Renew The Church! – website and Blog

…I look to all of you, brothers and sisters of every state of life, to you, Christian families, to you, the sick and elderly, and to you, young people: confidently take up the Rosary once again. Rediscover the Rosary in the light of Scripture, in harmony with the Liturgy, and in the context of your daily lives.

May this appeal of mine not go unheard! At the start of the twenty-fifth year of my Pontificate, I entrust this Apostolic Letter to the loving hands of the Virgin Mary, prostrating myself in spirit before her image in the splendid Shrine built for her by Blessed Bartolo Longo, the apostle of the Rosary. I willingly make my own the touching words with which he concluded his well-known Supplication to the Queen of the Holy Rosary: “O Blessed Rosary of Mary, sweet chain which unites us to God, bond of love which unites us to the angels, tower of salvation against the assaults of Hell, safe port in our universal shipwreck, we will never abandon you. You will be our comfort in the hour of death: yours our final kiss as life ebbs away. And the last word from our lips will be your sweet name, O Queen of the Rosary of Pompei, O dearest Mother, O Refuge of Sinners, O Sovereign Consoler of the Afflicted. May you be everywhere blessed, today and always, on earth and in heaven”.

The above quote is the conclusion to the Apostolic Letter of Blessed John Paul II, “On the Most Holy Rosary”,  given to the Church on October 16, 2002.    I just finished re-reading this beautiful letter, today, Oct. 7 –  the Feast of the Rosary.     I found in this re-reading, far more than I remembered receiving when I first read it, but that isn’t unusual.  How often do we  find after time and hopefully more grace has been given us, we begin to see what we had not seen before or had not appreciated enough!

HERE is a link to this letter, if you would like to read it today, or at least begin to read it, and ponder it over the course of a few days.  It is not a very long document, but it  is one that is written with the heartfelt love of a son for his Mother.

Perhaps, after you have read it you may be willing to share your comments.  I hope, that after you have read even a part of it, you will begin to take up the Rosary again, as Blessed John Paul II encouraged us to do, with a renewed love for Jesus and our Mother Mary.  May we all be blessed to learn from her to contemplate the Face of Christ.