A few weeks ago a friend handed me Worcester’s InCity Times and pointed to a notice about local Catholics sending rosaries to our troops in Iraq. He suspected this was some sort of pro-war statement. To me, though, sending rosaries to the troops seemed like a great idea, whatever the political background.
According to a front page article in today’s Telegram & Gazette, we were wrong to be suspicious of the rosary-makers’ agenda:
“With enough prayer over there, we’re hoping that something will happen where this war will end,†Ms. Mason said over the Memorial Day weekend.
And that couldn’t come soon enough for her, especially since her son, U.S. Navy Reserve Petty Officer 1st Class Raymond R. Mason, 39, of Worcester, is scheduled to return to the war zone this summer.
My friend and I are so keenly interested in rosaries and the war because we’re going to court June 17 on federal charges for praying the rosary in the Worcester federal building as part of a Lenten prayer, fast, and vigil for an end to the Iraq War.
(You may recall that we mentioned this rosary project a few weeks ago on the 508 podcast, and that I disagreed with the rosary-makers’ statement that “There is no greater power than to place in the hands of our soldiers the rosary,” believing that both God and any sacrament, for example, are greater powers than that.)
Those looking to renew their habit of saying the rosary might read Garry Wills’s recent book The Rosary. (Interview about the book.)