By Meanne M. Mijares
“There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is,
that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary.”
Venerable Sister Lucia dos Santos, Fatima visionary
It happened in February 16, 2000, Thursday morning, when I rode a cab on my way to a female friend’s condo unit with my eyes so wet and puffy with tears and a matching red nose after a very painful and agonizing experience that broke my heart (due to unrequited love at the time) which took place the night before. I cried out in my pain and in my grief to the kind hearted cab driver who was then in his early 50’s gave me a big pink rosary (which I still have in my possession to this day and will continue to cherish and treasure it) which he took from the cab’s car window (in the middle) wonderfully reassuring me that everything will right itself in due time and miracles will come my way because I have a very powerful prayer in my hand (could he be an angel?)! From that time on, I never saw him again nor rode his cab for another time but my life took a 360-degree turn for the better slowly but surely after he gave me the mysterious pink rosary which I fondly call my 911 SOS Emergency Hotline to Heaven. My anchor, companion, teacher and friend-that is how my Rosary is at work in my life. When I was beset with all sorts of problems, I turn to it and found solutions with the best results. When I make important decisions or need to discern something, I pray with it and it guided me to making the right choices. Everywhere I go I carry it with me (the one that was given to me by an aunt, my mother’s sister). I would rather forget my other things and priorities, but NOT my Rosary! In short I cannot live without it. I live and breathe with it. Going to mass and praying the Rosary are essential to ask God for help us to make a stairway to Heaven, out true Home to live the blessed and eternal life with Him and our Blessed Mother. With the Rosary, life has no beginning and no end if we hold on to our faith and continue to make a difference in the lives of others in a beautiful and meaningful way. So, never underestimate those beads for they are major links to a divinely powerful prayer!
The cab driver was right. Blessings and miracles took place in my life one after the other and it didn’t stop. But above all, the Rosary has taught me many things about life according to our Lord and Blessed Mother. Life is good with all its joys and luminosity, but it is not complete without its share of sorrows and it becomes glorious when we have triumphantly conquered and surpassed all its trials, obstacles and upheavals that keep on assailing us. One of them is to appreciate life as it is and to live life the way it should be in accordance to His Will. It is a powerful prayer in time of need and adversity and effectively molds me into the person God wants me to be. It teaches us how to grow in the virtues of our Blessed Mother (humility, fraternal charity, esteem of spiritual values, purity and obedience, fidelity to one’s duties, sorrow for sin, mortification of the senses, love of humiliation, bearing of trials, forgiveness of injuries, faith and hope, desire of Heaven, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, devotion to our Lady and perseverance). I humbly admit that it may be quite difficult at first, but with perseverance and trust in God, it is truly worth it! Our Blessed Mother promised: “You shall obtain all that you ask of Me through the recitation of the Holy Rosary!”
So in the month of the Rosary, I encourage all the faithful, especially FilCatholic readers, to take advantage of the new focus on the Rosary to revive their faith and flagging practice. St John Paul the Great gently urges us to rediscover the profound mysticism contained in the simplicity of this simple but powerful prayer so pleasing to God and the Blessed Mother!
