Canada wins the Worldpriest Annual Global Rosary Relay Award

Most Reverend Wayne Kirkpatrick receives the special award from Isabel Gillis, the Worldpriest representative for Canada.

This year the celebration of the Feast of St. Ninian, patron of the Diocese of Antigonish , Nova Scotia, Canada, included a presentation to Canada, as winners of the Worldpriest 2021 Annual Global Rosary Relay Award for outstanding participation and promotion.

‘I  am delighted and privileged to be here today in the presence of the Most Reverend Wayne Kirkpatrick, Bishop of the Diocese of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, to present the Worldpriest 2021 Annual Global Rosary Relay Award for outstanding promotion and participation in the Worldpriest Annual Global Rosary Relay for the Sanctification of Priests. As a Canadian I am proud that this award has been made to the people of my country as a testament to the power of prayer by fellow Canadians,’ said Isabel Gillis, as she presented the award to Bishop Kirkpatrick on behalf of WorldPriest.

‘This honour was received following the outstanding dedication to prayer and the power of prayer demonstrated by people from all over this wonderful country of ours. It was earned through the commitment of those coming together to pray in many parishes in every province and the North West Territories of Canada on Friday, 11 June this year to ask Our Lady to bless and sanctify the work of the many priests who have dedicated their lives to the religious welfare of men women and children across Canada.

‘This great event comes at a time of extreme challenge for our church and the observance of our religious beliefs. Added to this have been the very real difficulties and constraints that have been placed on our shoulders as a result of the Covid-19 global pandemic. Set against this background, the achievement of this special award is all the more remarkable and humbling. So on behalf of everybody who has helped me as the Worldpriest representative in Canada and to each and every one of you who made the Worldpriest Annual Global Rosary Relay for the Sanctification of Priests such a great success, it gives me great pleasure to present this award to Bishop Wayne Kirkpatrick’.

 

Invitation to pray the Rosary in Sacred Heart Parish Church, Donnybrook, Ireland each Thursday in October at 5pm

Pope Francis has invited all Catholics to rediscover the beauty of the Rosary prayer. Especially associated with the Dominicans, the Rosary is a prayer which has nourished the faith of  Christian people through the centuries. Inviting us to contemplate the mysteries of the Rosary, the Holy Father said that ‘The recitation of the Rosary is the most beautiful prayer we can offer to the Virgin Mary; it is a contemplation on the stages of the life of Jesus the Saviour with his mother Mary and is a weapon that protects us from evils and temptations.’

The Rosary is a magnificent and universal prayer. There are four mysteries in the Rosary: the Sorrowful Mysteries, the Joyful Mysteries, the Glorious Mysteries, and the Luminous Mysteries. Each mystery has five decades dedicated to different parts of the salvation history of Christ. We are invited to mediate on each mystery. By doing so we are drawn into the mystery of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus as we reflect on the role our Blessed Mother in the story of salvation.

Saint Francis de Sales is reputed to have said that ‘The greatest method of praying is to pray the Rosary’. Theologically rich in Biblical content, the rosary is a priceless treasure and a magnificent, powerful and universal prayer.

October is the month of the Holy Rosary, one of the most deeply rooted of Christian  devotions.  All are invited to unleash the power of the Rosary in our daily lives this October. You are encouraged to recite the  Rosary with faith, humility, confidence, and perseverance.

Each Thursday in October the Rosary will be recited in the Church of the Sacred Heart, Donnybrook, at 5 p.m. as part of the ‘Worldpriest Global Apostolate’ and its initiative  to unite priests and laity so that everyone can come into a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ.

The webcam is located on the website’s home page at:  www.donnybrookparish.ie

 

By Ivette Valle Konstantopoulou,  
for Worldpriest Global Apostolate

We have been praying the Holy Rosary for centuries, and during this time of trial, due to the Covid 19 pandemic, Pope Francis has encouraged us to gather around the world and lift up our prayers to the most Holy Virgin Mary to ask for her intercession.

But, how much do we know about the history of this form of prayer?

Interestingly, 2021 marks the 800th anniversary of the death of Saint Dominic, who is credited with originating this devotion.

In the sixteenth century, when the Council of Trent took place, many dogmatic decrees were promulgated by Pope Pius V, and the prayer called the Rosary was included in the Breviary.

The Rosary, as we know it today, was shaped at that time.  It was actually Pope Pius V who introduced the second part of the Hail Mary: ‘Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.  Amen’.

On 7 October  1571 the Christian nations that were part of the Holy League (the Vatican State, Spain, the Duchy of Savoy and Malta) led by Don John of Austria – half-brother of King Philip II of Spain –  defeated the Ottoman forces led by Alí Pachá in the battle of Lepanto.

After this historical introduction, why should we pay attention to these events that occurred in the distant past?

The victory of Christians at the Battle of Lepanto implied a combination of human skill and divine intervention, particularly under the authority of the pope that asked Christians to pray the Holy Rosary.

 

Pictured above the Lighthouse of Patras. Saint Andrew´s is the closest Catholic church in the Peloponnese to the location of the famous battle. A programme of events has been scheduled in early October to commemorate the 450th anniversary of the victory of Christians at the naval battle of  Lepanto against the Ottoman Empire.

In a period when news took a long time to arrive at its destination, Pope Pius V seems to have made an exception to the rule, because while he was reunited with some people on 7 October he stopped them, opened a window and exclaimed it was time to ‘Thank God for the victory’.

As a result of that, he established the feast of Our lady of Victories that later became the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary that we celebrate on 7 October.

Let’s put our apostolic work under Our Lady’s protection.