October Is Rosary Month

by GABRIEL M. DELFIN

October is Rosary month, devoted to Mary, the mother of Jesus. It is during this month when the Feast of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary is celebrated.

It is in October when the rosary is prayed in churches and chapels in the Christian world. It is the month when all Catholics are encouraged to pray the rosary with the family rosary as the focus.

This year is a special year for New Washington. With the Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary as the Patron Saint of the town, the people celebrated the centennial of the establishment of the parish. Its existence as a Christian community marks a milestone in the life of the parishioners.

New Washington commemorated this big event not only in one-day affair, but the festivity was a 44-day event. It culminated in the concelebrated High Mass on the 44th day, the 8th of October, after the 3-day Triduum.

It started with 40-day barangay pilgrimage of the image of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary. It started on Friday, August 26. The pilgrimage culminated on Wednesday, October 5. That enabled Our Blessed Mother to visit the 37 barangay chapels, two (2) chapels of Religious Sisters and the chapel of a Catholic School. The first barangay chapel visited was the Barangay Sang Birgen chapel in sitio Saugan, Barangay Tambak. And the last barangay chapel stop-over was the Nuestra Señora de los Remedios (Our Lady of Remedies), barangay Polo. The last three (3) days were stop overs at the Holy Spirit Adoration (Pink Sisters) Sisters, followed by the Missionary Sisters of Charity and the Montfort Technical Institute.

The 37 barangay chapels consist of 17 Marian chapels, seven after Our Lord Jesus Christ, and 13 in honor of various Saints of the church.

The trek was made to Marian chapels consisting of three for Our Mother of Perpetual Help, two on Nuestra Sra. del Remedios, two for Our Lady of Fatima, two on Nuestra Sra. De la Paz de Buen Viaje/Antipolo, and one each of Barangay sang Birhen, Nuestra Sra. Del Salvacion, Our Lady of Lourdes, Nuestra Sra. De Candelaria, Mary Help of Christians, Immaculate Concepcion and Dolorosa. The chapels in honor of Our Lord Jesus are two for Sacred Heart of Jesus, one for the Sto. Niño and three for the Nazareno. The chapels in honor of the saints of the church are one each for Sta. Lucia, Sta. de Guia, San Antonio de Padua, San Roque, Sts. Peter and Paul, San Juan Bautista, and Sta. Rosa de Lima. And three each San Jose de Patriarca, and San Vicente Ferrer, and two for San Isidro Labrador.

Designed to promote and strengthen devotions to Our Lady, one of the stated goals of the pilgrimage is for every Catholic in New Washington to be able to pray the rosary daily. And every family to pray the rosary daily as a family. To help attain that goal, the Cardinal Jaime L. Sin Council of the Knights of Columbus printed and distributed leaflets on how to pray the rosary together with the 15 Promises of Mary to Christians who Pray the Rosary.

The image that goes around the parish annually since the year 2000 is carved in Tablas, Romblon. It is said that Our Lady literally swam to Aklan.

It is related that when the image was shipped to Aklan from Tablas island, the sailboat that carried the image was shipwrecked losing the image in the process. In the calm that followed, they could not find the image. After a few days of the search operations, they found the image of Our Lady "swimming", floating on the now calm sea. The same was subsequently brought to New Washington, from Kalibo, on the shoulders of able-bodied gentlemen to grace the main altar of the temporary and later the main altar of the parish church.

With the return (of the image) of Our Lady to her home on Wednesday, October 5, the 4-day festivities started with the Triduum. As described by the Very Rev. Msgr. Nestor G. Nalangan, the parish priest, the 2011 celebration is a unique one. It is both religious event, a historical celebration and a community-centered festival.

October 5 was declared Fathers Day. Besides the Eucharistic celebration, a Mass Wedding for unwed couples was held. The second day, Thursday, October 6, was Mothers Day. A medical and dental mission conducted for parishioners as a community service was the day’s main activity before the Eucharistic celebration. Physicians of Vice President Jojo Binay came all the way from Metro Manila.

The third day, Friday, October 7, was Youth and Children’s Day The day was capped by "A Night of Dances and Songs" held about an hour after mass. It highlighted talents of the town’s youth. The Family Rosary was the centerpiece of the day presented in the various numbers. Finally, the Feast Day, Family Thanksgiving and Feast Day, was the culmination of the festivities.

The concelebrated Centennial Mass of Saturday, October 8, 2011 was headed by His Excellency, Msgr. Jose Corazon Tala-oc, Bishop of Kalibo. Some 25 priests majority of them are natives of New Washington, concelebrated the centennial mass. Indeed, October is a special month for New Washington, Aklan. /MP