On May 1, Pope Francis launched a month-long, global recitation of the rosary, pleading for Mary’s intercession for the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
By Christian Raquepo
Special to the Herald
“Pray the rosary every day to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war.” (Our Lady of Fatima, May 13, 1917)
During October, the month dedicated to the Most Holy Rosary, parishioners of Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa would visit the homes of fellow parishioners with a pilgrim image of Our Lady and recite the rosary. However, because of pandemic safety protocols, this was not possible last year. Instead, technology helped us hold nightly family rosaries via Zoom, the internet meeting application.
As we came to the end of our nightly October rosary in 2020, some participants wanted to continue it. So we did, adding the Night Prayer known as Compline from the Liturgy of the Hours, which includes psalms, hymns, and readings. As Holy Mother Church’s official bedtime prayer, Night Prayer invites us to examine our consciences, ask for God’s Mercy, and pray for his protection while we sleep.
As more people were invited to our Night Prayer, it was recommended that we also continue to pray the rosary. “The rosary is the most beautiful and the most rich in graces of all prayers,” said St. Pius X. St. Padre Pio call the rosary “the weapon for these times.”
We now pray the rosary followed by Night Prayer every Wednesday and Friday with seven to 10 participants, from youth to seniors, from Oahu to Kauai to California.
Over the past six months, our rosaries have been adapted to celebrate the liturgical seasons of the church and different devotions.
“Participating in the rosary and Night Prayer fulfills my spiritual cravings for unity, inner peace, and closeness to Mother Mary,” said participant Francine Francis.
Hayden Mandaquit, my good friend and classmate at Damien Memorial, who frequently joins our rosary, said, “I can feel myself easing, almost shaking during the rosary. I reflect on my life: the rights, the wrongs, the good times, the bad times, extinguishing the fire of torment in my soul: stress, doubt and depression.”
Hosting our Wednesday and Friday rosary and Night Prayer has been an awesome, faith-filled experience for me. Sharing my time and my talent these past six months in prayer has brought growth to my spiritual life. By gathering people to pray “the Bible on a string” as one priest called it, I have increasingly become ever so closer to Jesus through Mary with Joseph. By the means of the internet and Zoom, I can share our dedication and devotion to Our Blessed Mother and her rosary, even to the world over, just as Blessed Carlo Acutis did with the Blessed Sacrament.
My hope in organizing our evening prayers is summed up in our final decade prayer: “Mother Mary, we beg you, bring peace and healing to our land, family, and the whole world.” This peace and healing that we desire in our land, families and the whole world is the peace and healing which God can only provide.
With a firm and steadfast faith, trusting wholeheartedly in the Lord, we know that, as Our Lady told St. Dominic, the rosary will “save the world” and we will see the end of this pandemic.
Anyone and everyone are welcome to join our Wednesday and Friday Rosary and Night Prayer just email me at rosaryandnightprayer9495@gmail.com.
Raquepo is a member of Damien Memorial School’s Students for Life and a parishioner at the Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa.
