By Kimberley Heatherington, OSV News
(OSV News) — At the end of his Sept. 24 audience, Pope Leo XIV issued an invitation to Catholics worldwide — and he hopes they’ll accept it.
“I invite everyone to pray the rosary every day during the coming month — for peace — personally, with your families, and in your communities,” the pontiff said.
On the Catholic Church’s Roman calendar, October is designated as the Month of the Holy Rosary, with the liturgical Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary falling on Oct. 7 — and indeed, it’s a traditional practice to pray the rosary all 31 days.
But according to a 2025 Pew Research Center survey, only 22% of white Catholics and 37% of Hispanic Catholics pray it “at least monthly.”
So is it wishful thinking to expect the faithful will offer a calendar full of rosaries during October? And why should the rosary be a regular — or even daily — part of a believer’s prayer life?
OSV News spoke with both experts and devotees, and the answer is basically this: Because it’s a time-tested way to grow closer to Jesus Christ and his mother Mary, who points men and women of every age to follow her son as his disciples.
“I think we are having a revival with the rosary,” said Father Andrew Hofer, a Dominican priest, professor, and recent Mass homilist for the Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage held Sept. 27 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.
Thousands gathered to hear teaching, adore Jesus truly present in the Blessed Sacrament, enroll in the Confraternity of the Most Holy Rosary, witness a rosary procession and hear a concert by the chart-topping Hillbilly Thomists.
“The church has consistently promoted the rosary, but many people have not heard the call,” Father Hofer reflected. “And so we’re grateful that the Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage is one way where we can show forth the power of the rosary; that rosaries are a chain of hope. We need hope in this world, where there’s so much violence. And,” he added, “we want to show forth the goodness, the holiness, the beauty of the rosary.”
It’s perhaps easy to imagine that once St. Dominic, the founder of the Order of Preachers — received the mission to spread the rosary in a 1214 vision of the Blessed Mother, it was ever-after perfectly and devoutly prayed by all the saints.
But modern Catholics might be encouraged to know that at least one well-known holy woman struggled with her beads: St. Thérèse of Lisieux.
“I force myself in vain to meditate on the mysteries of the rosary; I don’t succeed in fixing my mind on them,” she admitted in her autobiography “The Story of a Soul.” St. Thérèse was frustrated — even “desolate,” she said — but she didn’t give up, concluding that her efforts would be accepted in the spirit they were offered.
St. Thérèse’s optimistic outlook is shared by Shannon Wendt, author of “The Way of the Rosary: A Journey with Mary Through Scripture, Liturgy, and Life.”
As a Catholic mom, writer, and “Chews Life” business owner, Wendt told OSV News she wants people to encounter the rosary as a devotion so deep it becomes a way of life; a companion that accompanies everyone through the ups and downs of everyday existence.
“We know as good Catholics that we should pray the rosary,” she said. “And it becomes something we tend to kind of put up on a shelf — for when we’re in the right mood, or when we have time; whatever it is — we kind of put it off and put it off, thinking this is something that needs to be perfect.”
But it doesn’t have to be, Wendt said.
“Instead of trying to sit down for 20 perfect, quiet minutes to meditate on the rosary, instead use the quiet moments — and pray your rosary little by little throughout the day,” she said.
“That way, you can — no matter how busy you are, no matter how many things in your to-do list, or work, or kids, or whatever your life looks like — find quiet pockets of time; just a minute, or even a few seconds to pray one Hail Mary. And that way everything that you do — every task, every errand, every conversation and relationship that you have — is surrounded by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.”
By integrating the rosary into the events of even the most hectic day, Wendt advised, the faithful will be able to approach it from a different and fresh perspective.
“When we can really walk the way of the rosary, we begin to understand the rosary as a lifestyle,” she said, “instead of something that we put on our to-do list, or something we put a time frame on.”
Children are notoriously squirmy during the recitation of the rosary, but Aid to the Church in Need — which has helped meet the pastoral needs of the suffering and persecuted church around the world since 1947 — nonetheless realizes the power of young prayer.
So on Oct. 7, the organization is inviting 1 million children to pray the rosary for unity and peace during its annual rosary campaign.
“This global initiative,” the Aid to the Church in Need U.S. website noted, “inspires young hearts to pray with Our Blessed Mother and to discover the profound beauty and strength found in prayer.”
Aid to the Church in Need’s campaign is not, however, the only global rosary effort.
The Pontifical Mission Societies USA, said national director Msgr. Robert Landry, has a lengthy history of promoting rosary recitation during October — which is also World Mission Month, encompassing World Mission Sunday on Oct. 19.
“When Archbishop Sheen — my predecessor — was the national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies USA, throughout the month of October he used to always get all the staff together in the chapel to pray the rosary at 3 p.m.,” said Msgr. Landry.
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen — who has been declared “venerable,” and is on the path to sainthood — directed the U.S. branch of TMPS from 1950-1966. He also created the World Mission Rosary, whose colorful green, blue, white, red, and yellow beads represent the different continents of the world.
“So that’s where our initiative merges two things,” he said. “Praying for the missions — which is one of the major objectives of the month of October — and growing in love of Our Lady under the title Our Lady of the Rosary, through praying the rosary together.”
Echoing both Father Hofer and Shannon Wendt, Msgr. Landry also proclaimed the power of prayer and the rosary.
“Prayer is not just the most important thing we as Catholics do,” he said. “It’s the most powerful thing we do. And those who pray grasp that power.”
It’s also, Msgr. Landry said, an antidote to a turbulent era.
“We’re living in a time now — as we saw after the terrible shooting in Minneapolis — when several public figures have said prayer is basically useless; what we need now is action,” he observed.
“No — prayer is the most important action we need,” Msgr. Landry said. “We can be a witness during this month to the power of prayer — its peace, and its connection to the harvest Jesus himself asked us to pray for.”
Kimberley Heatherington is an OSV News correspondent based in Virginia.
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