It all began when, as a child on my knees (leaning against a chair), my family would pray the Rosary during every May and October. I hated it! I knew my school friends would see this as weird (although I felt like a grown-up when it was my turn to lead everyone in a ‘decade’). Strangely though, as I grew up, whenever life was hard and I had no other words to use in prayer, I would find myself saying the Rosary. The Rosary would put me in touch with the Grace of God.
The peculiar thing was that the Rosary kept ‘turning up’ in my life, at the most unexpected times. In school history, we learnt about the Battle of Lepanto, a decisive sea battle that stemmed the advance of the Ottoman Empire into Western Europe. The pope’s forces credited the victory to Our Lady since they had implored her help before battle by praying the Rosary. Since the day of the victory was October 7, Pope Pius V named it as the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. When I met a new friend called Jacinta at college she told me that her name was the name of one of the children who saw Our Lady at Fatima in Portugal. Next I learn that on October 13, 1917 the Lady of Fatima called herself the Queen of the Rosary and aske that everyone should say the Rosary for the conversion of the world. Then, when Pope John Paul II was shot on May 13, 1981 (coincidently May 13, 1917 was the date that Our Lady first appeared at Fatima), the Pope credited Our Lady of Fatima, the Queen of the Rosary for his recovery! My Buddhist and Hindu friends always seemed really ‘cool’ with their prayer beads – so like the Rosary beads my mother had given me (which I was too embarrassed to use). This was similar to how I was impressed by Muslims being called to pray throughout the day. Was this so very different to saying the Angelus at noon and 6pm? Later, when I learnt about meditation and practised Yoga, I couldn’t help thinking that I had been doing this since I was a little girl when I said the Rosary and focused on the events of Jesus’ life. I learned early that involving my conscious self in following the mechanics of physically ‘saying’ the Rosary allowing my ‘inner self’ to be with God as I mediated on the ‘mysteries’ such as the Annunciation, the Crucifixion, or the Resurrection.
When I married I longed for a child. For five years, I became more and more heartbroken, sure that I would never be able to have a baby. I was beyond conscious prayer but often I became aware of myself praying the Rosary quietly within myself. Finally, I was pregnant and I prayed that I would manage to have the baby. She was due on September 22nd but I didn’t go into labor until October 5th! You guessed it – our daughter was born early in the morning on October 7th, the feast of Our Lady, Queen of the Rosary! People wanted us to call her Rose or Rosaria, but she was named Grace because the Rosary has been the ‘door’ by which God’s Grace has entered my life.
