By Alma Regina Gargan

For Complete Booklets Write:

Block Rosary

P.O. Box 748 Waxhaw, NC 28173-1004

E-Mail: olmc@carolina.rr.com

Phone: (704) 843-0648 Fax (704) 843-0874

$2.50 each (Post paid )

Why the Block Rosary?

Truth is stranger than fiction. If the prophecy had been made that over a period of less than two months, within the confines of a single parish, Block Rosary groups approximating forty in number would have been formed--with the movement still gaining momentum--the prediction would have sounded unbelievable. Yet such has actually been so in one locality. The fervor evidenced by the members as they pray to God's holy Mother produces a sense of the supernatural, an almost tangible contact with heaven. Mary is indeed making her presence felt in the world. She asks for prayer and penance today, as she did at Fatima.

Our Blessed Lady, during her every apparition to Lucy, Jacinta and Francisco at Fatima stressed the necessity of saying her Rosary daily and of inducing others to do so. The Block Rosary is an inevitable outcome of the desire to make reparation through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, since one sure means of fulfilling her wish is to gather friends and neighbors together for the recitation of the beads. In this way we leave nothing to chance. Our Lady insisted: "Pray, pray much and make sacrifices for sinners". The Block Rosary combines the elements of both prayer and sacrifice, with the added assurance of consistency.

Our enemies seize ufiry opportunity that presents itself for the accomplishment of their designs. It has been aptly stated that "These who work for the devil work like the devil". Shall we, whom Our Lord called the children of light, strive less earnestly for the kingdom of Christ than do the powers of darkness for the reign of Satan?

You who read these lines have proven your love for our Blessed Mother by the very fact that you selected this booklet treating of the Block Rosary. You desire to know more about the devotion. Perhaps you already belong to a group composed of friends and neighbors who meet to pray the Rosary or, on the other hand, perhaps you would like very much to organize such a group. In either case the suggestions contained herein will, I trust, prove helpful. What has been done locally can readily be repeated on a national scale.

The instruction outlined, though as comprehensive as possible, must be adapted to your individual needs and supplemented with the grace of the Holy Ghost. Therefore, let me ask, with specific reason, that you read not only carefully, but prayerfully. I suggest that after the perusal of each chapter of this pamphlet, you pause to consider what you have just read, and to utter a prayer for understanding and guidance. You will not regret the additional effort.

Mary, our Mother, who alone, as the Church says, "has conquered all heresies," listens willingly to the prayers of her children. She desires peace even more than do we ourselves, for Mary is the Queen of Peace. A true mother is always distressed when her children quarrel; and Mary is the most loving of all mothers. The threat of the atom bomb is to her maternal heart the anticipated repetition of Calvary. We can remove the threat only by remedying its cause.

Let us, then, offer through her the reparation for which she expressly asks in the mass recitation of her favorite prayer, the Rosary. Can anyone faithfully repeat the Hail Marys, whilst pondering on the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries, and at the same time neglect the duties of his or her state of life? Hence, the meditations found on the last pages, to precede each of the fifteen decades. (When reciting the Rosary, use these meditations, or others you may find in pamphlets or booklets, or--best of all--compose your own meditations.)

In return for our fidelity, we may confidently hope that Mary will obtain for us true peace, that peace which the world cannot give.

It might be that you would like to report favors received through membership in a Block Rosary; there have been instances of conversions, particularly in homes of mixed marriages where this form of prayer in peculiarly adaptable because of its community spirit. Accounts of such graces will be welcome.

Also, perhaps you have worked out a plan of organization all your own, and believe that others might profit by hearing of it. If so, your letter will be most gratefully received. Simply address it to Block Rosary. The address is on the front of this pamphlet.

Thus, with your cooperation, dear reader, and that of every true Christian, we may trust that we shall obtain, for ourselves and the whole human race, the intercession of the Immaculate Virgin, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, to whom this booklet is lovingly dedicated.

Sincere thanks are humbly offered to all who contributed in so willing a manner to the preparation of this Block Rosary handbook. Particularly do we desire to express our heartfelt gratitude to those who have done so much to encourage the Block Rosary devotion.

