What Is A Rosary Congress?
A Rosary Congress is the continual Adoration and hourly recitation of the Rosary before the Blessed Sacrament for seven days and nights in a particular parish or diocese, wrapping our country, our states, our cities, our dioceses, and our families within the protective Heart of Mary.
A Rosary Congress is reminiscent of the Old Testament Siege of Jericho. For seven days, God’s chosen people marched around the walls of Jericho, as God instructed them, and on the seventh day its walls crumbled defenseless. As we pray the Rosary before the Blessed Sacrament for seven days and nights, we believe we are “destroying the gates of hell, fighting the princes and rulers of darkness,” as the Polish people testified to the effect of their first Rosary Congress in Poland in 1979.
A Rosary Congress is the fulfillment of the requests Our Lady made at Fatima 100 years ago. Our Lady called the children of God to pray the rosary daily, to repent and consecrate ourselves to her Immaculate Heart. She asked for prayers and sacrifices for sinners. She asked for the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart. In response to her wishes, on May 1, 1948, Pope Pius XII issued a special encyclical letter to all the bishops, priests, and laity throughout the world stating, “It is Our wish, consequently, that whenever the opportunity suggests itself, this consecration be made in the various dioceses as well as in each of the parishes and families. And we are confident that abundant blessings and favors from heaven will surge forth from this private and public consecration.”
A Rosary Congress brings the Church into the safe harbor of Jesus in the Eucharist and Our Blessed Mother. This references the dream of St. John Bosco which you will find in Don Bosco's Dream on this website. By praying the Rosary before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and meditating
on the mysteries of the Rosary, we draw on the truths of our Faith and live our lives more closely united to Christ. Mary and the Apostles receiving the Holy Spirit
The Rosary Congress is like the Cenacle or Upper Room in which the Eucharist was instituted at the Last Supper and was also the scene of the first novena in preparation for the descent of the Holy Spirit. At His Ascension Jesus had asked His disciples to return to Jerusalem and await there the Gift He would send them at Pentecost. So they gathered in the cenacle around the Holy Mother in continuous prayer. In this same way, Our Lady invites us to gather around her again in the Rosary Congresses to pray for and to await the second Pentecost.
The Rosary Congress is a week of prayer that hastens the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This truly spiritual experience is a foretaste of how beautiful the world will be when humanity returns to the love and service of God. It will be that period of peace foretold by Our Lady of Fatima wherein the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus will be the center of our lives and the Holy Spirit will fill our hearts with the fire of his love to renew the face of the earth. FINALLY, the Rosary Congress is enveloped in a spirit of penance and reparation for our sins and for the sins of humanity in order to call down God’s mercy upon the whole world.
