By Katie Vasquez
Catholics of all ages are uniting together in prayer as these students from St Joseph’s Catholic Academy in Queens lead the packed parish in praying the rosary during a Lenten Pilgrimage stop.
Father Vincent Chirichella, the pastor of St Joseph Church in Astoria encouraged the young people to get involved in the journey.
“It was great to see them express their faith and on this special day, the feast of the Annunciation,” he tells Currents News. “It was really wonderful to see the children so in love with the Lord and Blessed Mother.”
“It was a blessing because I love to pray all the time,” 4th grader Olivia Buscio tells Currents News of the experience. “I pray before I go to bed, and I feel like it brings me closer to God.”
The event involved electing volunteers like 3rd grader Lillian Schultz to pray a decade.
“I was a little bit nervous, because I’m usually, like, I really don’t speak a lot,” she tells Currents News. “I’m a little bit shy and timid, but it was really fun at the same time.”
In times of stress, Schultz says she turns to Mary for guidance: “I really like praying because I feel safe and I feel like Mary is listening to me, and I feel like she can help me a lot.”
It’s a lesson the pilgrims of the Lenten journey know all too well, as they have spent the last four weeks at different churches across Brooklyn and Queens taking part in Masses, adorations, and rosaries.
Father Chirichella hopes more of the young people learn from them.
“I think the rosary is a great habit, spiritual habit,” he says. “You know, we all have habits, but a spiritual habit for the children to get into, bringing a great peace throughout their lives.”
It’s a prayer God may have already answered.
“It was really fun,” says Buscio. “And I like to see Father, and I like to be together in church.”