Grow in holiness with the Family Rosary

Every time Chris and Jennifer Sariego and their four children leave their home in the greater Los Angeles area and get into their car for a drive longer than 15 minutes, the family prays the Rosary together. “We call it the minivan Rosary,” Chris said. “If you have an active, on-the-go family, the minivan is a great place to say the Rosary.”

It’s one of the ways their family is growing in holiness together as a domestic church, in the hallowed footsteps of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, whose feast we celebrate the Sunday after Christmas.

Foster the family Rosary. In the 2002 encyclical Rosarium Virginis Mariae (The Most Holy Rosary), St John Paul II emphasized, “The family that recites the Rosary together reproduces something of the atmosphere of the household of Nazareth.” Father Guffey advises, “Every domestic church needs rituals that bind the family and help them to be together and pray, to orient them out of themselves towards something greater. The greatest thing is Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the greatest way to look to Christ and learn about Christ is through the eyes and heart of his Blessed Mother Mary. She leads us to Christ. And the heart of Jesus is strength for any home.”

That’s why the Sariegos pray the Rosary faithfully. As Chris said, “We make sure as a family every Sunday evening we set aside time and sit as a family to offer intercessory prayer and say the Rosary.”

He calls the family Rosary the “strongest thing we do to hopefully grow in holiness,” adding, “One of the things I love most about the Rosary is that when we pray it I see my children growing in compassion and love for the people who suffer. We talk about who we’re praying for.” Chris finds it powerful “to see my children become open and think about others and their needs and really learn selflessness. Saying the Rosary together as a family teaches them.”

Joseph Pronechen, December 29, 2019

Adapted from NCRegister