This year is the 100th anniversary of the apparitions at Fatima. This month of October is a good time to pray the Rosary as BECs, families or individuals to honour Our Lady of Fatima. On this centenarian celebration the Church invites us to focus on “conversion of sinners.” It also calls all Catholics to say the Rosary daily.

The practice of praying the Rosary has gradually been abandoned by many families and individuals because of the various daily distractions. Many  Catholic parents and adults are so occupied, with work, business, family matters and other distractions, that they do not have time to pray by themselves or with their families.

Praying the Rosary is not easy. Finding a moment to recite the Rosary during our busy day can be a challenge. At times we do partial rosaries. We just say a decade or two a day. At times we may say hurried rosaries because of our busy schedules. We may also say the rosary while driving to work and returning from work. Perhaps we ‘pray-on-the-go’. All these activities could detract from the merits of praying the rosary. A common excuse for not saying the rosary is that it’s boring to recite .

Why do we need to pray the Rosary? It doesn’t matter how busy our day is but the important thing is that we should take every effort to pray as a family despite our busy schedules. The moment we pray the Rosary in the midst of our hectic schedule, we give an opportunity to let Mother Mary come into our lives.

When we pray the Rosary, we grow stronger as a family. Praying the Rosary daily gives us a spiritual power to battle with sin. Whenever temptations are high, we must always remind ourselves, to pull out our rosaries from our pockets or hand bags and say at least one or two decades of the Rosary at once. It may give you sufficient strength and spiritual power to defeat evil. We need to regularly focus and reconnect ourselves with our heavenly Mother to gain strength from Her Son, Jesus Christ.

One of the reasons why people lose their faith is that they drop the practice of praying the Rosary, either as a family or individually. We need the Rosary. We should pray the Rosary without fear or doubt. God will answer your prayers when you pray sincerely and with faith. Many parents are very worried about their children. With the rosary in our hands and with the assistance of our Blessed Mother Mary, we have a place to send our worries and anxieties for our children to come back to our Lord Jesus. The Rosary will save our children when they divert themselves from the path towards God. When we say the Rosary daily it will stop them from ever leaving their faith in Christ.

May we be resolute in setting aside a special time just to pray the Rosary. We see around us much disunity within church communities and families today. The Church believes that the Rosary unites and brings peace. Many families and communities faithfully dedicate themselves to the daily recitation of the Rosary for peace, harmony, selflessness and love.

At Fatima, Our Lady said this directly: “Say the Rosary every day, to bring peace to the world and to save the world.”

Fr. George Packiasamy