Thanks are due to the Philadelphia Catholic Lay Forum for permission to reprint the "Suggestions for Organizing" which have proven to be an indispensable part of the Block Rosary program.

Suggestions for Organizing

All grace stems from the tabernacle. In the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, Christ offers Himself, through the hands of the priest, to His eternal Father as a clean oblation to atone for the sins of the world. The Block Rosary is intended merely to condition us to receive more abundantly the grace that the Mass and the sacraments make available to us.

Through Christ's commission to His Apostles and their successors and their delegation of authority, the pastor of a parish has authority over every spiritual activity within the district under his supervision. Hence, the first recommendation for organizing:

1. No group should begin to function until the pastor of the local parish has been consulted.

In fact, it is in working wholeheartedly with your pastor and those appointed by him to direct the campaign, that you will have outstanding results. If the priests are willing to announce the project from the pulpit, and to encourage the plan in other ways, so much the better. But in any event, be sure that you do have your pastor's consent.

2. Select an evening and a time that does not conflict with any of the established devotions in your parish church.

Seven o'clock is a good hour, as this leaves everyone free for the major part of the evening. The recitation of the beads occupies only fifteen minutes, so that even though church services should begin as early as 7:30, you will still have ample opportunity to be punctual.

3. The greater the individual activity, the greater the response.

It will be found that an energetic leader can readily arrange to have the Rosary recited every single evening in the week, by the simple method of suggesting to a neighbor that she be the first to have the Block Rosary in her (the neighbor's) home and promising to help her obtain members. In this way she will have double the number you might have been able to secure alone. Then, after the first or second weekly recitation of the beads, announce that the Block Rosary will be conducted in your home also, on another night of the week. Try to have at least a few new faces present; and you will find that others will readily offer their homes likewise, with little or no prompting, until all the evenings (or days) of the week have been filled up. The attendance will increase gradually.

4. Be sure to contact your neighbors personally. Do not telephone. You will be more cordially received.

One of the immense benefits of the Block Rosary is the effect it has of giving us ease in speaking on spiritual topics. Once you introduce your subject, you will invariably be edified by the eagerness, the child-like faith that greets your words. In the rare cases when this is not so, simply pray that the disagreeing one may eventually see eye to eye with you.

5. Keep it spiritual. Refreshments should not be served. This could cause embarrassment to some.

Of course, if you are attending a social gathering, and it is suggested that the Rosary be recited before refreshments are served, then you are sanctifying your recreation and all is well. But for a Block Rosary group, as such, to deviate so far from their purpose as to eat and drink before leaving would greatly detract from the solemnity of the occasion whose prime purpose is prayer and sacrifice.

6. Be punctual. Many will be making a sacrifice of their time in coming; do not delay them.

The leader should start the prayers promptly at the hour designated. If one or two come late for the first time, to find the Rosary in progress, they will not do so again; whereas if the leader waits for that certain one or two, the result will be that they, or others, will come later each evening.

7. The meeting is not for social purposes. All should return home immediately after the conclusion of the prayers.

This may appear difficult, especially to women. There is such a temptation to linger--to be the last one, with a splendid opportunity to compare notes, even to criticize someone who has left; uttering the thousand and one remarks so typical yet so unnecessary. Let us not lose the graces we have garnered in prayer and the sacrifice of those moments, by offending against charity. In order to obviate the possibility of doing so--LEAVE.

8. Every community will, of course, either elaborate on or eliminate any of these suggestions.

After thought and prayer, with the aid of experience, you will arrive at the most suitable arrangements governing your individual circumstances. For instance, some may prefer to hold the Rosary devotions in a different home every evening until the entire block has been visited.

Conducting a Block Rosary

It is half past six. In a little while, our neighbors will, one after the other, open the unlocked door of our home to spend fifteen minutes in the company of the Queen of Heaven, as we recite together her Holy Rosary.

