First Saturday Parish Rosary at St. Anthony of Padua Church, 10/7/2017

Seven years of monthly prayers for peace... uninterrupted.  Today's First Saturday Rosary marked the 7th Anniversary of the start of our parish's special monthly devotion to the Blessed Mother and her favored prayer - the Holy Rosary.  And what an appropriate day, too - on the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary!

As such, I was a bit sentimental this afternoon as I reflected on the past years that we've been holding these prayer meetings; seeing how the regulars keep faithfully coming back month after month; seeing how many of them have grown in their personal devotion to Our Lady and the Saints, and became active in various parish ministries indicates to me how this devotion has made a positive impact in our lives.  I hope we can at least continue this for another year, God willing.

So following our usual program, we began with me introducing the participants to October 2017's Saint of the Month - St. Angelo of Acri. Before launching into his life story, I first asked the people to raise a hand if they had a devotion to St. Padre Pio. Immediately, many hands went up and with obvious enthusiasm! I then prefaced my brief account of St. Angelo's life by telling everyone that he was the Padre Pio of his time. I knew I had the audience's attention at that point because it seemed that people's ears suddenly perked up. You can read about St. Angelo's incredible life by clicking here... so I'll just fast-forward to the faith-lesson he inspired me to share this month, which was - to be Angels of Peace.

You see - St. Angelo of Acri was nicknamed the "Angel of Peace" during his lifetime and it's probably due to the immense good and the reconciliation he effected wherever he went. Hence, I challenged those present to strive, themselves, to be Angels of Peace like St. Angelo, within their own little worlds outside of the church - at home; at work; in their neighborhoods, etc. And in these times so full of hatred and violence, lately, we need more people to be Angels of Peace... to combat the influence of the angels of darkness that are lurking among us.  Simple message... and do-able, I think, if we just seriously choose to side with the Light.

A 1st Class [bone] Relic of St. Angelo

of Acri in my ministry's custody that we

venerated at this month's Rosary.

After the rosary prayer ended, I felt completely refreshed as I usually do after each First Saturday Rosary. In fact, a small group of us stuck a round for a while discussing the wonderful sense of Peace we felt... and how the traffic noise from outside the chapel seems to slowly melt away once the prayers get rolling. It happens each month - the soothing rhythm of our prayer never fails to cancel out the chaotic noise of the outside world. It's amazing and I think it's a big part of the reason why these meetings have been going on for seven years now - we all crave PEACE in our lives and the Rosary channels it into our hearts from the hearts of Jesus and Mary.

For those interested in joining us in our prayer for personal and World Peace, the next First Saturday Rosary at St. Anthony of Padua Church in Kailua will be held on November 4th.  All are welcome!