2024 Eucharistic Rosary Congress’ theme: “Do Whatever He Tells You”

This October, over 200 parishes across the United States will participate in the 2024 Eucharistic Rosary Congress, praying the rosary every hour for seven consecutive days in front of the Blessed Sacrament.

“What sets this week apart is the fact that we seek, as a community, the hourly intercession of our Mother Mary as she stands in the breach with her Son in the Blessed Sacrament interceding on our behalf to the Father,” the leaders of the event said. 

The theme this year is “Do Whatever He Tells You.” In the Gospel, these are the words that the Blessed Mother spoke to those at the Wedding Feast at Cana, directing them to obey Jesus. 

The leaders said the organization chose this theme to harmonize with the theme of the National Eucharistic Revival’s third year, which begins in July, after the National Eucharist Congress. Revival organizers have named the period of July 21, 2024, through Pentecost 2025 “the year of going out on mission.”

Though the theme varies by the year, the intentions of the rosary congress remain the same, according to the leaders. “[The intentions are] offered in a spirit of reparation to restore the sanctity of life; to establish peace in our hearts, our families, our Church, and our nation; and to console the hearts of Jesus and Mary,” they said.

The congress originated in Poland, in 1978, when Pope John Paul II desired to visit there but the communist Polish government would not permit him to travel to certain parts of his homeland.

“Through a private revelation, Our Lady requested seven days and nights of continuous Rosaries to be said before the Blessed Sacrament… at the shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa, in Jasna Gora. The prayers were to be offered for a resolution of the impasse preventing the papal pilgrimage,” the leaders said.

The Polish people held the first Eucharistic Rosary Congress, as instructed. On the seventh and last day of the congress, the Communist government “unexpectedly relented and removed all the obstacles to the papal visit,” the leaders continued. The pope’s subsequent visit to Poland is credited with the beginning of the fall of communism in that part of the world.

Anatol Kaszczuk, one of the Polish organizers, traveled to America in 1988 and located a lay Marian group that helped promote the congresses in the United States. The First National Rosary Congress was held in Washington, D.C., in 1988. The movement has since spread across the states.

McKenna Snow, March 20, 2024

Adapted from: www.catholicvote.org