PEOPLE NEEDING PRAYERS

Teresa - add my prayers to those of everyone else, for the 84 year old lady you mentioned. I know about Bernie and she is held in my prayers, too, as also is Ellen's Dad.

Could we also pray for Papa's brother, Monsignor Georg Ratzinger - Zenit reported that he had difficulty walking when they went to a shrine on Tuesday and I noticed that Georg was walking with a stick last Tuesday at the Mass for the Feast of the Assumption in Castel Gandolfo.
My husband, aged 88, can hardly walk now and fell again a couple of evenings ago. Luckily he was indoors and didn't hurt himself, but it is worrying.

Love and Peace always - Mary x

Dear friends,
I'd like to start a virtual rosary thread.
What are your thoughts on this? We could start with a rosary [or just the mysteries we can get through] for Papa's pilgrimage to Bavaria.
I won't start this until I get a positive response.
Love, Mary x

Dear maryjos,

I really like the idea, especially as I am quite a "novice" to the rosary.

I've learnt it as a child and then forgot about it for many, many years (I even was not interested in religion at all).

But I came back to it recently, so I would be grateful if you will start such a thread

In my church group we usually do this:
Start with "In the name of the Father..." etc
One Our Father
Three Hail Marys
One Glory Be
Then we announce the prayer intentions - in our case here, the intention would be for Papa's trip to Bavaria.
I think the Joyful Mysteries are first, then the Luminous, Sorrowful and Glorious. Please, someone correct me if I'm wrong. We only meditate on one group of mysteries each week, but that's because we only have half an hour.
So, the first mystery:.....One Our Father....Ten Hail Marys....One Glory Be....The Fatima Prayer....then on to the second mystery.
At the end of each group of mysteries: Glory Be, Fatima Prayer and Hail Holy Queen with one or two usual Marian requests, such as "Our Lady, Queen of Peace, pray for us"
Is that all right? If people are in agreement I'll start the new thread.
Love, Mary x

Dear MaryJos...Thank you indeed for the prayers. I am able to say that I remember the members of the forum and especially their family and friends during prayers every day, about which I try to be as systematic and comprehensive as I can. And that, as I have mentioned elsewhere in this forum (perhaps in the Italian pages), I am able to pray all four decades of the Rosary every day simply because I have found it is the best way to use my commuting time to and from work [and insulates me very well from the usual frazzle of commuting!], and that while some intentions I pray for may vary over time, I dedicate the Luminous mysteries every day for Papino and his intentions and every good wish for him...I do not know how a virtual Rosary works, but whatever it is, count me in....

The only thing is, would it be possible to do the virtual rosary within this thread instead of a new thread, and maybe we will just rename this the PRAYERS thread?

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 25/08/2006 23.31]

In some ways I am less lucky than you, because, being retired, my home rosaries get interrupted! On a journey -yes, that's a very good time to pray the rosary.
I did think of a separate thread called THE HOLY ROSARY and keeping this one, because I know people suddenly need special prayers for friends or family and want to ask at once. This thread is ideal for that.
There is a virtual rosary on the RFC - so if we call our THE HOLY ROSARY it will not confuse people. I'll start the thread as soon as you give me the green light.......
I know Mona is interested and there are others too, who have a special devotion to the rosary.
Love, peace and much choy - from Mary xxxxxxx

P.S. Forgot to mention: we could have the Hail Mary in various languages, to reflect the international nature of our membership. We don't say the Apostles' creed in our group at church, but we could use that at the beginning, if people would like it. I know that, strictly speaking, it should be there.
Love - Mary x

[Modificato da maryjos 26/08/2006 17.25]

The Virtual Rosary at the RFC is now ended after four decades. It has been a success but taken over a year to conclude. It does need its own thread because what happens is that a participant posts the next prayer in the Rosary sequence, in the manner of ordinary posting. It obviously is better not to cut and paste from previous prayers, as the act of typing the Hail Mary, the Our Father, whatever, is itself an act of prayer in cyberspace.

This thread is best kept for personal prayer requests, IMO - the Rosary prayers would be very hard to keep in sequence otherwise. When posting on the Virtual Rosary it's usually necessary first to scroll back to the last Our Father to count how many Hail Marys have been added.

Later: I see that someone has started a new Virtual Rosary on the old thread at the RFC, for the Pope's safety in his travels.

[Modificato da Wulfrune 26/08/2006 18.10]

It took one year to complete four decades? What was done - add one Hail Mary at a time? Doesn't it make more sense to add at least one decade at a time? It only takes about 3 minutes to say a decade slowly!

By all means, do it on a separate thread.

I just want to say that I find a contradiction in terms when one says 'virtual rosary' or 'virtual prayer'. Why can't we all just say actual prayers - it takes more time and trouble to 'post' a prayer than to actually say it! But that is just my personal opinion.

