OCTOBER's FEAST OF FOCUS - OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY..........

As we finish the first week of October, we arrive at the liturgical feast that is the primary focus of the month, the Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary.  This feast of the Church was declared by Pope Pius V, in 1571, in thanksgiving for Christian soldiers victory in the Battle of Lepanto.  The feast of Our Lady of the Rosary also reminds me of my pastoral assignment as a third year seminarian at St. Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park.  I was assigned during that 1984-85 year to Our Lady of the Rosary Parish, in Palo Alto.  The newly retired Pastor-Emeritus at the time was Reverend Father John Dermody, of the San Francisco Archdiocese, cousin of our two Sacramento Father Dermodys, Michael and Thomas.  His successor as Pastor, Rev. Fr. Alfred Kelly, was very welcoming of me and told me he had a special assignment for me.  A 20 year old Guamanian man, who was a parishioner, had a developmental disability leaving him able to function cognitively as only a child of 5-6 years old.  He was baptized as an infant, but received no other sacraments, and catechesis only from his mother at home.  My parish pastoral assignment was to prepare him catechetically one on one for First Holy Communion.  There was uncertainty whether he could be sufficiently prepared to understand what Eucharist is, and I was given the parish / seminary year to see if we could succeed together in doing so.  Weekly we met for up to 90 minutes and his mother was so excited at her twenty year desire for Paul, her son to be given this chance, she soon began inviting to their home for dinner.  Shortly after our Christmas break was over in late January, the breakthrough came, when in the midst of that day's lesson, I asked Paul, as I had for over four months what Holy Communion is ?  And was I surprised when he clearly said, "The Bread of Jesus".  As he smiled broadly at me, I said to him, "Paul, tell me what the Bread of Jesus is ?"  And he said, "The Bread is Jesus".  I was ecstatic and couldn't wait for his mother to come for him and to go over to the rectory to tell Fr. Kelly.  Paul and I continued our instructions and it was decided I would also do Confirmation preparation with him, so that later in the Spring Paul celebrated the completion of his Christian Initiation with the other students at Our Lady of the Rosary Parish Church in Palo Alto, California.  On this Our Lady of the Rosary Day 2010, may the mysteries of Salvation History recalled by us in our meditation of praying the Holy Rosary, open your hearts and minds on how God is calling you to experience your Faith in ever more deep and significant ways..........Mary Mother Of God, Our Lady Of The Rosary Pray For Us,   Fr.  Troy