a year of prayer: 365 Rosaries

This week, we reached an exciting milestone in our Rosary Construction mission:  2,000 Holy Rosaries constructed.  As you know, spiritual aids are distributed to those in need around the world, as well as military personnel stationed overseas.

These Rosaries (picture above, in progress) are for military personnel.  All black, and constructed of soft plastic and cord, they are able to be taken into the field without worry of injury or difficulty.  We pray for all military personnel, regardless of nationality, that these Rosaries bring hope, peace, encouragement, and safe returns home to loved ones.

Thank you to all of you who have contributed to our mission through your continued prayers and financial donations.  We couldn't do it without you!  With your help, we will reach 3000!

In the peace of Christ-
jacob @ 365Rosaries

I leave this evening for my week-long trip to the Guatemalan highlands to serve those in need, build our international Catholic community of faith, and distribute some of the reader-donated Rosaries that I have been able to repair:

... as well as some of the mission-style Rosaries built by our Rosary Construction Mission (and funded by your donations!):



I humbly ask that you pray for myself and my travelling companions during our week of prayer, service, and community!

At the end of the week, I will be heading to Guatemala for a week of outreach to families, sponsored by the Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA).  During the week-long visit, we will meet with numerous communities in the Guatemalan highlands, spreading the Gospel.  I also hope to distribute some of the Holy Rosaries we have been constructing as part of our "365 Rosaries Construction Mission."





CFCA, which is a non-profit organization founded by lay Catholics in 1981, allows sponsorship of families from around the world who live in poverty.  Through their work, the organization is able to assist families in accessing better education, housing, water, and safety.  This sponsored trip allows us to visit with these families, share in their religious communities, and spread the Gospel throughout the world.




Please join me in prayer for a successful, enriching, and safe trip.  May the Lord and Our Blessed Mother watch over all those involved!

Greetings, Brothers and Sisters in Christ!

I hope this post finds you well.  Thank you to all of you who continue to submit prayer requests-- as you can see from the list below, the number of requests continues to increase on a daily basis!  During October, so many prayer requests came in, we actually experienced difficulties with the request form (too many requests at one time)!  Many apologies to any of you who attempted to submit requests, but were unsuccessful due to technical issues!

Special thanks to those of you who have recently made donations to the Rosary-construction cause.  While I haven't posted about this in a while, rest assured that we are still constructing Holy Rosaries to provide both to international missions and American military personnel on active duty.  Your donations allow us to continue this important work!  Thanks and God Bless you.  (Of course, given the economic climate, if you are unable to offer a donation, please keep this mission in your prayers!)

Lastly, I apologize for my absence over the past month.  Personally, it has been a difficult month-- I found myself unemployed after 10 years with the same company.  I am pleased to say that through the grace of God, I have secured steady work, but it was an anxiety-filled month.  I appreciate your continued support and prayers!

God bless you all,
jacob


Please join me in praying for those intentions submitted by during the month of October.  Together, we raise our voices in prayer:

"And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints." (Ephesians 6:18)

Some of you may have noticed that the numbers of Rosaries constructed (visible on the left-hand sidebar) have begun creeping back upwards this month. The Rosary Construction project has indeed resumed!

Last year, with the help of some friends, I was able to construct 1,000 Holy Rosaries that were distributed to overseas missionaries and military personnel deployed overseas. Last year, Rosaries were sent to missionaries in East Timor, to an orphanage and school in India, and thorughout the world as part of the Rosaries for the World project (a mission of Holy Cross Ministries). Today, we pray that the Rosaries we constructed have reached those in need of prayer aids, and brought them to Christ through the gracious intercession of Our Blessed Mother!

In part, this project was made possible through the financial donations of readers. If you would like to make a donation toward the Rosary Construction project, you may do so safely and securely through the PayPal link on the left-hand sidebar, or by clicking on the link below.

 Each Rosary costs approximately $1.25 to construct—no donation is too small!

More importantly, I welcome your prayers and support for the success of this Rosary Construction mission. The prayers and encouragement received have been instrumental in continuing not only this project, but my overall second “year of prayer!”