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The Virtual Rosary at the RFC is now ended after four decades. It has been a success but taken over a year to conclude.

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It really took you over a year to complete it? I had no idea, that it could take such a long time

I think that there are more than two or three people needed to keep it running. Not erveryone is online on a regular basis. Maybe it will be better to do it at the RFC (it's the "Ratzinger Fan Club" I guess?) all together? I'm not registered there, but I would come over for that.

Just my 2 cents ...

Dear Mona...In the meantime, just go ahead and start saying the Rosary yourself - start it one decade at a time, maybe.

Meanwhile, MaryJos and Wulfrune can set up the Rosary thread here and maybe spell out some rules for participants so that it is more 'efficient'.

And I would recommend once again going immediately to this site
www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_letters/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_20021016_rosarium-virginis-mari...
to read John Paul II's great apostolic letter about the Rosary.

It will help you a lot in meditating over it and in praying it well.

Also, I always tell myself before I start saying the Rosary, "Now, try to imagine how John Paul would say the Rosary," and that helps me screen out any distractions around me.

Dear Friends,
I've called it THE HOLY ROSARY, because I agree with Teresa - there is no such thing as virtual prayer - it either IS or it ISN'T! Mona - please stay here and pray the rosary.If some of us come to the thread just once a day, we can get through it at a gentle, prayerful speed. I think it took a year to finish the four mysteries on the other forum; also it is on their Community section, so it wasn't so obvious. Our thread will be visible to all who look down the list of threads.
I've written the Sign of the Cross + and the Apostles' Creed. Clare is going to do the Our Father and Three Hail Marys.
Then we announce the first mysteries: The Joyful Mysteries.
Then come the prayer intentions.
The first Joyful Mystery is announced: The Annunciation. The person doing this may wish to write a little, short meditation on this mystery.
One Our Father
Ten Hail Marys
One Glory Be
The Fatima Prayer
The second Joyful Mystery is announced.......following the same pattern.
Sorry for going into such detail, but I know we have some new converts and some Christian friends who are not Catholics. Naturally, all are asked to participate if they wish.
Thank you, Teresa for the link. There are several websites about the Rosary. I'll happily add them here.
Love, Peace - Mary x

Thanks, Teresa, for the link and Maryjos for the info (- yes, please, add more links on the subject). I’m a bit wiser now. As a Lutheran, I’m of course not used to praying the Rosary. But I have one. And I have tried to pray the Rosary in evening prayers at my local church. The church, built in 1140, was ‘originally Catholic', so I feel the Rosary belongs there. Besides, the Rosary helps me to ‘stay’ in prayer, although I find it difficult to meditate on the ‘mysteries’ at the same time.
I’ll just ‘stick around’ the Holy Rosary thread and maybe I can join you when I learn more?

[Modificato da lutheranguest 27/08/2006 0.53]

The Rosary is truly a beautiful spiritual exercise, and I would like to share some of my own practices related to it.

For most of my life, I used a simple device to 'meditate' on the mysteries of the Rosary - by simply imagining the most striking image that comes to my mind about the event constituting the mystery. Imagine all the wonderful images - including paintings by the great masters - one has ever seen (actually or in pictures) of the Annunciation or the Nativity or the Passion of Christ (which make up the Sorrowful mysteries) or the Resurrection or Mary's Assumption, to mention the most obvious. This simple exercise gives me the feeling of being in church even if I am on a crowded subway train.

In my case, it is more a 'getting into the spirit' of the Mystery rather than an actual meditation. And then, after I finally visited the Holy Land in 1997, I could also superimpose on these images my recollection of being in the places where most of these episodes occurred, re-living the sensation of being in the places where Jesus was...

And before proceeding to say the Our Father for the mystery I'm on, I like to say a little prayer to those other than Our Lady and Jesus who are part of the event - for instance, for the Annunciation, the Holy Spirit and the Angel Gabriel; for the Visitation, St. Elizabeth and John the Baptist 'who leapt in her womb' when Mary, already with Child, came to see her, and so on....

I must say that I always feel terrible pain when I come to the Nativity after all that has been happening in the Holy Land, and I am left with nothing to say but "Lord, into Your hands we commend the land of Your birth," or something to that effect.

I am always glad to be able to say a special prayer to St. Joseph (for whom I developed a special devotion since the early 90s when I first visited his Shrine in Montreal) who is an active presence in the last 3 Joyous mysteries, and to the Holy Spirit once more, in the Baptism of Jesus and the Pentecost.

And of course, there is the sheer pleasure of saying the Our Father (the perfect all-inclusive prayer) and the Hail Mary which is both a beautiful hymn as well as the ultimate intercession prayer....

How can one not be a devotee of the Rosary?

