Our Rosary Novena archive and a Nunblogger update

We completed our online Rosary novena last Friday, the 100th anniversary of Mary's final appearance to the three children of Fatima. It was an intense nine days for me and the sisters in the digital department here in Boston: we were the scriptwriters, the producers, and the on-screen talent twice a day. The "set" was the "office/studio/chapel" in our conference and break room. We liked it so much that we're keeping the curtain and lighting up for future, more impromptu video broadcasts. (Alas, the lovely statue of Our Lady of Fatima had to be returned to the community!)

Behind the scenes (mostly), I was thrilled to see the numbers of people who were joining us in real time for the prayer sessions. One evening there were 14,000 "views" (our video was seen, if only for a few seconds, by 14,000 people); by the next morning that number had soared to 30,000. A rapid succession of prayer intentions was monitored by Sr Mary Elizabeth in the next office. As I inserted images of Jesus and Mary into the video stream, little hearts and "likes" went flying across the screen, acts of love of God sent by the hundreds from those viewers. Images of Jesus in his sorrowful mysteries drew the greatest response of loving devotion. It was very moving for me to be a part of that.

Since we broadcast the Rosary on Facebook Live, the videos are all archived--which means that you can pray the Rosary with us whenever you want! As the days went on, I got better at using the "studio" software. At first I thought I was doing enough by putting a piece of art with each mystery, but by the final days I was adding music, too. (Sr Kathryn or Sr Marie Paul was at the next computer, monitoring the live feed to make sure all went well, and to let me know when the music was too soft--or too LOUD!)

The videos contain the whole of our Mission Appeal as well as the Rosary (we are nowhere near our fundraising goal, so the donation box remains open!), but you can always skip right to the chase and begin the prayers about 6 minutes in. In each Rosary, one mystery was singled out for special treatment with a personal reflection from one of the sisters on her favorite Rosary mystery.

One lasting fruit of this experience is that since the novena ended, Sister Kathryn or Sister Marie Paul now offer a reflective moment of prayer each evening on the Ask a Catholic Nun Facebook page. (Sister Martha has been offering a prayer each morning on the same page since about spring.) The morning prayer is usually around 9:00 Eastern Time; the evening reflection is at 8:00 Eastern Time. You can also scout around our video archives on Facebook to find other treatments of the mysteries of the Rosary; I selected for the blog those that featured music.

The next big thing on the Nunblogger calendar is our Christmas concert series, extended this year to New Orleans (home!) and Culver City, CA (Los Angeles). I hope that if you have been hearing about the concert for years and live in driving distance of any of the venues that we will have a chance to meet!

Pray the Rosary with Us!

The Joyful Mysteries




The Luminous Mysteries




The Sorrowful Mysteries




The Glorious Mysteries