Some photos from the Rosary Construction project:





Glorious Saint Joseph, model of all those who are devoted to labor, obtain for me the grace to work conscientiously, putting the call of duty above my many sins; to work with thankfulness and joy, considering it an honor to employ and develop, by means of labor, the gifts received from God; to work with order, peace, prudence and patience, never surrendering to weariness or difficulties; to work, above all, with purity of intention, and with detachment from self, having always death before my eyes and the account which I must render of time lost, of talents wasted, of good omitted, of vain complacency in success so fatal to the work of God. All for Jesus, all for Mary, all after thy example, O Patriarch Joseph. Such shall be my motto in life and death. Amen.

After 321 days, it is with great excitement, praise to the Lord, and thanks to all who helped made it possible, that I can announce I have met my Rosary construction goal! Today, I finished my 1,000th Rosary! (The picture is just a fraction of the finished, individually bagged Rosaries!)



The Rosaries, each hand-strung, were comprised of:

1000 Crucifixes and Marian Centerpieces!
14,000 “spacers” [the plastic pieces between decades]
59,000 colored beads
More than 32,000 inches of black and white cord
These Rosaries, laid end to end, would stretch over ½ mile!



Of course, I could not have accomplished this goal without the help of friends and supporters. While I tried to complete 3 Rosaries each day, due to vacations and other events, I fell a bit behind from time to time! Fortunately, friends “volunteered” their time to help me catch up on four separate “Rosary Saturdays.” Without their help, this wouldn’t have happened!

And of course, there are thanks to be given to those who made financial donations to the Rosary Construction project. I received donations by hand, by mail, via PayPal from the “Donate” button on the lefthand sidebar of the blog! Friends, relatives, and individuals I didn’t know (from both the US and abroad) contributed, allowing the purchase of Rosary supplies and the shipping costs to send them to those in need. In total, approximately 40% of the just-over $1,000 it cost to make the Rosaries came from donations… and for that I am deeply grateful!



Please join my in praying that the Rosaries made over the course of this “year of prayer” will reach those in need of spiritual guidance and prayer aids, and that Our Blessed Mother will lavish upon them the grace of Our Lord, bringing souls to Christ through the power of the Rosary!

God bless you all!

jacob

Greetings, faithful readers! It has been 6 months since I began my ‘year of prayer,’ and as such, I am officially half-way through the year. It feels like a pretty great accomplishment—6 months of prayer and blogging—and I am looking forward to the remainder of my spiritual journey!


I keep getting questions about what will happen on January 1, 2011.

Will the blog end? What are my plans?

The short answer is: I don’t know! The longer answer is: I very much appreciate the questions, support, and interest. I imagine this ‘project’ will continue in some form, although it may look a bit different! Only time will tell, as I continue my period of discernment…


A few stats on the first 6 months of ‘a year in prayer: 365 Rosaries’:

Over 4,000 people have visited and read the blog (nearly 1,000 in June alone!)
Hundreds of prayer requests have been submitted (I lost count!)
Readers have hailed from over 75 countries on all inhabited continents!


As for the Rosary Construction Project:

560 mission-style Rosaries (Blessed Junipero Serra would be so happy!) have been constructed for distribution to overseas missionaries and armed forces personnel deployed internationally!

At this time, I have received approximately 30% of the donations required for the successful completion of the Rosary Project. If you would like to support this effort, please feel free to visit the DONATE button on the left-hand sidebar (via PayPal). It costs a bit more than one dollar for each Rosary built, and as I am aiming for 1,000 this year, I need to raise at least $1,000! Thanks in advance for your help!



All in all, this has been an amazing experience so far. I have met (at least via email) faithful Christians from all over the world. The trust and faith that you all have shown in submitting prayer requests and donations is truly humbling. This journey has been both faith-affirming and faith-deepening for me, and I sincerely thank you all!



As I turn my attention to the next six months, please offer a prayer for steadfastness for my continued journey.

Shall I despair of Your mercy, O God? Far be that from me. I am Your workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. Give me grace, therefore, to await Your leisure, and patiently to bear what You require. Most assuredly I know that You will deliver me when it pleases You, for I do not doubt or mistrust You. You know what is good for me better than I do. Hear me, O merciful Father! For the sake of Your Son, whom You willed to be a sacrifice for my sins; to whom, with You and the Holy Spirit be all honor and glory. Amen.

