How would you feel if you were coming to the end of your long life here on the earth, and then God commissioned you for a specific task that would absorb much of your dwindling energy? This is exactly what happened to Rose Sierawski, pictured, writes Sean O’Neill, Editor of the Diocese of Lansing’s FAITH Magazine, upon the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, October 7. Rose is a parishioner at Saint Michael in Grand Ledge and a co-foundress of the Diocese of Lansing's Eucharistic Rosary Congress which runs this year from October 6 - 13.
In 2018, Rose was involved in a car crash which left her vehicle totaled and from which she emerged with seven fractured ribs. As she was recovering from the shock and her injuries, to pass the time she started watching Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN). The “Jim and Joy” segment was interviewing two women who were hoping to bring about a real devotion to the Eucharistic body of Christ.
Rose recalled that as a child she had attended the Forty Hours missions, with exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, and then a procession to finish off with adoration and benediction. “It was just so powerful,” Rose says. “As I watched EWTN, I thought, ‘Oh, that’s a great idea! We are in such need of being able to kneel before the Body of Christ and just talk to him and tell him that we love him, we adore him, and we need him.’ And then I promptly discarded the idea. Two days later, I turned on EWTN. It was Jim and Joy again. And guess what? It was a rerun of the same thing! I said, ‘All right, all right, I get you. I do. I get you.’” The message from God was clear. Rose was being commissioned to put on an event to honor the Blessed Sacrament.
Rose had also been no stranger to the rosary. Although she had grown up in Mishawaka, a suburb of South Bend, Indiana, in what would now be called abject poverty, her parents never called the family poor. Both parents were devout Catholics and prayed the rosary regularly. “I was very drawn to Our Blessed Mother because my mother was extremely devoted to her. I remember sitting at my mom’s feet or curled up against her legs every Sunday night when we’d say the family rosary.”
Rose and her husband, Frank, who passed away 34 years ago, continued that family tradition of praying the rosary with their seven children as they grew up. Rose’s dedication to the rosary is a wonderful witness to her 27 grandchildren and 23 great-grandchildren.
Rose believes that the rosary, in addition to being a means of growing in holiness, is also a spiritual weapon that we can wield against the forces of darkness. “Right now, we’re in spiritual warfare,” says Rose. “We have to rally our forces and destroy this demon who is trying to destroy us. And the only way it’s going to happen is through Our Lord and Our Lady intervening and giving us the ways and the means to combat the evil that is surrounding us … The saints would be the first to tell you that the rosary, as St. Padre Pio said, is more powerful than the atomic bomb!”
It seemed inevitable that, in response to the Lord’s call, Rose should set up a Rosary Congress, seven days and nights of perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and hourly rosary. So, six years ago, she called Kristen Bird, the founder of the Eucharistic Rosary Congress, and got the ball rolling. “We started out with eight parishes participating in the first year, and last year we had 52.”
Rose is a convincing evangelist for the rosary and the Blessed Sacrament and uses every opportunity to promote them. Even at the age of 95 and suffering from macular degeneration, she continues to urge everyone who will listen to pursue these devotions.
“The rosary is definitely needed. And most of all, Eucharistic adoration is needed. We need to be able to give our Lord the honor and glory he so richly deserves, each and every moment of each and every day … When we promote perpetual adoration, we ask that every hour on the hour that you have devotion, the rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet be recited … going to Mass as often as possible, receiving the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ as often as possible, fasting and praying, and putting ourselves at the feet of our God and saying, ‘Lord, here we are. Show us the way.’”
What comes across when talking to Rose is her acute appreciation of the times in which we live. She is well aware of the darkness surrounding us, but she also has full confidence in Jesus and Mary and knows that they are the powerful antidote to the spiritual malaise and anti-Christian sentiment we encounter every day. The rosary is a powerful resource that is an indispensable weapon in the spiritual battle and the Rosary Congress is a way in which we can tap into that great spiritual resource.
There are two significant things that have guided Rose throughout her long life. The first is the passage from Luke 12:48, “from those who have been given much, much shall be expected.” The other was from her mother, whom she considered, and still considers, a saint. “Whenever there was a crisis in our family, all she would say in Italian is ‘come vuole Dio,’ ‘as God wills.’ And we try to show our children that God is with us, Our Lady is with us, and we are so blessed.”
Rose stresses that in organizing the Rosary Congress she was not alone. The congress is a team effort and she has had a lot of help from fellow organizers Maureen Andrzejewski and Jenny Nicholson. Bishop Boyea and diocesan Director of Communications David Kerr helped to promote and advertise it and many parishes and staff contributed to its success. This year’s Rosary Congress for the Diocese of Lansing is Oct. 6th to Oct. 13th and incorporates the feast of the Holy Rosary on Oct. 7th and Oct. 13, the date of the last Fatima apparition.
Rose is convinced of the urgency of the call. “We need to get the story out as much as possible and however possible. I know my days are numbered, and so when I see my Jesus face to face, I hope to be able to say, ‘I did what you wanted me to do.’”
• For details of this year’s Diocesan Eucharistic Rosary Congress, October 6-13, click here: https://www.dioceseoflansing.org/news/read-october-month-holy-rosary-0
