(143) Rosary in the Park: the Public Square Rosary Rally in Gallipolis, Ohio........You can organize one in your community.

AMDG

       Every year St. Louis Church and Knights of Columbus Council 3335 St. Louis Gallipolis sponsors a Public Square Biblical Rosary Prayer Rally in the city park along the main street in the commerical area of Gallipolis, a rural town of about 5000 on the Ohio River.  Our hope is that this blog will stimulate other communities around the country to do the same at noon on the Saturday closest to October 13, the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima.  It was October 13, 1917 that Mary sent as a sign, the "Miracle of the Sun" in which the sun seemed to spin and fall from the sky.  The well documented phenomena was seen for a radius of some 25 miles.  See blogs #95 & #96 for more detail.    

         We were one of 12,629 rosary rallies all over the country.  That, however, is only a small fraction of all the communities of the United States.  Any church or Knights of Columbus council can organize one.  Simply contact the America Needs Fatima organization at www.americaneedsfatima.org.  They will provide materials, including a large banner for the occasion.  It could be held by two people or attached to two stakes. 

        Promoting the Rally.  After describing the rally, we will discuss promoting the event.  If he were alive today, St. Paul would use every modern means at his disposal.  That section includes samples of our promotion.  They include 1) a church bulletin announcement, 2) a flyer and church bulletin insert, 3) a blurb for the community calendar or local briefs of a local newspaper to appear daily for a week or two, and 4) Word of Mouth.  Most of the members of the parish and the community will not come, but the promotion makes people aware of the need for prayer and the rosary.  The rally is a marvelous profession of faith to those who are passing by and creates in a small way a culture of prayer.  The sick and the shut-ins can be asked to participate from their homes.  Their prayers are powerful.  

            Below are a couple of views of the Gallipolis City Park where the rosary rally was held along 2nd St. in easy view of cars passing by on the main thoroughfare through town .

Prayer in the Park

Photo and caption are reprinted from the Gallipolis Daily Tribune October 14, 2014

Mike Haas, back, passes out hymn books to people who turned out for Saturday’s “Public Square Biblical Rosary Prayer Rally” in Gallipolis City Park. The event, which took place by the gazebo, invited people of all faiths to “answer a call for prayer and sacrifice in reparation, to pray the rosary for world peace, to stop the onslaught of ISIS and to save our country from immorality and secularism.” Also pictured is Father Thomas Hamm, of St. Louis Catholic Church, talking with one of the prayer event organizers, Paul Sebastian.

         To our surprise Michael Johnson, the editor of the Gallipolis Daily Tribune came to cover our Public Square Rosary Rally.  After giving us daily blurbs for a week, he put the photo and description above on the front page and in the internet edition at www.mydailytribune.com.  In addition the internet newspaper, Gallia Hometown Herald (www.galliaherald.com) put it on their community calendar.  Never has our Rosary Rally had such great coverage.  This was great publicity for both St. Louis Church and the Knights of Columbus.  The two knights in  the photo are wearing the 4^th Degree ceremonial Knights of Columbus regalia as honor guards.  The cape, chapeau, and sword resemble the formal dress worn by knights in the time of Christopher Columbus. 

 

            Although Saturday October 11 was a cool overcast day, the turnout for the Rosary Rally was the best ever in the Gallipolis City Park overlooking the Ohio River in the downtown area…….44 men, women, children, and even babies.   The Gallipolis Public Square Rosary Rally joined 12,629 rallies all over the United States, praying the rosary at noon.  The Public Square Rosary Rally was founded by the America Needs Fatima group (see americaneedsfatima.org).  Their goal is to promote Mary’s message at Fatima, Portugal in 1917…….prayer, particularly the rosary for peace, penance, reparation for sin, repentance. 

 

James Davison introduced the rally to the Gallipolis City Park in 2008 or so.  While he was serving our country in the army, we continued his legacy every year since 2011 (see blogs #6 & # 100 for previous reports) on the Saturday closest to the feast of Our Lady of Fatima and the Miracle of the Sun on October 13.  These rallies are also the legacy of Fred Edelmann, who asked the Knights of Columbus from his deathbed to organize and lead the rosary before Sunday Mass. 

