Teresa Rodriguez worked as a nurse attending patients in a center that serves people with memory problems, when she realized that their patients were not offered spiritual services. While talking one day with a patient and her husband, the idea of organizing a time to pray the rosary. Rodriguez decided immediately to make it come true.
“That day I talked to the director of activities … and I was delighted.
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At that time, Rodriguez directed a biblical study group in his parish, Sacred Heart of Mary in Boulder, Colorado (United States). He asked the women in his group if any would be willing to be voluntary to pray the rosary with patients from the memory care center. Two of them offered to accompany her.
The event was an immediate success. What began as a weekly activity soon became twice a week, and then three. Rodriguez published ads in the bulletins of the nearby parishes and managed to gather more volunteers. Thus was born what is known today as “The Rosary Team“(” Rosario Team “), which began in 2019 and currently has more than 500 volunteers in 18 states.
Even during the Covid-19 Pandemia, the Rosario team organized Rosarios by Zoom that were transmitted in the centers. When they began to reopen, Rodriguez contacted the centers again to see if they could pray the rosary in person and, to their surprise, there was even more enthusiasm to receive people who pray with residents.
Over the years, Rodriguez has lived many moving experiences with the residents of memory care centers.
“One that really came to me was when I was praying with a resident and, at the end, he said: ‘That is the first Ave Maria that I pray in 45 years,” Rodriguez recalled.
He added that sometimes they meet residents who cannot speak or can only say very few words, “and suddenly, we begin to pray the rosary with them and say loudly the prayers of the Rosary.”
Melanie McClanahan, voluntary of the Rosario team, said that his time as a volunteer in the Ministry “has been a miracle in my life and I see how a miracle is in the lives of others. I have seen people heal, including myself; I have seen family members unite, and I have seen people who were not sure of their beliefs grow in their love for Jesus and their devotion to our Blessed Mother.”
When asked why it is so important to do this type of work with the elderly and people with memory problems, Rodriguez replied: “The elders are silent and we do not see them much – due to their health and mobility problems – and can be easily forgotten, especially when they are in centers, when they are not in our parishes, in our neighborhoods or in stores. They are a very easy group to forget and do not want to forget them.”
“This is a provident issue within the Provida Ministry, which we must take care of people from conception to natural death, and this is part of caring for them, to recognize them and give them love,” he added.
Rodriguez said that both volunteers and residents are impacted by this ministry and that “faith and love of God grow through the Rosary team, and through volunteers and residents praying together.”
Translated and adapted by the ACI Press team. Originally published in CNA.
Francesca Purchio Fenton
Francesca Pollio Fenton is responsible for social networks of Catholic News Agency. He received his degree in communications with emphasis on digital media from the University of Colorado, in Denver (United States).