I recall when I asked each one of those who will be here to join the Block Rosary. It is, at times an edifying recollection, as in the case of the nurse whose name I did not even know. Yet, having seen her at Mass Sunday after Sunday, and being sure that she was a Catholic, I approached her. Now not only she, but her mother and sister as well have been coming regularly, and in the meantime they have started a group to pray the Rosary in their home on another evening of the week. Then there is the one with whom I became acquainted through meeting her on the streetcar daily. At first this friend (as she has since become) had excuses to offer, but after the parish priests announced at the Sunday Masses that the Block Rosary campaign was in full progress, she suddenly evidenced interest and has been most faithful in her attendance. There are others--the ways and means of inducing them to be with us are too varied to list. Or course, a few grasped the idea eagerly--God bless them! Would that there were more like them!

What a privilege it is thus to honor her who has so loved us. And how Mary has blessed our home since we began what at first appeared to be something new and strange in the way of a Rosary devotion. Since then, it has become a part of our lives. The weekly assembly is like a visit from the Queen of Heaven herself. True, I was invited out to dinner this evening, but the prospect of being entertained does not compare with that of entertaining so royal a guest.

True charity exists now in the vicinity where before so many of us were practically strangers; this is another fruit of the Block Rosary.

A quarter to seven; The door opens and we greet the first arrival. She pauses for a moment before the statue of Our Lady of Fatima to offer a silent prayer and then, in answer to our question, replies that her mother, whom we know to have been seriously ill, is not expected to live. She hastens to add "God's will be done", and explains that she has taken time away from her mother's bedside because the knowledge that we keep her in our prayers has so comforted the invalid as to help her where medicine failed.

While she speaks, others are entering and all promise to continue remembering the sick woman.

It is 7 o'clock. Immediately there is silence. Some kneel; others, because of age or infirmity, remain seated. The leader begins:

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

We offer this Rosary to Our Lady of Fatima for the conversion of Russia and world peace, for our own final perseverance and the return of lapsed Catholics to the sacraments, as well as for our personal intentions. Let us especially remember in our prayers Mrs.. N, who is ill."

It is Saturday evening: we say the Glorious Mysteries. The Resurrection, with its keynote of faith! What greater demonstration of the faith that is in us than the spectacle we are witnessing! How our risen Savior must be pleased with the simple, fervent responses to each Hail Mary; the attitude of reference; the utter humility betokening complete dependence on almighty God. "For where two or three are gathered together for My sake, there am I in the midst of them" (Matt. 18:20). Indeed, Jesus is truly present in such a gathering; and where Jesus is, there is Mary also. Her motherly heart cannot but be touched with the obvious sincerity of her clients. These clients, wearied with the inefficacy of material means to convey peace of heart, are heeding her maternal warning; "Pray, pray much. Say the Rosary every day. After each decade, say, 'O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell; lead all souls to heaven, especially those who have most need of Thy mercy".

As we reach the Third Glorious Mystery, we hear: "Mother of the infant Church, you remained on earth to guide and instruct it in its first beginnings, even as you watched over the first faltering steps taken by your infant Son. He was divine, whereas the first Apostles were very human and incapable, of themselves, of performing the tremendous task assigned to them. And so, after nine days of prayer--the first novena, in which you joined with them to assure the fulfillment of their petition--Jesus sent the Holy Ghost upon them.

"We, too, pray in union with you during this Block Rosary, Blessed Mother of God; and we hope the Holy ghost will come and will bring to us the inestimable gift of His peace."

Yes, the work of justice shall be peace, and the Block Rosary movement is so obviously inspired by the Holy Ghost that its very accompaniment is a deep sense of peace. This is one of the simplest forms of the lay apostolate. Try it. Our Lady loves simplicity and within the last hundred years has frequently appeared to children. Always she selects the childlike in heart, the poor in spirit, as the recipients of her lavish graces. How happy must she be now, as, her Rosary ended, she beholds these her beloved children, with the name of Mary in their hearts as well as on their lips, descending the steps into the night. They carry back into the world the spark of that faith which has been rekindled during these few brief moments of prayer; and like other apostles, they will not rest content until through Christian example, the darkness of our neo-paganism comprehends the light that is Eternal Day.

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