        In previous rallies, we gave a 10 minute introduction to the rosary and why this rally is important with some history.  That can be found in Blog #100.  This time we sang three hymns that included "Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace" at the beginning, "Immaculate Mary" in the middle, and "America the Beautiful at the end.  We gathered in the park on the 2nd Street side which had the most traffic and behind the small Veterans Memorial.  This made it more meaningful in that we were praying for peace when there would be less need for a large military and mostly career soldiers would be used to keep the peace.

    

          The children added a special flavor to the rally with their beauty and pure hearts.  A crying baby was like music, no bother at all.  The babies present were very symbolic of the pro-life movement to put a stop to abortion, which snuffs out the lives of over a million little human beings in the womb each year.  The children were at their best behavior with great reverence.  It was most impressive.  Some of the kids even knelt down on the grass.  It was a sacrifice for the people who have difficulty standing and eventually had to sit on a nearby park bench.  Some of the sick, the bedridden, the shut-ins, and others joined us at home.  Fr. Thomas Hamm, our pastor, led the rosary.  He preceded each of the joyful mysteries with a Bible reading and a meditation of Pope Francis.  We did the Joyful Mysteries because non-Catholics would be more comfortable with them and their scriptural content.  It was all a beautiful witness and profession of faith.  THANK YOU ALL FOR COMING!

PROMOTION OF THE ROSARY RALLY

1) POSSIBLE ROSARY RALLY CHURCH BULLETIN BLURBS 

Public Square Rosary Prayer Rally – Saturday October 11 at 12 pm noon in the Gallipolis City Park by the gazebo on 2^nd St.  Please join us and thousands all over the country to follow Mary's appeal made at Fatima in 1917 for prayer and sacrifice in reparation......to pray the rosary for world peace and to save our country from immorality and secularism. The need is urgent!  As history shows, there is great power in public prayer because of its witness of faith and appeal for repentance.  Prayer has healed millions, ended wars, overthrown dictators, stopped the advance of militant Islam into Europe in 1456, 1571 and again in 1683 at Vienna.  Today we must pray to stop ISIS.  Let us all come together for a powerful witness.  See www.americaneedsfatima.org and blog #125 on the Power of the Rosary in World History.

www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Jun1997/feature2.asp. www.fatima.org/essentials/facts/miracle.asp, www.familytheater.org,

www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Jun1997/feature2.asp.

2) FLYER AND CHURCH BULLETIN INSERT

PUBLIC SQUARE ROSARY PRAYER RALLY

*To Pray for World Peace
 and

*That God Would Save Our Country from Immorality and Secularism 
*And to Stop the Onslaught of ISIS.

SATURDAY OCTOBER 11 at 12 noon 

Gallipolis City Park Gazebo on 2nd St. 

*Join us and thousands all over the country to follow Mary's appeal made at Fatima in 1917 for prayer and sacrifice in reparation.

*Bring your families too because

 “The family that prays together, stays together.”

      There is great power in public prayer because

    of its witness of faith and appeal for repentance.

          The rosary is very biblical.  It is a litany of repetitive prayer, which acts like background music, while the main focus is to meditate upon different mysteries in the life of Christ and His mother, grouped according to the joyful, luminous, sorrowful, and glorious events portrayed or alluded to in the Bible.  “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.”  See www.americaneedsfatima.org.

(over)

            Yes, “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of”.  This is attributed to the great British author, Alfred Lord Tennyson.  But Fr. Patrick Peyton, the Rosary Priest, used this saying to promote the family prayer and the rosary on national television and radio and all over the world in the 20^th Century.  On his Family Theater, he enlisted most of the top Hollywood stars of the day to volunteer their help……from Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby to James Dean and Loretta Young.  Someday Fr. Peyton will be a saint.  His cause is advancing.

