OCTOBER 

THE  MONTH 

OF THE HOLY ROSARY

It seems to work when we spell out specific days, weeks, months or years with a specific theme.

Like Pope Francis is stressing that the next Church year: Advent to Advent, 2015 to 2016 is a Year of Mercy. It’s the year to mend relationships - forgive anyone who hurt us - and to accept forgiveness for any mistakes we have made - from abortions to be a zealot and driving everyone around us crazy.

So October is a month every Church year to use our rosary beads.  

Say the regular rosary - 5 decades of 10 Hail Mary’s etc. etc. etc.

Then I like to stress options. I do this because instead of an all or nothing approach to the rosary or life - try “small beads” or “worry beads” or the KISS [Keep it simple, stupid] principle.

Translation: if you can’t say a whole rosary, use your beads to say just one decade of 10 Hail Mary’s.

Translation: if you don’t want to say a whole rosary, and you don’t want to use Hail Mary’s, use your rosary as worry beads - and just thumb or use two fingers to gently squeeze the 59 beads to say to the Lord just a word or two or three. 

I like to say, “Rosary beads are not just for Hail Mary’s all the time.”

You'll hear that mantra in my sermons and blog pieces from time to time.

I would love it if everyone resurrected their rosary, kept it in their pocket or pocketbook, and took it out from time to time to pray for 3 to 5 minutes.

Then someone might spot us and ask, “What are you doing?” and we say, “Just saying a prayer.”

What a way to be a spirituality promoter - a gospel [Good News] promoter and you explain if another asks, “Oh I use my rosary as a way to remind myself to pray - to say ‘Thanks to God’ or ‘All is grace!’”

Or we could say, “For example, I use these 59 beads to pray, ‘Help!’ or ‘Thanks!’  or ‘I love you my God.’ or  ‘Help me to forgive ___.’  and it only takes 3 minutes.”

You can add, “Folks take coffee breaks - I take prayer breaks.”

Or you just hold your rosary beads  in hand as a way of telling yourself you're entering your inner room of prayer. Moslems have their prayer rug to do just that. Protestant and Catholics use their Bible to do just that. Catholics use their rosary beads to do just that. Check out Matthew 6: 5-6 on all this.

I have on my blog two e-Books of short meditations on the 20 mysteries of the rosary.

The first is from back on October 26, 2007 and is entitled, “How To Use The Rosary to Make Christ Connections to Our Life.”

The second is from back on May 30^th, 2008 and is entitled, “How to Make the Rosary Make More Sense - Moving Through the Mysteries and Moments of Life We All Go Through.”

[You can type this 2008 title into Google and add my name “Andy Costello” - after that long title and subtitle - and you can catch it on Google - without the trouble of scrolling back to 2008 or 2007.

October is the Month of the Holy Rosary.

If you pray, as the Pope kept saying, “Say a prayer for me.”