If you follow the blog, you likely already know that one of the goals of my year of prayer was to construct 1000 Holy Rosaries to be supplied to missionaries and military personnel deployed overseas. I have been blessed to have the time and opportunity to work towards this goal, and further blessed by the assistance of friends during the process. To date, I am half-way towards achieving my goal: 500 Rosaries have been constructed, individually bagged, and sent to Rosaries for the World Program (who will distribute them to missions and troops in need of religious aids).


Here are some pictures of some of the finished Rosaries. Over time, the styles and colors have evolved and expanded, allowing a seemingly unending variety of Rosaries. I ask for your prayers that these holy beads increase devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, through the intercession of Our Blessed Mother, throughout the world!

If you would like to assist with my Rosary Construction Project, I would be greatly appreciative. It costs a little more than $1 per Rosary, and while I have reached the 50% mark in construction, I have only reached the 30% mark in monetary donations. No donation is too small, and all are appreciated (To make a secure donation via PayPal, click on the “Donate” button on the left-hand sidebar). Given the economy, I know that many are currently struggling, and that monetary donations might not be possible. I humbly ask, in that case, for your continued donation of prayers and encouragement during this, my year of prayer.



A few general announcements:

Don’t forget, you can subscribe to ‘a year in prayer: 365 Rosaries’ and have it delivered to your email address of choice every day. To do so, click here.

Also, if you are a member of the facebook online community, you can become a fan of ‘a year in prayer: 365 Rosaries’ by visiting us here.

And as always, I welcome all my readers to continue submitting prayer requests. It is both a joy and a privilege to lift your intentions during my daily prayers. I also very much appreciate your emails and updates on those prayer requests I have been privileged to be a part of.

To submit a prayer request, click here.
If you would like to contact me be email, please feel free to write to Rosaries365@hotmail.com.



Thank you all, and God bless you!

This past week marked an exciting milestone for a year of prayer: 365 Rosaries! We were visited by our 2000th visitor! So far, readers have hailed from nearly 60 countries on 6 continents! Please feel free to share the site with those friends and family who might find it enjoyable, inspirational, or even challenging!



Another milestone this week, I completed my 250th Rosary for overseas missions and deployed military personnel. That means that I have achieved 25% of my Rosary-Construction goal for the year. Rosaries have been sent to missionaries in East Timor, to a Catholic Boarding school and orphanage in India, and to Rosaries for the Family who will distribute them to overseas missions in need, as well as the men and women of the US Military.


Each Rosary constructed costs approximately $1 to produce, package, and ship… as my goal is to construct 1000 prior to the end of the year, I need your help! Any donation is welcome—no amount is too small! If you would like to donate to the Rosary Construction cause, please do so by using the Donate button (via PayPal) on the left hand margin.


Those of you who are paying attention might notice a few changes in the design layout of the blog, specifically on the left-hand margin! First, a lovely picture of Our Blessed Mother has been added, along with a link to the most recent “Marian Mondays” post. (“Marian Mondays” has been on hiatus for the past two weeks, as I readjusted to life following my travels, but will resume this coming Monday.) The link will be updated each week, so that if you miss a Monday post, you will always have an easy way to find it. After all, Our Blessed Mother was the inspiration for this year of prayer!


A bit further down the left-hand sidebar you will note three additional pictures of saints—the patron saints I have identified for a year in prayer: 365 Rosaries. These saints—Saint Bernadette Soubirous, Saint John the Baptist, and Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows—are saints that I pray to on a daily basis for intercession in my life, as well as for this blog. I would encourage you to click on each of these holy saints’ pictures to read a bit more about their lives (Saint John the Baptist’s link currently leads to the post regarding the Baptism of the Lord. This will be updated on the Feast of John the Baptist in June).


As always, thanks for reading. Thanks for submitting prayer requests. Thanks for donating. Thanks for your continued support and encouragement through prayer. May God bless each of you!

Greetings, faith-filled readers! Thank you all for your continued visits to the blog, comments, and prayer requests. I was gratified to return from my travels to find an ever-increasing stream of visitors to the site, as well as many prayer requests, well-wishes, and emails. It was a nice 'welcome home!'  (The image at left is a detail from on underground church I visited during my travels!)


