Time To Move Forward

Ora et labora. Pray and work. And so we begin.

Lepanto 2008 is still taking pledges for Rosaries to be said these next four years. We’re almost halfway to the goal of 30,000,000 rosaries pledged. Please sign up today. One of the clearest messages this election left me and my family is that we, as individuals, as a family, as a nation, HAVE NOT PRAYED ENOUGH.

A day before my consecration last year, dh stepped up and told all of us that we are to begin praying the Rosary everyday. Since then, we have, missing 3 days in the past year. But we can do so much more. To help out, I’ve gotten ourselves and a few friends booklets and pamphlets from Rosary Center. Kathryn also has a wonderful set of Rosary Three Part Cards at her blog. We’ve printed these out on cardstock and keep it on our altar, making it really easy for our little one (6 yo) to memorize the Mysteries. We take turns leading the Rosary. I.e., the person leading the Rosary says the Mysteries and leads the prayers for the first Mystery. The next child (older) leads the next Mystery, and so on. Since there are 6 of us, including parents, on any given day, one family member leads and another takes a break from leading. It takes discipline and a commitment, and yes, there have been evenings when we started saying the Rosary too late in the evening and everyone’s cranky and not really cooperating. Our best Rosaries are said early (before dinner) or in the car when we’re driving someplace.

Here’s another Scriptural Rosary for children that may be helpful.

Also, please consider participating in the Inauguration Day Rosary Novena. It begins November 10 and ends on January 20, Inauguration Day. The specific intentions are on the temporary website, and I’m copying them here as well for your use:

• For the triumph of the Culture of Life in the United States of America.
• For President-elect Obama, and for all of the leaders of the United States of America, that they will be led personally to Jesus Christ and His truth, and that they will lead our country in a positive direction. Or in other words, as Archbishop Wuerl said, “That our nation’s new leaders be guided in their decisions with wisdom and compassion and at the heart of all of their decisions may there be a deep respect for and commitment to the sanctity and dignity of all human life and support for the most vulnerable among us.”
• For the hearts, minds and SOULS of the American people, that they will be turned back towards Jesus Christ and the “least of His brethren”.
• For a renewal of the virtues of purity and self-control, especially among our youth.
• In reparation for the scourges of abortion, Embryonic Stem Cell Research, euthanasia, cloning, artificial contraception, and all manifestations of the Culture of Death, and especially in reparation for the support and/or complacency that we as American Catholics have shown to these evils.