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 27/08/2006 1.39]

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Scritto da: lutheranguest 27/08/2006 0.49
Thanks, Teresa, for the link and Maryjos for the info (- yes, please, add more links on the subject). I’m a bit wiser now. As a Lutheran, I’m of course not used to praying the Rosary. But I have one. And I have tried to pray the Rosary in evening prayers at my local church. The church, built in 1140, was ‘originally Catholic', so I feel the Rosary belongs there. Besides, the Rosary helps me to ‘stay’ in prayer, although I find it difficult to meditate on the ‘mysteries’ at the same time.
I’ll just ‘stick around’ the Holy Rosary thread and maybe I can join you when I learn more?

[Modificato da lutheranguest 27/08/2006 0.53]

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http://www.rosary-center.org/howto.htm
http://www.ewtn.com/Devotionals/prayers/rosary/how_to.htm

The first link has how to say the Rosary in different languages.

I hope this helps, Lutheranguest. We would be happy to have you join us.

[Modificato da PhoenixRising 27/08/2006 4.26]

Thanks a lot, Teresa and Phoenix! It's a great help!

Thank you for those links, phoenix. I've asked another non-Catholic friend to join our rosary. It's universal and it tells the life story of Jesus, while at the same time asking Our Lady to intercede for us.What could be more lovely?!
I read somewhere that our Papa said, if you find it difficult to meditate on the actual mystery, just concentrate on the words of the Hail Mary throughout the decade or decades.
Sometimes, I see in my mind beautiful places I know, such as the scenery in Snowdonia, North Wales.
Or I imagine Rome - Saint Peter's Square, the Sistine Chapel, the inside of the basilica and the various chapels, the Church of Saint Anne.
Teresa imagines the Holy Land, because she has been there. We are all different. But the one thing we all have in common is that Jesus loves each one of us, unconditionally.
The rosary is individual and private. It's also ideal for praying in a group and, I trust, on our forum.

Love and Peace - Mary x

This morning a very close friend of mine that I went to school with called me. She told me some very sad, and very upsetting news. Her mother is "apparently going though some mid-life crisis," and doesn't want to take care of her kids anymore. (Tiffany's younger siblings) All she wants to do is spend time with her "new boyfriend." Tiffany's younger brothers are always getting into trouble, and have been held back several grades. They have also gotten into trouble with the law. They're only 16 and 14 years old. Tiffany's younger sister is doing terribly at school. Her mother wants to make Tiffany the legal guardian of the little girl. So it's possible that 22 year old Tiffany will become the guardian of her 8 year old sister. While her teen brothers are sent off to boarding school, while the Mother gets away with her selfish irresponsible behavior.

This is very disturbing to me. Tiffany is like a sister to me. It makes me so ANGRY that parents neglect their own children for their own selfish desires!! What has this world come to?!
Could you gals please pray for her family? I'm about to head over to my Church so I can say a Rosary for her. Please pray for all families that are going through such a crisis. No child deserves to be treated like an unwanted burden.

That is an incredibly sad situation. My heart and prayers go out to your friend, her younger brothers and sister, as well as to their mother.

Dearest friends!
I'll add Tiffany and her family to my prayer list, Ellen!
Baby George Hunter has now gone home! He hasn't improved much and will have many handicaps, but he's alive. Thank you for your prayers.

I need prayers, please. Please remove from my heart all bitterness regarding the way I and others have been treated elsewhere - you know what I mean. Please pray for the people who have developed this dislike in their hearts. I don't think they hate us; they just feel like stone. Which is worse?

Friday, September 8th [Our Lady's birthday] is the sixth anniversary of my mother's death. If you've lost your mother, you will know how I feel. The person you always went to, even with the smallest troubles, isn't there any more. The feeling of emptiness never goes away. Please pray for my Mum, though I feel she is in Heaven already, with my Dad. They were good Christians and never wished anyone anything but love.

Thank you! Mary xxxxx

Caterina in the main forum just posted this montage of Papa holding a rosary on three different occasions when he was photographed in Les Combes earlier this year, and I decided to post it here - with my prayers for him and for his intentions,
as well as for the intentions requested in this thread.




Every Catholic is enjoined to pray daily for the Pope, whoever he is. The Liturgy prescribes that a prayer is said for the current Pope, whoever he is, at every Mass said anywhere in the world. I find it very reassuring - even if many among the world's one-billion-plus Catholics may not pray every day or may not always remember to pray for the Pope.

What person in the world could possibly have so many general and specific intentions to pray for every day and all the time as a Pope? And so I pray daily for the Pope, as we all do, not just for every blessing that he deserves and needs from the Lord, but for all his intentions as well.

P.S. Mary, I will forever associate your Mum with the Holman Hunt image which I first saw when I was 10 years old, I think. God rest her soul and those of all the faithful departed.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 04/09/2006 0.22]