The power of the rosary among Bangladeshi Catholics
In the country's eight dioceses, more than 60,000 rosaries have been distributed to increase Marian devotion. Even in the small local Catholic community, stories of graces obtained through Our Lady's intercession are growing. Fr Manuel Gomes: "A prayer that also strengthens the bonds in families".
Dhaka (AsiaNews) - Pope Francis has announced for tomorrow - Friday 27 October - the World Day of Fasting, Prayer and Penance for Peace, to stop ongoing conflicts, from Palestine to Ukraine and in every other part of the world.
This extraordinary moment falls in the month of October which Christian tradition dedicates to the prayer of the rosary, a Marian prayer whose strength even the small Catholic community of Bangladesh is increasingly experiencing.
Each of the 8 dioceses of the country has a coordinator and conducts various programs to develop this form of Marian devotion. And here too the prayer is accompanied by the graces that many faithful say they have received through the intercession of the Virgin Mary.
Rakha Rema, an ethnic Garo woman who lives in the parish of Jalchatra in the diocese of Mymensingh, said she entrusted her seriously ill nephew to the prayers of the rosary and thanks to these, according to her, the young man got back to health. The woman is a member of the Legion of Mary, which is widespread in Bangladesh and other Asian countries.
Rahka Cecilia D' Rozario, on the other hand, is a faithful from the parish of Padrishibpur in the diocese of Barishal and she suffered from bone cancer with metastases to the knee: "The doctors advised me to have surgery but I didn't have the money. In those days I prayed the rosary a lot." After a few weeks the tumor went into gradual remission and the woman - now recovered - did not need surgery.
In Bangladesh even children are accustomed to praying the rosary, as in the case of Tiloktoma Toju, 13 years old, from the Sreemongol parish of Sylhet: "We are five sisters and last year the fourth became seriously ill and was hospitalized in the intensive care. We thought she wouldn't survive. As a family we prayed through the rosary and she recovered. Since then we have prayed in this way every day."
Fr. Ruben Manuel Gomes is the national director of Holy Cross Family Ministries Bangladesh and works to spread the prayer of the rosary in the country: “I obtained this appointment three and a half years ago.
And since then I have been carrying out my work in the eight dioceses of Bangladesh where we have created 680 catechetical programs on this devotion, distributing 60 thousand rosaries, 100 thousand images of Mary, 50 thousand sacred calendars. In this country, countless people pray the rosary and many of them feel they are being listened to.
Furthermore, we have seen that praying the rosary increases the bond between family members." Fr. Gomes also talks about some challenges regarding the future of his ministry: "We are launching new programs to add all the Catholics of Bangladesh so that more and more people can be united by praying the rosary."
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