Introduction
Dear sisters and
brothers! Greetings in the name of our Lord! May the Lord give you all peace
and good health. As we all know that the whole humanity is facing a thread
caused by COVID-19, the mother Church wants to embrace everyone with the arms
of prayer. Who else can strengthen a child other than its mother? Yes, today we
would like to invite you all to pray with our heavenly Mother, the Mother of
God who prayed with the disciples on the day of Pentecost! Our holy father Pope
Francis, offered the whole world under the protection of Mother Mary, who feels
one with everyone who suffers and intercedes for us to the heavenly father. In
this Rosary, we would meditate on the word of God, proclaimed by the Pope on
the extraordinary moment of prayer in the time of epidemy, “Urbi et orbi” on
March 27, 2020 at the St. Peter’s basilica.
The Schema of the Rosary
- In the name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit. Amen
Hymn:
No one can live as an island, Journeying through life
alone.
Since we’re most loved by a mother, Jesus gave us His
own.
Be with us Mary, along the way,
Guide every step we take.
Lead us to Jesus your loving son.
Come with us, Mary come.
When Jesus met with rejection, Mary stood by the
cross;
How can a mother desert her son? She’ll also stand by
us. (Be with us)
Gospel Reading: Mark 4, 35-41
On that day, when
evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And
leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was.
Other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the
boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern,
asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you
not care that we are perishing?” He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to
the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He
said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”. And they were
filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the
wind and the sea obey him?”
1st Mystery: On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us
go across to the other side.”
For weeks now it has been evening. Thick darkness has gathered over our
squares, our streets and our cities; it has taken over our lives, filling
everything with a deafening silence and a distressing void, that stops
everything as it passes by; we feel it in the air, we notice in people’s
gestures, their glances give them away. We find ourselves afraid and lost. Like
the disciples in the Gospel we were caught off guard by an unexpected,
turbulent storm. We have realized that we are on the same boat, all of us
fragile and disoriented, but at the same time important and needed, all of us
called to row together, each of us in need of comforting the other. On this
boat… are all of us. Just like those disciples, who spoke anxiously with one
voice, saying “We are perishing” (v. 38), so we too have realized that we
cannot go on thinking of ourselves, but only together can we do this.
2nd Mystery: “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”
Do you not care: they think that Jesus is not interested in them, does not
care about them. One of the things that hurts us and our families most when we
hear it said is: “Do you not care about me?” It is a phrase that wounds and
unleashes storms in our hearts. It would have shaken Jesus too. Because he,
more than anyone, cares about us. Indeed, once they have called on him, he
saves his disciples from their discouragement. The storm exposes our
vulnerability and uncovers those false and superfluous certainties around which
we have constructed our daily schedules, our projects, our habits and
priorities. It shows us how we have allowed to become dull and feeble the very
things that nourish, sustain and strengthen our lives and our communities.
3rd Mystery: “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”
Lord, you are calling to us, calling us to faith. Which is not so much
believing that you exist, but coming to you and trusting in you. This Lent your
call reverberates urgently: “Be converted!”, “Return to me with all your heart”
(Joel 2:12). You are calling on us to seize this time of trial as a time of
choosing. It is not the time of your judgement, but of our judgement: a time to
choose what matters and what passes away, a time to separate what is necessary
from what is not. It is a time to get our lives back on track with regard to
you, Lord, and to others.
4th Mystery: Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm.
Faith begins when we realise we are in need of salvation. We are not self-sufficient;
by ourselves we founder: we need the Lord, like ancient navigators needed the
stars. Let us invite Jesus into the boats of our lives. Let us hand over our
fears to him so that he can conquer them. Like the disciples, we will
experience that with him on board there will be no shipwreck. Because this is
God’s strength: turning to the good everything that happens to us, even the bad
things.
5th Mystery: “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
He brings serenity into our storms, because with God life never dies.
Embracing his cross means finding the courage to embrace all the hardships of
the present time, abandoning for a moment our eagerness for power and
possessions in order to make room for the creativity that only the Spirit is
capable of inspiring. It means finding the courage to create spaces where
everyone can recognize that they are called, and to allow new forms of
hospitality, fraternity and solidarity. By his cross we have been saved in
order to embrace hope and let it strengthen and sustain all measures and all
possible avenues for helping us protect ourselves and others. Embracing the
Lord in order to embrace hope: that is the strength of faith, which frees us
from fear and gives us hope.
(We, Leonardian fathers of OMD at San Ferdinando in Italy, prayed rosary in
this way and found it very much consoling! Let’s not forget to sustain our
beloved holy father with our valuable prayers! Thank you all and praise the
Lord!)
Courtesy: The texts of the reflections, used in this prayer, has been taken from the official website of Vatican.
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