By Fr Joseph Reddy SVD

The month of May reminds us of our devotion to Mary our Mother. I remember going on a number of pilgrimages to well-known shrines dedicated to Mother Mary. Another thought that comes to mind when I think of the Rosary, is St. John Paul II, who had a tremendous devotion to Mother Mary. He always encouraged the faithful to cling to our Mother Mary by praying the Rosary.

I was privileged to view a video shown on EWTN News Nightly channel in May 2019 on Pope John Paul II demonstrating his love and care towards children and youth. When children were asked why they liked Pope John Paul II they replied, “He is like us, especially because he is like CHRIST”.

In Patrick Novcosky’s Book ‘100 Ways John Paul II Challenges the World’, he tells us that the Pope’s parents had a huge influence in his upbringing. His mother died when he was nine years old. His dad took him to a shrine of the Black Madonna and told him that this is your Mother. From then onwards the Pope took Mary as his Mother and devoted his whole life to her, seeking her guidance to help find his path to Jesus.

We organised a virtual rosary daily at 7 pm in Mary Mother of the Church parish during the month of May, 2020. According to the parishioners, the daily recitation of the virtual Rosary as a community was immensely rewarding. When asked about their experiences, a couple of them said that it had been a long time since their families prayed together and to pray the rosary every day in May was a tremendous blessing.

I do understand that people had to make small sacrifices to gather every evening and pray the rosary. Being the organiser of the rosary, I tried to ensure parishioners were invited daily via a zoom link to participate in the rosary. The outcome was very satisfying to see families and myself receiving abundant graces and blessing through communal recitation of the rosary. During one of those days, a parishioner mentioned “how it was a tremendous & Joyful month, you would not know the solemn enthusiasm of my heart. You have been an advocate, leader, and comforter to all of us for sure”.

One of the regular participants Pierre told me “I cannot recall the last time I prayed the Rosary during the month of May, maybe the last time was when I was around ten years old with my parents in Mauritius. Praying the rosary after such a long time brought back rolling fresh memories of my holy and memorable parents”. He went on to say, that “We are all richly blessed to have you in our parish, you draw each time a new landscape in our minds and in our hearts to forgive and be forgiven.” This was a very humbling and yet encouraging comment which will further promote my devotion to Mary our Mother.

Sr. Agatha FMM, One of the participants expressed that ‘It’s good, when we get together we feel closer to each other, connected to each other, praying for each other, even though we can’t reach out to each other, we feel that we are not far away’.

One day as I was talking to my parents in India during Covid 19 isolation, I felt their deep grief as they were not able to attend daily masses or even visit the church for personal prayers. I also felt nothing much was being done for their spiritual nourishment. While reciting the rosary with our parishioners, I had an inspiration and a call to bring my parents and family members closer to God through family prayers. As I proposed the idea of virtual prayer, they were excited to participate in the online prayer.

Being able to gather my family and friends living overseas via virtual media to pray the Rosary as a family unit was another wonderful experience I had during the month of May. These are the very people who instilled in me my deep faith and belief in the power of prayer. As a child, it was hard for me to understand the importance of prayer but the insistence to pray and spend time in attending daily masses turned out to be backbone for my spiritual life later as a seminarian.

The month of May has turned out to be a month of blessings through the intercession of Mary. The Rosary has united us together in prayer and brought back the little ways our parents taught us to pray and stay attuned to God.

We were able to achieve this by using digital media platforms such as “Zoom Application” which helped us share our faith and spread blessings. We are very grateful that as a community we were able to virtually participate even though we are apart for a while, due to Covid19.

PHOTO: A screenshot of some of the participants in the Zoom Rosary gatherings held by Mary Mother of the Church Parish in  Macquarie Fields.