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Rosary Sunday draws thousands
Annual event recalls Lourdes apparitions, builds faith
By Joyce Coronel, news@catholicsun.org
November 6, 2008
More than 5,000 Catholics bearing rosaries, crucifixes and colorful banners packed the Phoenix Convention Center Oct. 12 to celebrate the 33rd annual Rosary Sunday and recall the Blessed Mother’s apparitions at Lourdes to St. Bernadette 150 years ago.
As the faithful streamed into the building, they were greeted by the strains of Marian hymns performed by the Seton High School choir, band and orchestra directed by Tim Smith. Just east of the stage stood a large-scale replica of the Lourdes grotto that featured a statue of Our Lady surrounded by boulders, flowers and trees.
Roger Downey, the master of ceremonies for the event, gave a thumbnail sketch of the apparitions in which a teenage girl named Bernadette Soubirous said she encountered “a young and beautiful lady, lovelier than I have ever seen.”
Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted as well as numerous priests, deacons and religious from the Diocese of Phoenix proceeded into the convention center with the Blessed Sacrament, passing between a long line of 4th degree Knights of Columbus in full regalia, swords lifted high.
Representatives of parishes throughout the Diocese of Phoenix as well as members of various ministries and organizations, each bearing a banner, image or statue of Our Lady, then processed before the bishop to receive his blessing.
“We are here as one family in Christ to give thanks to God for the gift of His mother,” Bishop Olmsted told the crowd. He then went on to explain the significance of the Lourdes apparitions.
“It’s extremely important for us to remember that this happened to a 14-year-old girl… it was through her that we came to a deeper appreciation of the mystery of the Immaculate Conception,” the bishop said.
It is through Our Lady’s appearance at Lourdes that “we understand the mystery of suffering,” Bishop Olmsted said, pointing out that the first time Mary appeared to Bernadette, she “just made the sign of the cross — she did not speak.”
Bernadette’s encounter with Our Lady taught her that the cross — the way of suffering — is a means of drawing closer to Jesus.
“The mystery of suffering is not one that diminishes us as persons,” the bishop explained, “but helps us grow in maturity. [Bernadette] helps all of us to appreciate even more the value of suffering.”
Lourdes’ blessing in Phoenix
Millions of people have traveled to Lourdes during the last 150 years to seek healing for themselves or loved ones, and many have experienced miraculous recoveries. A spring, which Bernadette discovered by listening to Our Lady’s instructions, still gushes forth water used to bless the sick. And while many in the Diocese of Phoenix have never been to Lourdes, the Knights of Columbus made sure everyone who attended Rosary Sunday received a small bottle of Lourdes water.
An integral part of the afternoon’s program was the blessing and prayers for the sick. Maria Sullivan brought her wheelchair bound, 42-year-old daughter Esther to the event, as she does each year.
The Most Holy Trinity parishioner, speaking Spanish, said that Esther, dressed in a dazzling white first Communion gown, can see and hear but is unable to walk or speak. Although she requires round-the-clock care, Maria — a mother of 14 children, four of whom have died — considers her daughter a blessing, intuitively picking up on the bishop’s message of the value of suffering. Like many of those in attendance, her faith in God is vibrant in spite of, or perhaps because of, the difficulties she has experienced.
“I have not suffered — I have been blessed. It is Jesus who suffered so much for us,” said Sullivan with a confident smile.
Faith built at Lourdes
Keynote speaker Fr. John Hampsch, a Claretian priest and world-renown lecturer, writer, professor and retreat master, addressed the issue of faith and the role that it plays in healing.
“Bernadette responded to skeptics by saying, ‘I’m here to tell you what happened, not to make you believe.’ But her compelling testimony aroused a faith that spread far and wide like wild roses,” said Fr. Hampsch.
While many of those who travel to Lourdes arrive with “a faith of urgency that says, ‘Lord, please, please help me,’ their faith is often changed to one of expectancy,” Fr. Hampsch said. The Holy Spirit leads them to have an expectant faith, a positive certainty that they will receive what they have asked for.”
Fr. Hampsch told the crowd that “a deep and abiding awareness of Mary as our Mother is one of the most uplifting insights granted by the Holy Spirit. If you have that kind of devotion, you are a very privileged soul.”
This devotion to Mary and her Son Jesus helps the faithful to “be at peace in a world filled with anxiety… it gives us the joy of growing in love for Jesus under her tutelage,” said Fr. Hampsch.
International flavor
Students from local Catholic high schools led the crowd in the recitation of the Luminous Mysteries of the rosary. Various intentions were offered for an increasing respect for the dignity of human life, for marriage, for inactive Catholics and for world leaders.
The outstanding feature of Rosary Sunday that participants commented on more than anything else was the sheer number of languages used to pray the Hail Mary.
Prayers were offered in Chinese, Eritrean, Indian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Philippine and Vietnamese by representatives of each culture, many of whom dressed in native attire. The impressive display of the contrasting heritages reminded many in attendance of the richness and universality of the Catholic Church.
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