Inaugural Family Rosary Rally set for Oct. 19 at St. Catherine
“Bless me Father, for I have sinned. It has been a couple of decades since my last confession.”
Walking into a confessional, kneeling at the grate, and saying those words to a priest seemed a bridge too far for Edmond Kline, who at age 27 had not returned to the sacrament of reconciliation since the second or third grade.
Although he couldn’t bring himself to do it, he also couldn’t seem to forget it, which left him in that prickly space between complacency and peace. He didn’t want to receive the sacrament, but wanting to want to prompted an inspiration.
“I started to pray the rosary,” he said. “The Sorrowful Mysteries, in particular, caused me to be sorry for my sins and to think of how I hurt Jesus. That motivated me to go back to confession.”
That incident serves as one example among many for the man who went on to be ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Wichita in 2004 and then published a book, Miracles of the Rosary & The Rosary of Miracles, in 2024. It echoes a message voiced by many spiritual giants such as St. Dominic, St. Pius of Pietrelcina, and St. Pope John Paul II, in which the rosary is a particularly potent spiritual aid.
“I try to pray four or five rosaries a day and have found it has been very spiritually helpful and helps protect me from temptations,” Fr. Kline said. “It has been a very helpful way to pray for specific intentions, whether matters in the parish, or people who have fallen away from the Church. During my days of hospital ministry, it was particularly fruitful.”
Fr. Kline is hardly the only person in the Diocese of Wichita who attests to the rosary’s instrumental role in changing life for the better, which is one reason why the diocese’s Office of Family Life will host its Inaugural Family Rosary Rally on the afternoon of Sunday, Oct. 19 at Wichita’s St. Catherine of Siena Parish.
Fr. Kline predicts hearing others attest to the rosary’s benefits for them and their families will inspire others to embrace the prayer. “People will hear many beautiful testimonies,” he said.
Muddling through
The devotion of the rosary involves meditating on specific incidents from the life of Christ and his mother with the aid of accompanying verbal prayers and, frequently, a ring of beads that helps divide and establish the periods of meditation. Or as some say, each interval of 10 Hail Marys sets a timer during which one seeks to contemplate scenes – or mysteries – from the gospel, including the Angel Gabriel’s appearance to Mary, the Last Supper, the Lord’s crucifixion and his resurrection from the dead.
Those who seek to wade into those deep spiritual waters only to find their thoughts sinking yet again into distractions and cares of the world should not give up, Fr. Kline insists.
Or as the late Catholic writer G.K. Chesterton quipped, “If something is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.”
People should not expect every completed rosary to evoke feelings of having probed the depths of sublimity, Fr. Kline allows, but that should not keep them from continuing to pray. “We are human, with worries, anxieties, and distractions,” he said. “If we notice such things occupying our thoughts, we gently try to move our minds back to the mystery on which we are meditating. Our Lady is pleased with the effort, which can be like little children trying to draw. Maybe what ends up on the page doesn’t look very impressive, but a parent still finds it beautiful.”
The Sunday, Oct. 19 Family Rosary Rally is scheduled to run from 3 to 5:30 p.m. at St. Catherine of Siena. Bishop Carl Kemme, Fr. Dan Lorimer, and Fr. Kline will speak. Families will give testimony including the Reichenbergers, Leonards, Owens, and Floods, as well as Angie Marlett. It also will feature a Eucharistic holy hour, procession, crowning of the Virgin Mary, and Family Consecration to the Hearts of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.