Year Of Rosary Ends, But Devotion Continues

By PRISCILLA GREEAR

Published: November 6, 2003

ATLANTA—Cathy Alvarez was studying Hinduism and her husband had left the Catholic Church when she became drawn to the Marian spirituality of her Colombian mother-in-law.

“I had really just not heard the Gospel so I didn’t really understand,” Alvarez said. Observing her mother-in-law, “it was like the person of Mary came through her. She was such a role model of simplicity and piety. I respected her devotion. There was something on some kind of spiritual level that called me to conversion.”

Alvarez eventually entered the Catholic Church and she experienced deeper conversion after hearing Mary’s reported messages at Medjugorje. About four years ago she and her husband began praying the rosary together, which brought him back to Mass, to the sacrament of confirmation and helped “us both to deepen our conversion.”

Alvarez is now a member of the Cathedral of Christ the King rosary group and is working to build up the devotion at her Atlanta parish, Holy Spirit Church. She likes praying with black rosary beads from Fatima, Portugal, where Mary appeared.

“She’s kind of like a mystical bridge … Maybe being an artist myself, I have a very, very deep conviction about the transcendent and the world of spirituality and what we see around us in society as not reality. When I heard the message of Mary at Medjugorje, for prayer and peace and a conversion of heart, bringing your life back to God … it really convicted me,” said Alvarez, a painter. “I have a conviction of her wanting to reveal the highest truth and beauty and I want to help her do that. I want to give my life to her to help her bring her Son into the world.”

Praying the rosary “helps me to experience more of a quietness of heart and an ability to enter into more deep contemplation. In meditating on the Gospel and prayers of the rosary it helps one quiet the spirit and lets one reflect on the life of Jesus and come in closer union with his love and understanding of his heart.”

And with a strong devotion to the Eucharist she has enjoyed adding the luminous mysteries—introduced by Pope John Paul II last October at the beginning of the Year of the Rosary. “The fifth mystery, this particular mystery, helps to remind us of the church and the priesthood and the institution of the Eucharist.”

Alvarez joined other people on the evening of Oct. 27 for a Mass marking the end of the Year of the Rosary established by the pope. Beginning with a recitation of the luminous mysteries, led by Father Balappa Selva Raj, pastor of St. Peter’s Church, LaGrange, the Mass was celebrated by Archbishop John F. Donoghue at the Cathedral of Christ the King and concelebrated by Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, New Bedford, Mass., and priests of the archdiocese.

John Caponegro set a spirit of reverence with his solo of “Ave Maria,” and Connie Melgaard performed an organ prelude. Other hymns included “Hail Holy Queen Above” and “Mary the Dawn.”

The archbishop in his homily spoke about how the pope, who began both the first and 25th year of his pontificate to the daily rhythms of the rosary, perhaps unintentionally gave the world a 25-year lesson of “what it is to be guided by our Blessed Mother, to the cross, and along the ways of perfection.”

“His papacy began 25 years ago, under the guidance of Mary, but with the crucifix of the Lord Jesus in hand … the crucifix, to foretell for him, the work, the labor, the world-travels which would fill the next 25 or more years of his ecclesial reign—and now the crucifix, as he bears the failure of his body, the fading of the energy, and yet, the ever faster approach to rest and peace and eternal reward,” he said. “…We follow Pope John Paul’s lead—he places in our hand the Cross of Christ, the beginning and end of our journey—and with this long-suffering servant of God, we inscribe the sign of the cross upon our bodies, and say with Him, ‘Ad Jesum per Mariam,’ To Jesus through Mary.”

The archbishop called the Year of the Rosary a time to understand and deepen one’s appreciation for the rosary, with its ten Hail Marys, the Glory Be, the Lord’s Prayer and the guiding chapters of each decade. The pope called it genuine “training in holiness.” The luminous mysteries, mysteries of light, are the pope’s special gift, and reveal Jesus’ light in a special way as he proclaims the kingdom. They follow his journey on earth from baptism and his first miracle at Cana, through his proclamation of the kingdom, his transfiguration, where he prepares his apostles to experience with him the Passion so they come with him to the joy of resurrection and life transformed by the Spirit. The final mystery is the institution of the Eucharist.

