Matachines. The dancers of the Virgin of Guadalupe."Popular devotion is the way in which the Church opens itself to the culture of each region, and Our Lady is the matrix."Ferrero Rocher, the chocolate inspired by the Virgin of LourdesOn Saturday, January 25, the 14th edition of the "Great Rosary of Blessings for the Family" was held on the Rambla in Montevideo, Uruguay. An event that grows year after year and that has become a sign of love for the Blessed Mother every fourth Saturday of January.
Mary blesses families
In summer in Uruguay, especially in January, the main attraction is to go to the beach, since the country offers several hundred kilometers of beaches, which is the usual destination for most families.
Thus it was that fourteen years ago an initiative started, driven by lay people, to promote devotion to the Virgin by the beach. They chose as a meeting place an area of the Rambla de Montevideo, a large space in front of the sea. The center of the meeting was the prayer of the rosary as a family, a public event on the last Saturday of January.
At the beginning it was a small group of faithful, now there are thousands, who gather to pray the rosary by the sea, at sunset, as a public manifestation of love for the Virgin, a call to look towards heaven to ask with faith for those intentions that we carry in our hearts.
Initiative and impetus from the laity
The initial idea came from Mario Viloria, who died during the covid pandemic. He was very well known in the Catholic world, he was defined as "a truck going downhill without brakes". He was a simple man of great faith. He had this idea, but it did not materialize. He wanted to make a rosary in that place. In his youth he practiced bow and arrow... he wanted to shoot this idea, and he succeeded.
He went to talk to the parish priest where the place is located. He wanted to ask permission and got it after insisting in 2012. As he was a faithful of another parish, he engaged a group of lay people to accompany him. The two parishes, St. Peter's and the Miraculous Medal, joined forces. The goal was to pray the rosary on a Saturday afternoon in January at the Aduana de Oribe, in front of the little port of Buceo.
Under his enthusiastic impulse, work began between the two parishes, defining who would preach and who would lead the rosary. Two hundred candle holders were made from soda bottles to hold a candle. Plastic rosaries were bought.
The character of the group was discussed and it was defined as a "group that joins together to pray the rosary". A music ministry group, called Hinneni (here I am), was also incorporated and entrusted with the musical animation. The big surprise was that the first rosary was attended by several hundred faithful, to everyone's surprise.
A growing initiative
From that first rosary, a commission was formed to organize the second rosary. A third parish was recently created because the place where the rosary was held was part of its territory. Procedures were made with the municipal authorities, national organizations and the Ministry of the Interior for all the logistics.
The second rosary was attended by about two thousand people, and what began as a somewhat far-fetched idea became a reality. In addition, a space was set up for confessions, with the help of priests from other parishes, where many of the faithful approach the sacrament.
For this second call, a well-known television program and Esther Meikle, who promoted, and continues to promote, the care of all the details of the organization, helped. Thus was born a permanent group formed by servers, under the name of "Great Blessing Rosary for the family"Currently, you can consult their website, where they encourage people to pray the rosary daily, under the motto: "Family that prays together, stays together".
The image of the Virgin at the beginning was of the Miraculous Medal, it was replaced by the current one, an Immaculate that was brought from Mexico and is taken to the place when the rosary is performed.
During the third rosary, a proposal was made to install this image there permanently, which produced a great repercussion in the country. A campaign was started in favor of its installation, with the slogan: "Yes to Mary". But... it did not succeed. The approval at the level of the departmental board was lacking. In everyone is present the illusion of putting it permanently in that place, when the authorities authorize.
An exciting present and future
"The annual celebration of the event turned the place into a referent, which is why it was selected as the venue for the closing Mass of the II Uruguay Marian Congress", "Encounter with Mary", on October 7, 2017, with the participation of 25,000 people. There, a new consecration of Uruguay to the Virgin of Treinta y Tres took place, as John Paul II had done in 1988 when he visited the country.
This past Saturday the event was held, with the presence of twenty priests hearing confessions. Every year different priests preach the sermon. Testimonies have been added: last year they were given by two survivors of the Andes accident that has been reflected in the movie "The Snow Society". One of the mysteries of the rosary is prayed by a family and another one is impressive because it is prayed in silence, all united in prayer, each one making their own intentions.
This is an initiative promoted from its origin by lay people and that has grown with their impulse, with the desire to spread the devotion to the Virgin, has been gathering every last Saturday of January for fourteen years thousands of Uruguayans, entire families, who give testimony of their faith.
