The Marian Community of Reconciliation and the Christian Life Movement have brought a traditional Marian pilgrimage back to the streets of Manchester. Last Saturday’s event brought some 1,000 people to the predominantly Muslim neighborhood of Rusholme for a procession with Our Lady of Reconciliation. “It’s been fantastic,” reported one participant, Damian O’Reilly of Greater Manchester Police. “I remember the old days and it’s nice to get something going again and show that we’re proud of our faith.

“This is just going to get bigger and bigger. This year we’ve had 1,000 participants, but next year we’ll have 5,000.” Local school children, teachers, parishioners of different ethnicities and eight priests came together to pray the rosary and sing songs. Joseph Martin McDonagh, one of the volunteers who helped carry the platform, decided to go barefoot. “Today has been the most fulfilling day of my life,” he said. “I regret the way I used to live and I’m so happy I was allowed to do this.” “I wish I was still carrying her now,” said the 37-year-old. “I’ve always had a soft spot for Mary. My mother had problems when she was pregnant with me and promised Our Lady to entrust me to her if I was born safe.” Mary Patricia Fehily, 75, from Hale, is one of the many who remember-ed her childhood years. “I had tears in my eyes when they lifted Our Lady and it all began,” she said. “I was walking in the love of Jesus and Mary. Bagpipes were played during the walk and 12 drummers from India performed in traditional Kerala dress in the park. The superior of the Marian Community of Reconciliation, Andrea Velarde, said it surpassed all their expectations. “We realized that the best way to evangelize in this country is through Mary so that’s what has happened,” she said. “It was very moving to see people’s piety. The volunteers didn’t even want to stop carrying her to switch turns as they were supposed to.”

The word Rosary means “Crown of Roses”. Our Lady has revealed to several people that each time they say a Hail Mary they are giving her a beautiful rose and that each complete Rosary makes her a crown of roses. The rose is the queen of flowers, and so the Rosary is the rose of all devotions and it is therefore the most important one. The Holy Rosary is considered a perfect prayer because within it lies the awesome story of our salvation. With the Rosary in fact we meditate the mysteries of joy, of sorrow and the glory of Jesus and Mary. It’s a simple prayer, humble so much like Mary. It’s a prayer we can all say together with Her, the Mother of God. With the Hail Mary we invite Her to pray for us. Our Lady always grants our request. She joins Her prayer to ours. Therefore it becomes ever more useful, because what Mary asks She always receives, Jesus can never say no to whatever His Mother asks for. In every apparition, the heavenly Mother has invited us to say the Rosary as a powerful weapon against evil, to bring us to true peace. With your prayer made together with Your heavenly Mother, you can obtain the great gift of bringing about a change of hearts and conversion. Each day, through prayer you can drive away from yourselves and from your homeland many dangers and many evils. It can seem a repetitive prayer but instead it is like two sweethearts who many times say one another the words: “I love you”…  The Blessed Holy Father John Paul II on October 16th, 2002 with the Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae on the Most Holy Rosary has added 5 new mysteries of the Rosary: The Mysteries of the Light.

“Say the Rosary every day… Pray, pray a lot and offer sacrifices for sinners… I’m Our Lady of the Rosary. Only I will be able to help you. …In the end My Immaculate Heart will triumph.”

Theme:

The little Marian Consecration Prayer

• 15th May 2011
• with Fr David

Program of the day:

What makes a good mother anyway? Is it patience? Compassion? The ability to nurse a baby, cook dinner, and sew a button on a shirt, all at the same time? Or is it heart? Is it the ache you feel when you see your child disappear down the street, walking to school alone for the very first time? The jolt that takes you from sleep to dread, from bed to cradle at 2am, to put your hand on the back of a sleeping baby? The need to flee from wherever you are and hug your child when you hear news of a child’s murder, a fire, a car crash, a baby dying?

So this is for all the mothers who sat down with their children and explained all about the facts of life – and for all the mothers who wanted to, but just couldn’t. This is for reading The Hungry Caterpillar twice a night for a year. And then reading it again, “Just one more time.” This is for all the mothers who get it wrong. Who yell at their kids in the supermarket and smack them in despair and stomp their feet like a tired two-year-old who wants ice cream before dinner. This is for all the mothers who taught their daughters to tie their shoelaces before they started school. And for all the mothers who opted for velcro instead.  For all the mothers who bite their lips sometimes until they bleed – when their 14-year-olds dye their hair green. Who lock themselves in the bathroom when babies keep crying and won’t stop. This is for all the mothers who turn up at work with spit in their hair and milk stains on their shoulders and disposable nappies in their bag. This is for all the mothers who teach their sons to cook and their daughters to kick a ball.

This is for all mothers whose heads turn automatically when a little voice calls “Mum?” in a crowd, even though they know their own offspring are at home. This is for mothers who put windmills and teddy bears on their children’s graves. This is for mothers whose children have gone astray, who can’t find the words to reach them. This is for all the mothers who gave life to their babies, only to give up their babies in the hopes of a better life.

This is for all the mothers who couldn’t bear children of their own and who love the children given to them as if they were their own.

This is for all the mothers who sent their sons to school with stomach aches, assuring them they’d be just fine once they got there, only to get calls from the school an hour later asking them to please pick them up right away.

This is for young mothers stumbling through nappy changes and sleep deprivation. And mature mothers learning to let go. For working mothers and stay-at-home mothers. Single mothers and  married mothers. Birth mothers and adoptive mothers. Mothers with money. Mothers without. This is for you all!