Rosary for Soldiers and Their Families

I have a lot of connections to the military. I was a military dependent when I was born because my father was in the Air Force. I served as a doctor in the Air Force for three years. My husband has served over twenty years in the Air Force. Now my son begins his service to our country as an Army lieutenant. That is why this article in the Arlington Catholic Herald caught my eye.

As she was driving back from a memorial service for a young family friend and four other soldiers killed in the war in Iraq, Lynda MacFarland felt compelled “to do something” to bring comfort to the grieving.
Inspired and humbled by the strength of the family members the soldiers left behind, MacFarland’s first thought was to immerse herself in prayer for troops and their families — with a “rosary for warriors.”
It was “divine inspiration,” said MacFarland, who conceded that she never had a devotion to the rosary nor did she know all the prayers.
After learning the prayers she didn’t know, MacFarland decided that the rosary for warriors should be prayed with the sorrowful mysteries in mind, and each decade would be prayed for a specific intention, including prayers for deployed soldiers, those wounded and deceased, and for the families of soldiers. She then passed the idea along to “every Catholic in my address book,” said MacFarland, who was living on a military base in Germany at the time.

These are the recommended intentions for each decade of the Rosary:

Using the sorrowful mysteries:
Agony in the garden: for deployed soldiers and their safety
Scourging at the pillar: for wounded soldiers and for their healing
Crowning with thorns: for deceased soldiers and repose of their souls
Carrying of the cross: for families of deployed, wounded and deceased soldiers, and for strength and comfort.
Crucifixion: for our nation, for the victims of war and for peace in the world.

I will be making this part of my Rosary devotion. I invite you to do the same. And I thank you for your prayers.