            This Public Square Rosary Prayer Rally is our response and the response of thousands of others all over the Country to Mary’s appeal at Fatima, Portugal in 1917 for repentance, reparation, and to pray the rosary for peace.  Her last appearance to the three shepherd children was accompanied by the spectacular documented Miracle of the Sun as a sign of authenticity of her message on October 13, 1917.  Visible as far as 25 miles away, the sun appeared to spin and fall from the sky after a sustained downpour.  Thus the date of the annual Public Square Biblical Rosary Prayer Rally is always the Saturday closest to that date, in the range October 10 – October 16.  See my blogs #95 and #96 at paulrsebastianphd.blogspot.com.

            Today our country is full of problems, most with a moral component.......wars in Syria, Iraq,  and Afghanistan, that concern us, rampant crime, poverty, over 6.1% unemployment, out-of-control government deficits and debt, broken families, pornography, promiscuity, endemic sexually transmitted diseases, cohabitation, abortion, euthanasia, etc. They seem to be intractable.  Our best brains cannot solve these problems and we sometimes feel helpless.  Clearly, we need divine help.        

            There is great power in public prayer because of its witness of faith and appeal for repentance.  It’s a great profession of faith!  For example, the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Austria in 1955 and the peaceful overthrow of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines in 1986 are attributed to public prayer.  In Manila, people praying with their rosaries in hand stopped a tank attempting to disperse a demonstration of thousands. 

Prayer stopped the advance of militant Islam into Europe in the Battle of Belgrade in 1456;  the Battle of Lepanto on October 7, 1571 (the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary); and the Battle of Vienna September 11 & 12, 1683.  Now you know why Osama Bin Laden chose 9/11 for his War on America.   

  

Today we are facing another onslaught of radical Islam.  First it was El Qaida and now another group , in Iraq and Syria even more brutal.  They call themselves the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or ISIS.  This is but another chapter in the 1400 year old war between Western Civilization and militant Islam which takes the Quran very literally and proselytizes by force and brutality.  Let us pray.

Your participation makes a difference.  There is power in numbers, all praying together.  If you cannot come, you can still pray at home, preferably at noon or later if more convenient.  The prayers of the sick and offering their crosses for this cause is most effective.

           Please participate in the Public Square Biblical Rosary Prayer Rally and join us and thousands of others in prayer…..all over the USA on Saturday October 11 at 12 noon in the Gallipolis City Park between the gazebo and the Veterans Memorial facing 2nd Street.  Two Knights in full regalia will act as an honor guard.  We will be using the meditations of Pope Francis.

3) FOR LOCAL BRIEFS OR COMMUNITY CALENDAR OF THE NEWSPAPER   

Public Square Biblical Rosary Prayer Rally – Saturday October 11 at 12 pm noon in the Gallipolis City Park by the gazebo on 2^nd St.  All faiths are invited to join us and thousands all over the country to answer the call for prayer and sacrifice in reparation......to pray the rosary (meditations with repetitive prayer as background) for world peace and to stop the onslaught of ISIS and to save our country from immorality and secularism. The need is urgent!  As history shows, there is great power in public prayer because of its witness of faith and appeal for repentance.  Prayer has healed millions, ended wars, overthrown dictators, stopped the advance of militant Islam into Europe in 1456, 1571, and again in 1683.  See www.americaneedsfatima.org.

4) WORD OF MOUTH

            Most people don't read the church bulletin in detail and some not at all.  Many give only a quick glance at flyers.  Using an e-mail list of people helps, but many don''t use it much.  Facebook seems to be quite effective.  The most effective form of advertising  of all is word of mouth.  Asking people one on one is difficult and time consuming, but very effective.  That gives them the impression that their presence is important (see Blog #141).  In other words, pass the word among acquaintances at the parish.  Key family figures are often very effective in mobilizing the immediate as well as the extended family.  The local Knights of Columbus council, the Catholic Women's Club, and the parish youth group can be very effective.   Even though many of them will not come, they are made more aware of the need for prayer.