Archbishop Donoghue said the rosary opens one up to the sacraments and leads one into a deeper, personal sharing with the events of Christ’s life, that “somehow provide a total meaning, a suitable fulfillment for our lives as well.”

“The rosary makes us better in our individual selves, closer to God, and more ready to meet Him when our end comes, and He comes to meet us, face to face.”

The church, he continued, through its stumbles and recoveries through the centuries and the wisdom of her saints, teaches of the need for Mary, even as one’s mother sets one on the journey and bestows life’s lessons.

“… Mary teaches us to need the One who is transcendently other, but in whose love alone, true life can only be found. Her willingness, her obedience, her travail reveal to us this salvation, the salvation that is Jesus Christ our Lord. For this reason she has been called by the Fathers, ‘the dispenser of all graces,’ —she who says to us at every moment of decision, while pointing to her Son, ‘do whatever he tells you.’”

The archbishop referred to how the pope has quoted the great poet Dante to express her power to lift the desires of hearts and souls to God: “Lady, thou art so great and so powerful, that whoever desires grace, yet does not turn to thee, would have his desire fly without wings.”

At the conclusion of the Year of the Rosary, the archbishop prayed that Mary might affix to their souls’ desire those same wings of prayer. “We pray … our souls will rise to perfection under the chastising gaze of His attention—and we will be transformed—mystery by mystery, decade by decade, prayer by prayer, and one bead at a time—and made ready, to pass through the Cross of Christ, the throne of Love’s sacred death, into the Kingdom of Heaven, where Love reborn and risen, rules over life eternal, and our eternal joy.”

In a letter on the rosary found in the program, the archbishop wrote that the year, while ending, is part of the continuing Christian journey. Through Christ and the sacraments, Mary’s example and intercession, and the faith, “we are changed in our hearts and enabled to go forth as apostles to our families, our workplace, our ministries with mighty power to renew the world we live in. The rosary is powerful, unblocking the way, leading us closer to Our Lord through Mary.”

Eddie Fechtel, who had come to the Mass following a meeting of the Legion of Mary, has experienced that power in his life and works through the Marian group to increase awareness of Mary’s role.

“I feel it enhances my faith immensely,” he said. While devotion is not needed to be saved by Christ, “Mary completes the faith of the Catholic Church … She is the Mother of God.”

As a Sunday school teacher, Maria Elena Wells tries to teach that to Hispanic 8- and 9-year-olds at the Cathedral, where she’s found “they love to have the rosary in their hands.”

She also enjoys listening to the rosary in the car on a CD, which calms her and quiets any anxiety going to and from work—and helps her practice her English.

Franciscan Father Angelo Michael Guarin, who the previous Saturday had led “A Day With Mary” conference at the Cathedral, spoke continuously with a calm passion after the Mass of how Mary frees people from the darkness of sin, fear and despair as she acts as a guiding light to God.

“The more they pray the rosary, the more they become closer to Mary. They will better understand who Mary is. They will love the Blessed Virgin Mary more and the more they love the Blessed Virgin Mary they will discern. She will give us grace and enlightenment to know our Lord Jesus Christ,” said Father Guarin, wearing his sandals and gray robe with a chord wrapped around his waist from which hung wooden rosary beads.

“She will destroy sin because she is the promised woman who will crush the serpent in Genesis 3:15,” he said.

Having traveled around the world leading seminars, he feels the pope’s consecration of his pontificate to her has opened people’s eyes to its strength and power. He emphasized the special value for families to pray the rosary.

“The family is being destroyed. The family is the cell, the seed of civilization, the progress and development of society; and prayer is necessary in every family…. That’s what the rosary does; it unites family members. It bring them to God by their faith and devotion to the holy rosary and the Blessed Virgin Mary.”