Start with the Holy Rosary

I had been a priest for 4 years and I had never prayed a Rosary. I did not like it or understand it. I also had difficulty accepting and understanding Mary. I did not have a “special relationship” with her. In a moment of spiritual aridity, a brother priest gave me some homilies by a priest from Medjugorje on the messages of the Gospa (the Virgin Mary) to read.

As soon as I began reading, I felt great inner peace and strong confidence. I knew that these messages really conveyed Mary’s words. I felt Mary’s real presence and I decided never to leave her again.

I got a new taste for prayer in my heart. Without prayer, one cannot pass on anything, and without prayer, one cannot grow. These words of the Gospa deeply penetrated me. First of all, they made me feel lost: spiritually paralyzed, sick in my soul, and then they made me want to start praying—starting with the simplest prayer, the Holy Rosary.

So I started to recite my first Rosary. For more than 26 years now, I have prayed the Rosary every day. It’s a gift from Mary!

Father Oscar Pilloni

Gospa Mira Community (Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil)

Excerpt from his book Five Steps to Being a Winner in the Current Spiritual Battle