Fourth Joyful Mystery

The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple

Fruit of the Mystery: Obedience/Faithfulness to God

A Zealous Dependence

by Kate Kopecky

Praying the Rosary with my family was something we clung to for months and months. On my knees, I prayed for healing from the past and strength in the moment. The Catholic faith, its simplicity of love and service, was  a dependence on our Father and we needed help. 

The Rosary meditation brought love and grace to our family in times of need or plenty.

The schools were aggressively changing to push ideas we couldn’t allow, and the churches were changing, excluding so many of the fundamentals we were accustomed to. My sister-in-law had given me the book by St. Louis De Montfort,  The Secret of the Rosary. I took that book and received all the wisdom he could offer about Our Lady’s mission to help us to heaven. Something that stuck with me was how our prayers offered roses to our Mother and graces to us here. The Rosary was a discipline of prayer that my parents used and my Dad’s advice in the start of our marriage was to “stay close to our Lady.”

I prayed the Rosary so many times in my life, but  not consistently, until I chose to pray it daily. My husband and I decided to homeschool to teach our children the faith, to serve them in a way that was slow and deliberate. We studied Our Lady of Fatima and Our Lady of Lourdes. I would remind our children how she warned us and urged us to pray the Rosary every single day for sinners. Those sinners, especially us, needed prayer and petitions to God. We enjoyed the praise and worship of God in the context of a loving family.

We would meet in the loft upstairs and pray, pray, pray. We would pray for ourselves and many others, sometimes adding long lists of family and friends. We felt Mary’s advice was a command for spiritual growth, faith, and discipline. The obedience to keep this practice took hold, and we started to see our hearts change. I would rock in the chair and hold my children or kneel on the floor so we could all pray together. We would sing songs to lull the children to slumber. Holy water was used on our foreheads or sprinkled in our rooms and bedtime became a source of security in our lives.

God was merciful, and through Our Lady of Sorrows, He had helped bring these graces to our family.

Kate Kopecky

Our home was reorganized after the birth of a new baby, and our boys moved into a room on the first floor. One day, my son was hit hard with pain, and it wouldn’t let up. He had a stomach ache, but it seemed different than anything we dealt with before. My son was not well, and he could not get out of bed for a whole day. It didn’t seem like a big deal, but none of my suggestions had helped and the next day seemed  the same. God answered our prayers with the weapon of the Rosary.

I prayed the Rosary over him and knelt next to his bed. I prayed twice a day like that for him.  I reached out to his doctor and made an appointment for the following night since his stomach pain was so intense. The doctor pushed on his lower abdomen and when she asked him to jump up and down, he couldn’t. The doctor said he needed to get to the ER right away.

We rushed to the hospital and after we were checked in, I prayed the Rosary again. The doctor called for x-rays and some other tests. I prayed for Mary’s intercession for my son’s health. News came back that he had a perforated appendix and needed surgery. He would have to wait until the next afternoon, so we prayed Rosaries. By the time his surgery started, I had been at the hospital for many hours with our infant, but all I could really do was pray, hold my baby, and request prayers from family. 

Afterward, the surgeon gave me the results. The perforation had leaked to the point of eruption, so  the cleanup had taken more time than she anticipated. She took the time and care to help clear all the septic fluids outside his organs. The leak and perforation was worse by the time surgery had been performed, but I knew Mary had interceded for my child. Of course I had thanked the doctor and felt a profound peace in my heart that our prayers were answered.

God was merciful, and through Our Lady of Sorrows, He had helped bring these graces to our family. Many blessings come to our family from the recitation of the Rosary. Our children all have Rosaries blessed from a wise, traditional priest. My dad made all of the Rosaries for us to share in times of prayer. We began to see spiritual growth when our prayers were consistent and heart felt. We experienced healing and recommitted to Our Lord with a zealous dependence.

We knew that in large part, our family was put on a new track of obedience to the word of God through an urgent request from this concerned mother. One of the most comforting acts of service in our home are the prayers we share. Our children can be lulled by the sound of my voice in prayer and requests to our Holy Mother who has access to Our Father. My children bring me joy especially when they ask me to pray with them at bedtime, which always includes the Rosary.

About Kate: My name is Kate Kopecky, and I am a wife and mother that has been married eighteen years. We have nine children and live in a suburb of Chicago, close to O’Hare airport where we grew up. I have an associate of arts degree with a background in child development and teaching, plus art and design, including interior design. The Catholic faith is important in our daily lives and we hold close the traditions of our church with masses, Rosaries, veils, and sacramentals.