Rose Vanaman of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Otisville co-founded a daily prayer group five years ago, and it has become a hub of parish and community support — an effort that grew from the simple desire to restore the regular prayer of the Rosary at the parish.

WITNESS: People will sometimes come up to me and thank me for having this group, even though they’re working and can’t be there, so I know it helps people in this parish. Sometimes when I’m handing out pamphlets, people will ask me questions and I’ll do my best to answer them or direct them to talk to a priest.  

PRAYER: When I was young, you would see practically everybody on their knees praying the Rosary before Mass, but in my children’s lifetime that wasn’t the case. We started this group meeting two or three days a week, then it expanded to five days, and from that we decided to pray the Rosary before the Saturday night Mass and the Sunday morning Mass. That has grown and brought in a lot of the younger members of our parish. Even the little ones in the parish now know what a Rosary is.

ACCOMPANIMENT: People will call me and want to talk, and I listen. I don’t really give them advice, but I just listen and tell them maybe you need to talk to a priest. I pray with them and for them and ask God to intercede.

INVITATION: We came up with the name, the Open Door Prayer Gathering, because Pope Francis wanted doors of all the churches open. In today’s world, you can’t open them all day long, but we open them for at least one hour to give people an opportunity to pray and have time with Jesus.