When I visited Minnesota a few weeks back, I had the privilege of spending some time with a group of cloistered nuns, The Poor Clares of St. Cloud. 

By Deacon Greg

As I wrote at the time:

One of the sisters asked if we would like some rosaries, and we said, “Sure.” We thought we’d get two or three. They brought out an enormous bag of them, hundreds of them — how we’ll get that back to New York is still unclear — and one of the sisters spoke of how much she likes the hand-made rope rosaries. I asked her if I could have one to bring home to my wife. She happily obliged — but a quick search found that they were all out of them. “Here,” she said, “take mine.” She slipped it under the grill. I protested. “No, no, no,” she smiled. “Now we have a special connection!” I thanked her and pressed the rosary to my lips, deeply humbled.

Lately, as I’ve been spending my days in lockdown, I’ve been using that rope rosary to pray and I’ve been thinking of those sisters and remembering all those are cloistered, quarantined, in lockdown, cut off from the world. I do have a special connection with all of them now.

This week, the writer Amelia Monroe Carlson published a special “Quarantine Rosary”  at Catholic365 to facilitate praying during these challenging times — to connect us all through this ancient form of prayer:

“There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot solve by the power of the Holy Rosary.” (Sister Lucia of Fatima)

Many saints throughout the ages have often recited the rosary in times of distress and trials. There is no time in recent history that the power of the faithful praying the rosary is needed more than now. “The rosary is the weapon for these times,” said St. Padre Pio. He was right. It is our weapon and it is now, more than ever, that we need it. Here is a suggested way to pray the rosary daily that is specifically targeted at the coronavirus pandemic. It is through the power of prayer that we will overcome this pandemic.

Every decade has a focus, every bead has a special intention. It concludes, fittingly, with an intention for deacons:

Bead 10- For deacons: May you give them wisdom, strength, and resolve to assist priests in whatever ways necessary to reach the laymen and minister to those during such a fearful and trying time.

Read it. Share it. Together, let us lift up the world in prayer.