Join me in praying a daily rosary

With the coming of the month of October, the month by a venerable custom dedicated to the Holy Rosary, I ask all of you to join me in praying daily the rosary. The intention I ask all of you to include in your daily rosary is two-fold: for the consolation and healing of the victims of sexual abuse by anyone in the Church (clergy, religious or laity); and that through the powerful intercession of the Blessed Mother, the Lord will expel this demon from the Church.
 
To pray the rosary is to unite ourselves to Our Blessed Mother in a spiritual way, just as Our Lord Himself was united to Her in both a physical and spiritual way during the course of His earthly life. Her faithful love and devotion to Him was His great joy and consolation and it is no wonder that Jesus shares His Mother with us as He suffers and dies for us on the Cross. The rosary is a beautiful prayer, easy to pray and the more we pray it the more we want to pray it every day. If you pray the rosary every day please continue and add my special intentions to your own. If you don’t pray the rosary every day, please begin, at least for the month of October. To pray for oneself is to use the Holy Spirit’s gift of wisdom; to pray for others and their needs is a profound act of charity.
 
Also, during the month of October the Church celebrates many wonderful feasts of saints in its liturgies. For instance, some of these feasts honor St. Therese of Lisieux, the Little Flower, the Guardian Angels, St. Francis of Assisi, Pope Saint John XXIII, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, St. Ignatius of Antioch, St. Luke, Sts. John de Brebeuf, Isaac Jogues and Companions, the North American Martyrs, St. Paul of the Cross, and Pope Saint John Paul II. While it may not be possible to attend and participate at Mass on all of these feasts, one good way of celebrating them and uniting ourselves to these great saints, our brothers and sisters in the Communion of Saints, is to read about their lives. I love reading about the lives of the saints for many reasons, but one reason especially is that I always find something in their lives which is very similar to my life—a joy or sorrow, a spiritual or physical suffering—how they accepted them gives me great hope and consolation.
 
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the Church’s greatest and most perfect act of worship of Almighty God. The holy rosary is one of the Church’s most efficacious private and public devotions. In this month of October, please make the sacrifice to go to Mass and to pray the rosary. As Saint Paul exhorted the Christians of Rome, “Rejoice in your hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” (Rom. 12:12)
 
May we all love the Lord with all our strength and then accept and do His holy will!