I am a certified rosary-addict

Years ago when the Sta. Ana Shrine Parish was still under the care of the PME fathers, there was a priest who was quite elderly and tall that I had to strain my neck in looking up to him whenever he was whispering something to us – my fellow young neighbors. This elderly priest spent his afternoon walking back-and-forth from end to end of the sidewalk of the church.

This was in the early 70s when I was still nine or ten years old and so were my childhood friends. I remember that I and my neighbors would spend our summer afternoon after Flores de Mayo playing around the vicinity of the church especially in the old parking area.

The “walking man” whom I later found out to be a priest was ubiquitous or ever-present every day. He was here, there, and everywhere as we were playing in the church yard.

There were summertime when the boys (I would always play with the boys more than the girls in my younger years) and my young self would follow him around, trying to keep pace and wondering about the strand of beads he carried, and the words that he was silently repeating with every step.

We would come to know, over time, that he was saying:

“Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.”

What the frail and elderly walker was doing might not have been obvious to us (the children) traipsing behind him, but as I grew older I came to know that the soft spoken PME clergy was taking solace in the rosary. He was finding comfort in his faith, in a prayer that the world has come to know.

That was a simple act — he walked and prayed while we were having fun following him around and mimicking his soft repetitive prayer.

In today’s life, with our mobile social media, with the information super-highways and constant streams of data, facts and figures available at the twitch of a thumb, it may be that a lot of us don’t take the time for such simplicity – that of praying the rosary.

This month of October, we can go back to that simple yet profound act of praying the Holy Rosary because the Catholic Church dedicates the month of October to the Rosary.

October is a good time to remember — to reawaken — something that might have been shoved aside in favor of iPhones Samsung, Nokia and Blackberries, facebook, texts and tweets.

Personally, I have been praying the Holy Rosary ever since I can remember. Thanks to Fr. Pigeon who unknowingly introduced me to the Holy Rosary in that summertime when I and my young friends would follow him around while he was carrying a string of beads praying the Holy Rosary. Of course, my exposure to the Flores de Mayo activity helped in the deepening of my awareness.

Today, a day would not pass without me praying the rosary. I became a rosary-addict of which this kind of addiction is very hard to break.