Saturdays offers a wealth of material. However, one is free to meditate on only part, pondering whatever is most helpful to one's soul. The ardent considerations of God's goodness awaken, soften, warm and fire the heart. They impel one to be determined to imitate Jesus and Mary.

The depth of the prayers and meditations is a true "training in holiness" and the "art of prayer."

Studying with Scripture conforms the meditations of the Fifteen Saturdays to the apostolic letter's suggestion to follow each rosary mystery with a related Bible passage. At the completion of each mystery in the Fifteen Saturdays, a virtue is advanced along with a prayer petitioning it. Concrete ways of practicing the virtue cap the reflections. A case history of a great favor granted by Our Blessed Mother follows.

The most convincing evidence of her being "all-powerful by grace properly understood," as the pope's letter states, is the transformation of the life of the Fifteen Saturday's author, Blessed Bartolo Longo. A brilliant law student at Naples in the 1860s, he was seduced into practicing spiritism and became a priest of Satan. Only through the help of a Dominican father and the praying of the rosary was he freed from this horror. Even after the break with darkness he was tempted to despair as he deliberated "once a priest of Satan, always a priest of Satan." He was in Pompei not far from the pagan ruins when he realized that propagating the rosary was his way to salvation. He who had attacked the church erected a jubilant Shrine to Our Lady of Pompei and an orphanage to give hope to the poor there. From the heart once dedicated to the devil burst forth the fervent expressions of love found in the Fifteen Saturdays. They echo now from that countryside into this millennium and around the world.

The Fifteen Saturdays at Christ Our Hope Church are open to all. For further information call Kay Martinez at (770) 879-9485.