I would like to extend a special thanks to my brother in Christ, Nathan, who moderated comments and emails in my absence. We have all been blessed by his assistance and involvement in this project over the last month!



A few general notes:

In preparation for my trip, I had pre-written the daily posts and scheduled them to automatically appear on the blog. With one exception, this system worked very well. One post failed to appear, and the subject of that post was the seventeenth apparition of Our Lady of Lourdes. It should have been available to readers on April 7. However, it did not appear until today (but then was filed back on the April 7th date, so is now a bit "hidden" behind the posts of the past few days). If you are interested in reading the post about Our Lady of Lourdes' seventeenth visit to Saint Bernadette, you can find it here.

Secondly, given my 3 1/2 week absence, I have fallen a bit behind on my Rosary Construction-- you can see that the counter in the left-hand sidebar has "stalled" at 210! During the remainder of the month, I hope to get caught up. So far, Rosaries have been sent to missionaries in East Timor, as well as to a Catholic orphanage and school in India. If anyone knows of specific missions, groups, schools, etc., who would benefit from the donation of mission-style Rosaries, please let me know. I would be blessed to assist in whatever way I can.

Of course, if you would like to contribute to the Rosary-Construction process, you are welcome to make a donation via the PayPal link on the left-hand sidebar. No amount is too small-- it costs approximately $1 for each Rosary constructed (including materials, packaging, and shipping to those in need!)-- so even a $5 donation will sponsor the construction of 5 important prayer aids. For those of you who are unable to donate financially at this time, your continued prayers are so greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance for your continued support!

As always, I will continue to pray for each of you.  Wishing you peace and blessings during this joy-filled Easter season.

In Christ,
jake

As some of you may have noticed, the “Rosaries constructed” count has held steady for week or so around 160 (see left, beneath the Donate button)… This is due to a number of reasons which may need explaining. First, I was waiting for materials to arrive, which now have (see here for details!). Second, when one finishes a cord-style mission Rosary, there is a “final step” in which each of the knots tied on the Rosary is coated with super glue or clear nail polish to prevent them from coming untied. This is a fairly cumbersome portion of the project, which has taken a bit longer than originally planned. Once they are sealed and dried, each Rosary is bagged in a small zip-top plastic bag, to prevent tangling in shipping, and allow for easy distribution by overseas missionaries and military personnel.


I’m happy to announce that the first batches of Rosaries have been sent—some going to East Timor, an extremely poor country where many Catholics lack both basic prayer aids, as well as basic needs of every day life. Another batch of Rosaries is being sent to India, to the Saint Francis Xavier orphanage, a facility administered by Catholic priests and religious. I would humbly request that you pray that these Rosaries are well received, and assist those who use them in drawing closer to the Lord, through the intercession of our gracious Blessed Mother.

Time for another Rosary-construction update…


To date, over 160 Rosaries have been lovingly constructed for distribution to overseas missions and American soldiers deployed or stationed abroad. Within the week, my first “shipment” of finished Rosaries will be headed to Catholic missionaries in East Timor (a small island republic located between Indonesia and Australia). The remainder of the constructed Rosaries will be sent to Rosaries for the World for distribution to missions and troops currently in need of Catholic prayer aids.

I am deeply appreciative of the donations that have been submitted by readers. I estimate that it costs approximately one dollar per mission-style Rosary that is constructed, and as I have the goal of constructing 1,000 over the course of the year, that’s a fairly sizable economic undertaking! Every dollar counts, and is put to good use! So thank you all for your continued support. If you would like to make a donation, please use the Donate button on the left-hand sidebar. You can also track the number of Rosaries constructed to date beneath the Donate button!

Some readers have asked where I get the “materials” used to make these Rosaries. While I have purchased from a number of sites, there is one in particular which I would like to highlight today: Ave Maria’s Circle: Rosary Making Supplies. Based in Ontario, Canada, the company provides a wide selection of Rosary-making needs, including those required for mission-style Rosaries. Moreover, the owners have been extremely gracious, offering discounts on materials (offered to all customers), and support and encouragement on my spiritual journey. Below are some photos of the newest “batch” of materials. I’m excited to get constructing!



