By Tim Harfmann
On October 30, over 1,000 children from 12 Catholic academies across Brooklyn and Queens arrived by the busload at the Co-Cathedral of Saint Joseph to pray the rosary as one and ask for the Blessed Virgin Mary’s help.
With the sacred beads held in their hands, the students prayed for personal intentions, but they also had big issues as the objects of their prayer: especially the sanctity of life.
“Being in Catholic school, I always thought that praying was really important and it’s one of the ways you worship God. I think using an instrument like the rosary is really important,” said Alexandra Sciacca, an eighth grader at Notre Dame Catholic Academy.
“We are here for a reason: to love God. And we are here to honor and to respect our lives given. And to give away such an amazing life is, like, a big sin,” added fellow Notre Dame eight grader Maya Wierciszewski.
Filip Drazic, an eight grader at Saint Bernadette Catholic Academy, prayed for the less fortunate.
“I think about helping all the poor and my family for everything that they have, that I have; and what everyone needs in this world: food, water, hunger,” he said.
The Catholic Church dedicates the month of October to praying the rosary.
Brooklyn Auxiliary Bishop James Massa led the rosary rally, praying for the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
“Children have an intuitive sense that Mary is the mother of all Christians, the mother of the Church. And when we unite ourselves in the devotion of the holy rosary, we are connected with the whole Church,” said Bishop Massa.
In this way, students from the Diocese of Brooklyn can be connected to the whole Church.