Dear Parishioners and Friends,
One day a journalist asked me for an interview. He wanted to write an article about Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Little Italy, San Diego. At the interview, I talked about the history of the Church, started by the fishermen, the altar, the mural paintings, and the stained-glass windows depicting the mysteries of the rosary. I shared with him the traditions of the parish including the longest-existing fundraising event— the spaghetti dinner and the history of the five Marian societies. I believed that with the amount of information I shared, the interview must have turned out pretty good—in spite of me. Later, I realized that a key component of that interview was missing. The journalist only asked me about the physical building and the historical events. He was missing the real story. And that’s the story I want to tell you.
Our Lady of the Rosary Church has been a blessed sanctuary for many, across decades—through wars and recessions, through crises, and through pleas of all kinds. The story of Our Lady of the Rosary Parish cannot only be told in brick and glass and marble. It’s more than just a building, or an address. It’s more than geography. What tells the story of a parish is its people. It is through its people that we discover nothing less than the Body of Christ. It is its people who feel called to be here, in this place—to pray, to worship, and to encounter the living God and the God of mercy.
This is the real story of Our Lady of the Rosary. It is the young father, out of work, who comes to light a candle and spends his last dollar on a rose to leave on Our Lady’s altar. It is the couple with a sick newborn, taking turns going to different Masses so that one of them can stay home with the baby. It is the widow who stops by in the afternoons to pray the rosary. It is the janitor, the lawyers, the people in uniform who come to Mass every morning before going to work. It is the man or woman who works at the bank, or the city or county administration building, dashing down State Street on their lunch hour for Noon Mass. It is the believers who gather every Sunday to proclaim what they believe—and then to live it. It is the lector reading God’s word. It’s the minister taking the Eucharist to an elderly woman who has a broken hip. It is the hospitality minister who holds open the door. It is the choir that fills this space with joyous sound so transcendent that it could only be called a prayer. It is the altar server who comes running in at 7:30, 9:00, 10:30, and Noon on Sunday, wearing sneakers and shorts, and throwing on a tattered black cassock that’s two sizes too big, because being on the altar is absolutely the coolest thing in the world. It is those who give of their time, talent and treasure to support the ministries and charitable institutions both local and international. It is the man at the Easter Vigil, who spent his whole life searching, looking for something, and finally found it here. And so, on a springtime evening as he stands before hundreds of people with baptismal water dripping from his face, mingling with his tears, he simply can’t stop grinning. He is now a Catholic. He is a part of us. And we are a part of him.
And it continues. Day after day, dozens come to behold Christ in the tabernacle. Week after week, the faithful turn out for novenas, celebrations, and devotions to Mary. Year after year, hundreds come to walk the Stations of the Cross, to join the procession down to the Embarcadero on a warm day, singing and praying, expressing their love and devotion to Jesus in the Eucharist and the Blessed Virgin Mary. I don’t know of any other parish in the diocese that gets that kind of a turnout.
Our Lady of the Rosary is the baby being baptized, the joyful laughter of young children anxious to start CCD classes – so eager to learn about Jesus, the little girl receiving her first communion, the teenager being confirmed, the bride getting married. It is the sacramental life of God’s church, being reborn, again and again, in every anointing, in every prayer, in every confession, in every prayer whispered at funeral celebration. It is our priests who make possible the ongoing miracle of the Mass, the miracle of forgiveness in the sacrament of Reconciliation. This is our parish and that is our story. It is a love story. The story of our love for God— His for us—and the story of how we live that love in ways large and small.
In the gospel of St. Luke, Mary said: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” What a faith to behold in Mary. She trusted God and she lived her faith in God by allowing God to be born in her. Faith with works is vibrantly, brilliantly alive. And the works of this parish are a beautiful testament to a living faith. It is a faith that grows, spreads, and touches others. It is not just the building or the location. It is the spirit of the place, the spirit of the people, and the faith of the people in Mary. Faith is where it all begins. We are a parish of astounding works and abiding faith. We are wonderfully alive. That is the real story of Our Lady of the Rosary. You won’t see it on TV. You won’t read it in the newspaper. But look around and you will see it being lived, every day.
We thank Our Lady, full of grace, for watching over us. And we ask that God’s grace will continue to sustain us, and enrich us. We pray that we may continue to be a people of faith, a people of works, a people who live for others by sharing the joy of the Gospel and following the examples of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This is who we are—a people who live for the life of the world, in unity so that the world may become a better place.
Our Lady of the Rosary: Pray for us!
Fr. Joseph M. Tabigue b.
Servus servorum Dei et Mariae