Our council would like to invite everyone to the Noon Mass next Monday, August 24th. During this Mass, one of the Knights of Columbus' Silver Rose Icons will be present and after Mass we will recite the Joyful Mysteries of the Holy Rosary in the presence of the Silver Rose.
The Silver Rose Pilgrimage honors Our Lady of Guadalupe by carrying silver roses across North America from Canada to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Monterrey, Mexico. In December 1523, Our Lady appeared to St. Juan Diego and requested that a church be built in honor of her to aid in the evangelization of the native population. To help Juan Diego convince the local bishop, the Blessed Virgin instructed him to pick roses (in winter and not native to the area) growing on the hill. When he showed the roses to the bishop, an image of the Virgin was found on his tilma (cloak).
From 1961 until the early 1990s, Knights from Mexico, Texas and the Our Lady of Guadalupe Province of the Fourth Degree kept the Silver Rose tradition alive. In the 1990s Supreme Knight Virgil C. Dechant decided to make the Silver Rose a Supreme Council program. The first effort consisted of one route carrying a Silver Rose from London through the central U.S. to Texas for transfer to Mexico. Soon there were three Silver Rose routes, one mimicking the original route; another starting in Manitoba and moving to British Columbia, then down to the Pacific Coast before turning east into Arizona and on to Texas; and a third route starting in New York, then down the eastern seaboard, then to several southern states to Texas. After meeting in Laredo, the three roses were transferred to Mexico for the closing prayer service at the Basilica in Monterrey on Dec. 12, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
In 2001, Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson shaped the program as a culture of life effort at the 119th Annual Meeting of the Supreme Council in Toronto. The annual effort “is a perfect program for the Knights of Columbus,” said Supreme Knight Anderson. “Through it we honor not only Our Lady of Guadalupe and express the unity of the Order, but we also reaffirm the Order’s dedication to the sanctity of human life. It is to the Blessed Mother that we turn in prayer as we work to end the Culture of Death that grips our society. As we think in terms of ‘One Life, One Rose,’ it is most appropriate that we turn to Our Lady of Guadalupe who made known her will through Juan Diego and the miracle of the roses.”
We hope you can take some time from your busy schedules next Monday to slow down, silence your hearts, and join us in praying for a world that is desperately in need of Our Mother's intercession.