On a separate, but related note, I have also constructed a new chain Rosary for personal use during the contemplative period of Lent.  Made from a seed known as “Job’s Tears,” reflective of the suffering and penance undertaken by Job, this Rosary is a useful aid in remaining focused on the sufferings and sacrifices of Christ leading up to Good Friday. The center of the Rosary is a representation of Saint John the Baptist, my patron saint, a miracle of mortification, penance, humility, and martyrdom for his faith in Christ.

Thank you all for your continued reading, support, and encouragement. I wish you each a deeply meaningful Lenten season, in whatever form that may take. Perhaps taking some time each day to mediate on the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Holy Rosary of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary might be a meaningful exercise, placing our sufferings in context as compared to those of Our Lord.

Where to begin writing about Lourdes? It is a difficult task for me, as this spiritual endeavor that I have embarked on is so closely linked to Lourdes. When people ask me how I ended up going on pilgrimage to the grotto, I have no easy answer. Lourdes was not someplace that I had thought about, or really someplace that I knew anything about. I was completely ignorant regarding the history of the Marian apparitions that occurred there, the life of Saint Bernadette Soubirous, and the remarkable and miraculous healings that have occurred since. As a psychologist, I could imagine that somewhere, at some point, I was exposed to all of this information, and that slowly, over time, my brain coalesced these random moments of exposure—from conversations, television, readings, perhaps—into a cohesive curiosity that brought me to Lourdes…


… but that’s not what happened.

The Blessed Mother called me to Lourdes. I can find no other explanation that is satisfactory… and this experience is not uncommon. During Reconciliation at Lourdes, the priest I was speaking with offered this insight: “We don’t know why we come here, or what is in store for us. Those things are not important. What is important is that the Blessed Mother calls us to Lourdes for reasons important to her and to the Lord, and we answer her call.”

I visited Lourdes in October 2009, after a chain of events which can only be explained as “a call.” The pilgrimage itself was awesome (in the true sense of the word), and I will write more about that over the next few days as I recount the incredible story of Saint Bernadette. It wasn’t until weeks after my return from Lourdes that the idea for a year of prayer, and this accompanying blog, popped into my head at the most random of times, while I was out for a run on the beach. The thought, which took shape quickly, was accompanied by a feeling of serenity like that I had experienced in the grotto at Lourdes (and at no other time during the course of my life), but seemed impractical and quite demanding. I put it out of my head, and went about my life, busy, preparing for the holidays. On Christmas Day, the feeling came back, and this time I couldn’t avoid it. This time, I no longer wanted to avoid it. And so this incredible spiritual journey began.

Yesterday, the eve of the feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes, this humble blog hit 500 visitors, representing 22 countries on six continents. 148 Rosaries have been constructed in that time (so many, in fact, that I have run out of supplies and am awaiting a new shipment!). Countless prayer requests, donations, and messages of support and encouragement have been submitted. Only 41 days into this experience, it has already surpassed my expectations, and I thank all of you who visit for contributing. Today, I will start a 54-day Novena to Our Lady of Lourdes. The intentions submitted, as well as those in the hearts of the visitors to this blog, will be lifted in prayer, through the intercession of Our Blessed Mother. I will pray for each one of you—those I know and those I don’t know—and that my prayers will be penance for all.

God bless each of you, and may Our Lady of Lourdes bring you comfort and peace.


O Immaculate Virgin Mary, you are the refuge of sinners, the health of the sick, and the comfort of the afflicted.
By your appearances at the Grotto of Lourdes you made it a privileged sanctuary where your favors are given to people streaming to it from the whole world.
Over the years, countless sufferers have obtained the cure of their infirmities,whether of soul, mind, or body.
Therefore I come with limitless confidence to implore your motherly intercession.
Loving Mother, obtain the grant of my requests.
Let me strive to imitate your virtues on earth so that I may one day share your glory in heaven.








Day 42 of 365
Prayer Intentions: The intentions of all those who read this blog; Penance, Penance, Penance!
Requested Intentions: For a niece suffering with autism, and for all those affected by autism (V); For a daughter’s employment (J); For a son’s employment and growth in faith (M); Those planning for surgery (L); Those who are unemployed or in danger of losing jobs (A); Those fighting depression (L); For a growing love of the Eucharist and peace within a family (A).