Today is Respect Life Sunday! 38th Annual Life Chain: will be held on Sunday, October 5, 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM. Meet at the corner of High Street and Great Oaks Trail. Be a strong, peaceful witness to the sanctity of human life in Prayer, Song, and Silence. Bring your family and friends. Signs will be provided.
PLEASE MARK YOUR CALENDARS! On October 17, 18, and 19, we will hold our annual Solemn Eucharistic Devotions which will begin on Friday, October 17, with a special school Mass at 9:30 AM. Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament will continue on the main altar throughout the weekend, and we will have our Solemn Closing with Mass and a procession with the Blessed Sacrament on Sunday, October 19, beginning at 5 PM. Our guest homilist for the closing Mass will be Fr. Jon Hawkins, Parochial Vicar at Holy Family Parish in Stow and a son of our parish here at Sacred Heart. Fr. Jon was ordained to the priesthood this past May.
Those preparing to receive their First Holy Communion and Confirmation will also join in our procession to honor the Eucharistic presence of our Lord. Please make every effort to be a part of this special weekend of praise and prayer as we give thanks to God for the gift of Himself in the Holy Eucharist.
October is a very important time for us as Catholics because October is the Month of the Holy Rosary and Respect Life Month. These two events are very well connected. October 7th is the Feast of the Most Holy Rosary, which is why the month of October is designated as such. The Rosary is the most important prayer that we can say except for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. In many ways, the Rosary can be said to be an extension of the Mass because the mysteries of the Rosary center on the events of the Gospel beginning with the Incarnation. The Incarnation is the fact that God became man for us and that is what we truly celebrate in the Mass, that God became one of us and offered Himself as the sacrifice for our sins so that we may have eternal life with Him.
The mysteries of the Rosary, which span the lives of Jesus and Mary, recount for us and allow us to contemplate our own salvation in Jesus Christ and the great love that God has for us. Mary, through her obedience to and trust in God, witnesses to the love of God as she, too, gives her life for us as our loving Mother. To pray the Rosary with thought and devotion is truly to contemplate the mystery of God’s presence and love in our lives. God’s love is really a mystery because it is revealed to us throughout our lives in ways that we cannot always understand, but we definitely know it is there.
We can come to know God’s love only by spending time with Him and allowing Him to be more and more a part of our daily lives. Going to Mass every Sunday, and more often if possible, receiving the sacraments frequently, praying the Rosary, and reading the Bible are all good ways to spend time with God and invite Him into our hearts and our lives.
Our Holy Father Pope Leo XIV has asked everyone to pray the rosary every day during the month of October for world peace.
The Rosary is the very powerful prayer given to us by our Blessed Mother. It is a prayer that has changed the world and the lives of many people. No one person knows all the good the Rosary has done except for Jesus and Mary. Mary has told us many times in her various apparitions that we are to pray the Rosary every day. Doing as she told us draws us into the Gospel and into the lives of Jesus and Mary. Spending that time with Jesus and Mary will truly change our lives and the world. Not magically and not instantly, but it will make a big difference.
Let us put our trust in the Most Holy Rosary and enter more deeply into the love of Jesus and Mary.
