The archdiocesan Office for Black Catholics is hosting an online devotion this October, the month of the rosary, every Wednesday evening at 7 p.m. on Zoom.
“It’s great to do that with Black Catholics and anybody else that wants to join us in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia,” said Stacy Williams, the director of the Office for Black Catholics. “We have people from South Carolina join us, so it’s really great.”
The idea of launching an online rosary came simply from Williams’ own daily life and her recognition of the need for the rosary in community settings.
“We’re supposed to be saying the rosary together. I know that people are saying it within their churches, but we can’t always experience that. How do we do this? And it just came out,” she said. “We’re always doing Zoom meetings. We’re always doing things online to try and bring things together.”
So, she thought, “Let’s try to do this online and see how it works.”
She says that their office plans to make it an annual tradition, something that can unite Catholics across the archdiocese in a convenient way instead of only gathering in churches to pray the rosary.
Williams explains that Black Catholics have engaged in praying the rosary in community for decades.
“It’s been passed down through generations, going back to my grandmother’s time, almost a century at least,” said Williams.
“At any point during the year, you’ll find groups of Black Catholics within varying churches, neighborhood churches, praying the rosary both together and individually, just because it is a devotion that has continued in the Black Catholic community from the beginning, and Black Catholics in Philadelphia have been here since Catholics have been here.”
Williams saw her family praying the rosary as she grew up, as her grandmother — a convert to Catholicism — infused love for the devotion by example.
“It was a way for her to seriously have time and connect with God, connect with Mary, connect with Jesus, that private time that she basically stole from the kids, from taking care of the kids of the house.”
Williams said the rosary brought a sense of peace to her grandmother, a Catholic church business manager at Williams’ grade school, in times of trouble.
“It kept her calm,” she said. “When I was a little girl, I could see her going through things that would make her upset, and she would hold that rosary to remind her that there was somebody bigger than her, someone higher than her, someone more powerful than her that she could rely on.”
Williams also saw her family take part in the kind of community rosary gatherings that she has now created online.
“My grandmother and some friends of hers would gather at the church to pray the rosary. My mother belonged to a group that still prays the rosary,” Williams said.
She points out that many different groups have prayed the rosary throughout the history of the Black Catholic experience in America.
“I’ve had a whole lot of people join us because of that, because they grew up doing this,” Williams said. “Though we are Black Catholics and our ethnicity is different (and) our culture is different, our (religious) practices aren’t different. We’re still Catholic. We pray the rosary. We go to adoration.”
Williams says that many people incorrectly perceive that all Black Catholics prefer the exuberant gospel style of worship over prayer experiences marked by silence.
“Many of us are more lively in our participation. Our music is more lively. But there are also Catholics that I know personally who prefer not to go to a gospel Mass because they want quiet,” she said.
“Ironically, my grandmother was one of those people. I’m the opposite of her. I’m the loud person, but she was the quiet person, and that just goes to show you that Catholicism is universal.”
Williams shared how the rosary has also played a major role in helping Black Catholics find a reflection of Mary within their own history in America.
“Reading through the Bible and knowing the time period that Mary gave birth to Jesus when she (did), and everyone who was like her was being persecuted by the dominant caste at the time, it resonates with the Black Catholic community just because they’ve known those kinds of hardships,” said Williams. “They’ve known that kind of struggle.”
She adds that the graces of the rosary are also universal, and are a foretaste of heaven.
“When I die, which we all are going to do one day, I desire to be in heaven with the Lord. The rosary allows me to center myself on Jesus, on Mary, on a daily basis. That is what I achieve in the end, to be in heaven with them.”
To join the Wednesday Office of Black Catholics Online Rosary on October 22 and 29 at 7 p.m., click here.
Share this story