Our family has started saying the rosary together on most nights. (For those who don’t know what the rosary is, click here!) Everyone except my father joins in, because he is too busy, with dinners to attend every night.
She was really funny! (She told us this later on) She didn’t understand what she was supposed to do about the mysteries, and didn’t know how to say the ‘Glory Be’, so at the start of the rosary we would pray, “Dear God, please forgive me for not knowing how to say the mysteries and the glory be.”
After I found out that my sister had been doing the rosary the past few nights, I decided to do that night’s rosary with her. And so we did, and my mother and cousin joined in.
A few days later it was the day before the release of the PSLE results. My brother and mother were very worried about his results so we all went for the weekday evening mass. However, we were very late because of various reasons that all made sense later. Because it was not nice to go in so late, we went instead to the grotto instead of say the rosary. It was such a peaceful and wonderful prayer together; I could just feel that God had arranged all this for us.
On subsequent nights we said the rosary together too. Last night’s rosary however, was the most beautiful. My brother and sister had been fighting throughout while saying the rosary. We were saying it in my brother’s room, and he did not like my sister sitting on his chair nor lying on his bed. They were making so much noise that my mother sent them both out of the room. A little while later, my brother came back in, but my sister stayed outside, presumably playing on the computer.
We had reached the last decade of the rosary when my sister opened the door. (She had been sitting outside all along!) She choked out, “I’m sorry, gor gor” and then she started crying and crying and crying.
We all ran to hug her while my brother sat there looking very sheepish and regretful. It was such a beautiful moment. I really believe that it was only through coming together as a family and saying this beautiful prayer that the hearts of my siblings were softened and they were able to experience the gifts of forgiveness and love.
I now understand what they mean when they say, “the family that prays together stays together”. And I think that the rosary is an excellent way of praying together, because after each decade each family member is able to offer up his/her own prayers, and the whole family can affirm and pray for him/her. Haha with so many people praying for you, you feel more at peace I guess. Also, by sharing our prayers, which would otherwise have remained secret to everyone else, we come to understand and love each other more. There are some prayers that surprise me, because I never knew this was what has been disturbing my mother/brother/sister/cousin.
The prayers of my brother and sister are the most beautiful (ah sorry for the overuse of this word! I cannot find another that has the same kind of meaning!). Theirs are the prayers of children; their prayers and pure and innocent. Mostly they revolve around my dog (let him not grow so fat, let him not eat leaves, let him be more obedient), each other (let Paul be nicer to me, let Melissa stop being so naughty), their interests (thank you God for helping me in today’s table tennis competition. But I hope I can do even better next time; God let everyone see the merits of buying me a Nintendo we).
I really thank God for making this whole rosary thing work out. It used to be me just trying to do it alone, to complete my 1 month. Now we kind of look forward to 9 o clock when we can say it together. It is amazing the way things just work out when you are doing things centered on the Lord, the way things just fit.
I pray that we will be able to continue doing the rosary together. That my father will be able to join us, somehow, even though he has dinners till late every night, and still has to do work after that.
I pray that more families will start praying together. I never knew that we were missing out on so much until we started praying together ourselves.
I thank you Lord for everything and everything!
“We will run, and not grow weary, for our God will be our strength,
And we will fly like the eagle, we will rise again.”
10:04 AM