Pastor's Letter Oct. 1: The Month of the Rosary

Dear Parishioners,

October is the month of the Holy Rosary and Oct. 7 is the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. Our parish in Chewelah is graced to have Our Lady of the Rosary as our patroness and so we must to honor her and ask for her intercession. After the 10 a.m. Mass next Sunday, Oct. 8 we are going to have a Rosary procession around the grounds. We will carry a statue of Mary around our church and stop along the way to pray the Rosary to then end the procession in the Rosary Garden. It will be followed by the Knights of Columbus breakfast in the parish hall. Please join us next week to honor Our Lady of the Rosary. I encourage everyone to take up the Rosary for the month of the Rosary. We need the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary in our time, in our parish, country and world. Let us pray especially for our Pastoral Council as they will be outlining a Vision and Mission, and Pastoral Plan 

for our parishes - an endeavor to take our parishes from “maintenance to mission.”

It has now been just over twenty years since St. John Paul II has introduced the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary. Is has been a wonderful addition to the Rosary. I would like to close with a quote from St. John Paul II Apostolic Letter on the Rosary promulgated in Oct. 2002. The Rosary is a beautiful addition to anyone’s spiritual journey.

“The Rosary of the Virgin Mary, which gradually took form in the second millennium under the guidance of the Spirit of God, is a prayer loved by countless Saints and encouraged by the Magisterium. Simple yet profound, it still remains, at the dawn of this third millennium, a prayer of great significance, destined to bring forth a harvest of holiness. It blends easily into the spiritual journey of the Christian life, which, after two thousand years, has lost none of the freshness of its beginnings and feels drawn by the Spirit of God to “set out into the deep” (duc in altum!) in order once more to proclaim, and even cry out, before the world that Jesus Christ is Lord and Saviour, “the way, and the truth and the life” (Jn 14:6), “the goal of human history and the point on which the desires of history and civilization turn.”

Blessing Animals on St. Francis’ Feast Day
This Wednesday, Oct. 4, is the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi. St. Francis had a great love of nature and animals as they are all part of God’s creation. Animals are very special to our lives and give us comfort and joy. On Wednesday, at 4 pm, there will be an opportunity at St. Mary’s for everyone to bring their own animals and pets to be blessed. All kinds are welcome. The blessings will take place in the back parking lot at St. Mary of the Rosary in Chewelah.