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Trinity Heights hosts Patriotic Rosary July 4

By KARA KOCZUR, Globe staff reporter
(Email Kara)

Trinity Heights will again hold the Patriotic Rosary at 7:30 p.m., July 4, at the Mound of Mary, giving people the opportunity to pray for the nation.

“We’re going to be praying for all of the people who run this United States of America, from our president, to the Supreme Courts and governors,” said Larry Walsh, a member of the Trinity Heights spiritual committee. “With each of the Hail Mary’s we’re going to be praying for all the souls who live in each respective state.”

Trinity Heights has held the Patriotic Rosary since 2003. As many as 200 people have attended the event in the past.

There will be patriotic songs and prayers for the healing of the nation, as well as reflection on America’s ancestors and their dependence on God and thankfulness for all his blessings on the country.

Unfortunately, Walsh said, America has strayed far from God in the last 233 years. On June 6 in Turkey, the president claimed the United States was not a Judeo-Christian nation, but Walsh said the Patriotic Rosary will touch on how the nation’s founders believed America is in fact a Judeo-Christian country.

“We’ll be quoting from Abraham Lincoln, who stated, ‘We’ve forgotten God, we’ve forgotten the gracious hand which has preserved us in peace, multiplied, enriched and strengthened us and we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all these things were produced by some superior wisdom of our own,’” Walsh said.

Walsh recalled that during the Civil War, people were concerned about the direction of the United States. Close to 10,000 people prayed in New York every day for the country to return to stable ground.

“Unfortunately those prayers were answered in a strange way because it was a purification process that brought about 622,000 deaths between the North and the South, perhaps to atone for our sin of slavery,” he said.

He said he hopes the result isn’t the same for the sin of abortion.

“We’re going to be praying that the retribution that is due this nation for the slaughter of our unborn does not have results like that of the Civil War,” Walsh said. “We’ll hear from John Adams, General Robert E. Lee, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, all of who will remind us of this nation’s blessings.”

The rosary is open to everyone, even non-Catholics. In case of rain, the event will be held in the Marian Center, where a reception will also take place following the rosary.

The Patriotic Rosary can be a preparation for the night’s culmination of fireworks in the city.

“It’s a good way to reflect on the enthusiasm that our founders must have had as they petitioned God for his embrace and direction,” Walsh said.