Fr. Ryan Lerner, Chaplain
This morning, I ran past the Albertus Magnus College track before descending Science Hill. As the streetlamps lit up the pre-dawn darkness and reflected off the road and wet, fallen leaves, I finished the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary and began to pray the Peace Chaplet.
The Peace Chaplet begins with the Sign of the Cross, is followed by the Apostles’ Creed, then an Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be, each prayed seven times before closing with the Sign of the Cross. It is a beautiful devotion I learned from a young tour guide while I was on pilgrimage to Medjugorje in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Medjugorje is the place where it is believed that Our Blessed Mother appeared to six children in 1981 with messages of hope and peace.
The guide pointed to the peak of a mountain, explaining the meaning of "Medjugorje"—“between mountains”—and encouraged me to hike up before dawn and pray for peace at sunrise. In the days that followed, I’d be up before dawn and run a few miles in the village and along the fields before climbing to the top of the mountain, hoping to reach the summit by sunrise.
I was struck by the number of pilgrims I encountered along the way, climbing the rocky path, some with packs and walking stalks, almost all of them with Rosaries in hand. Each person must have been carrying their own prayers, for themselves, their loved ones, and for the world. As I reached the top and witnessed the first light of dawn illuminating the mountain, I realized that, in our own unique ways, we were all there for the same purpose: to pray for peace in our hearts, our families, and our world, in response to Our Lady’s call.
The Peace Chaplet has become a prayer I return to often, almost every day.
In these closing days of October—a month dedicated to Our Lady of the Holy Rosary—it feels more relevant than ever to pray for peace. As our world is bleeding from the many wars, injustices, and harms against the dignity of the human person; as our interactions with each other in the human family feel increasingly hostile and angry and the days ahead promise to be tense, perhaps each of us can take some time to pray for peace.
