When I walked my dogs round to visit the pets of some friends of mine, I was invited to come along to the Monday evening Rosary at Apostles (the Church thereof, the original and main church in Launceston) – it seemed impolite to refuse, so I did so on Monday; and, having joined them and found great consolation therein, how I castigate myself for not having come along months ago, when, for the Year of Faith, they and others first revived this weekly devotion.
For how long have I, each morning, donned the scapular and slipped the rosary beads into my pocket, but neglected to say the latter or even think much about the former. How neglectful I have been, in this as in many other respects: thank God some fraternal correction has intervened – what a grace!
It was good to be there: to pray with others (there was a good number, over a dozen I seem to recall), to kneel before the altar, with an icon of Our Lady displayed on a stand flanked by candles, a basket before it into which written petitions could be added: "We fly to thy patronage, O Holy Mother of God…"
All were provided with handsome booklets, and beads were available for those without their own. After the usual prayers to the Holy Ghost (Veni, sancte Spiritus… Emitte Spiritum tuum… Deus, qui corda fidelium… as I know them in Latin) and the Memorare (a favourite Marian prayer of mine), one of the group led the Rosary (five decades, this week using the Luminous Mysteries, each briefly introduced), then the Litany of Loreto, and we concluded our half hour in common with the prayer to St Michael Archangel.
As before I reproached myself for, until just recently, neglecting daily Mass and the Office, so I must do the same as regards the Rosary; I have resolved to say it after Vespers, and may the Blessed Virgin interceding with her Son gain us such grace that I and many others may both say the Rosary and, meditating on its mysteries, obtain what they promise.
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