Saints Speak from Mrs. Marshall - 10/1/2020 - Sharing a Beautiful Devotion

Today is the first day of October! We’ve all noticed the change in the weather and had to adjust to less daylight. For me, October is always the time when I must accept that fall is really here. As we get occupied with the changing seasons and prepare for upcoming holiday celebrations, it’s easy to forget that October is also a special month in our Catholic tradition as we celebrate the month of the Rosary.

The rosary is a repetitive, Scripture-based prayer that is meant to lead us to rest our minds and silence our hearts so we can listen. While the word “rosary” wasn’t used until the year 1597, the prayer’s roots can be traced back as far as the third century! When praying the rosary, we use beads to help us keep track of our prayers, focusing our hearts and minds on the prayer’s words and the Mysteries.

By meditating on the Mysteries with each decade of the rosary, we can develop a deeper understanding of the lives of Jesus and Mary. While the rosary is repetitive, its impact on us is always changing as we make new connections between the mysteries and the lessons they hold for our own lives.

Although I’ve always been familiar with the rosary, it was not a major part of my prayer life until about six months ago. Some of you may remember, in the first week of our COVID shutdown here in the United States, Pope Francis called for all Catholics to simultaneously pray the rosary. I had lost my grandmother a few weeks earlier, and as a result the rosary I had given her as a gift years before was returned to me. This rosary was sitting on my desk when I received the email inviting me to prayer, and I used it to join in that day with Catholics around the world. Like many, I found this form of prayer to be an incredibly calming, meditative experience. I am often guilty of drifting during prayer as my mind wanders away from my prayer and into my “to do” list. In a time of great uncertainty, the rosary’s repetitive nature allowed me to step back, focus, and listen. I continued to pray the rosary several times each week throughout the early months of the pandemic. While I must admit I have not been as consistent with this practice lately, I am grateful for the month of October to help me get back on track.

We were blessed to recently receive a donation of rosaries from the Diocese of Joliet, so each ASCA student has been given their own rosary to use in prayer. Throughout the month of October, we will be incorporating the rosary into our morning prayers, teaching the students a bit about the history of the rosary, the various prayers that comprise it, and the Mysteries associated with it. My hope is that our students are able to learn more about this form of prayer, gain a better understanding of the lives of Jesus and Mary, and feel more comfortable turning to them in prayer when facing challenges in their own lives.

We invite our parent community to come together each week to pray the rosary as well! A group of parents gathers weekly in the Rosary Garden for prayer; contact Christi Kluzak (dkluzak@comcast.net) for more information.

Lastly, I’d like to recognize our students who have performed Saintly Acts recently. We thank these students for their acts of kindness and respect here at school! Congratulations and thank you to Finn M. (1^st grade), Isabelle A. (1^st grade), Kellan M. (5^th grade), Eva B. (1^st grade), Theodore E. (1^st grade), Ella C. (1^st grade), Cali S. (6^th grade), Courtney M. (1^st grade), Hayden W. (1^st grade), Nathan G. (7^th grade), Gavin M. (7^th grade), and Maddie B. (7^th grade). Great work, Saints!

Warm regards,

Margie Marshall

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