NEWPORT — Monday through Friday before 8 a.m. Mass, the women of the Rosary Sodality of Jesus Saviour Parish, along with others who wish to join in prayer to Our Lady of Fatima, kneel to continue a tradition that began some 70 years ago.
Some of the 98 members of the organization began their daily Holy Rosary prayer as young girls who accompanied their mothers when they belonged to the group.
“It was the thing to do,” said Adeline Rose, now a grandmother. The organization meets once a month, but many members are at the church daily with several praying the rosary in Portuguese.
But these sodality members are not only praying, the have become a driving force and reliable group of workers and organizers for multiple parish events.
“The ladies of the Rosary Sodality are wonderful,” said Father Francis A. O’Laughlin, pastor of Jesus Savior Parish.
“If it is for the church, the youth of the parish or for the poor, they have always responded most generously,” he said. “They work so well together and hard at parish events. They are also a very prayerful group of ladies. They should be proud for all they do.”
And they do a lot, said Penny Rinfret, coordinator of religious education and youth ministry at the church, who nominated the Rosary Sodality Group to receive one of the 12 Lumen Gentium Awards presented for the first time this year by the Diocese of Providence. The sodality will receive the award in the category of parish service.
“Over the last several years they have been dedicated workers for our Holy Ghost Feast, preparing traditional Portuguese foods and soup served during our feast,” Rinfret wrote. “Each week from Easter Sunday until Pentecost Sunday they meet to say the rosary at each chosen home. They are truly a witness to the spiritual life of our parish.”
Rinfret noted the numerous other activities and good works the sodality supports in the parish, including the November Penny Social which funds the purchases of parish vestments and the purchase of candle stands on the altar; as well as assistance provided to the parish St. Vincent de Paul Society and the Portuguese Summer Faire outdoor kitchen. The group also provides sponsorships for parish youth to make a pilgrimage to Fatima, Portugal, and to World Youth Day and several retreats at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio. They have also purchased Bibles for newly confirmed youth; a stage for the Living Stations of the Cross presentation by parish youth; and also a 52-inch flat screen television for the parish.
“I have enjoyed every minute of it, we are the backbone of the church. No matter what the church has asked, we did it,” Rose said.
Susan Green is the second youngest of the group at 55, and serves as the current president, a leadership role also held by several members through the years. She is proud that she has enrolled 15 new members in the last year. It isn’t a hard sell.
“They see what the group is,” said Green, a retired Air National Guard master sergeant, who was deployed in Operation Desert Storm.
“I want this to be prayerful and for us to assist and contribute to the parish, but I want this to be fun,” Green said. “Instead of it being a chore, I want people to want to be a part of it from what they see us doing. We have to make it fun. People have been approaching me with interest in joining.”
The group has a devotion to Our Lady of Fatima, who inspires and strengthens them as many members attested to during interviews after a recent daily Mass.
“It is due to my faith and belief in the Holy Mother and what she has done for the world by bringing her son into the world to be our protector,” Green said. “I follow her leadership and bring my women to her. We share the same beliefs and feeling to protect and unite and to pass on what she has given to us through her son.”
Green works full time and has a busy schedule and was very humbled to be nominated to serve as the group’s president.
“I sunk into my chair when I was nominated for president,” she said. “But I thought as all the ladies in the room looked at me, ‘This is most of what they do. If I didn’t do it... they live for this,’ so I said yes. But I told them they had to step in and that I was going to delegate and they have been great.”
