\tThe 81-year-old parishioner arrives early for the daily noontime Mass to lead the rosary aloud beforehand for grandmothers, work-at-home moms and business people who also arrive early. This rosary is a string of prayers Wichorek has prayed for almost eight decades.<\/p>\n
\tThat\u2019s thousands and thousands of Apostles\u2019 Creeds, Our Fathers, Hail Marys, Glory Bes and meditations on the mysteries of the life of Jesus Christ \u2014 from his divine conception, to his institution of the Eucharist, to his painful steps to Calvary, to his resurrection from the dead.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThe rosary is the life of Christ,\u201d Wichorek said of the prayer that has shaped his long walk with God.<\/p>\n
\t\u2018A lot to be learned\u2019<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \tAfter all these years and all those prayers said over and over again, Wichorek remains enthusiastic about the Marian devotion.<\/p>\n \t\u201cThere\u2019s a lot to be learned from the rosary if a person stops to think about it,\u201d he said in a recent interview with the Catholic Anchor.<\/p>\n \tSo the retired civil engineer has written a book to help others mine its riches. \u201cMeditations on the Mysteries of the Rosary\u201d was published in 2012, and is available at St. Paul Corner Bookstore and Gift Shop, on the cathedral\u2019s campus.<\/p>\n \tEspecially as the penitential season of Lent approaches, Wichorek hopes others will pick up their rosary beads and spiritually join the steadfast woman who accompanied her Divine Son through his salvific Passion and who shared his suffering more deeply than any mother could.<\/p>\n \t\u201cMary leads us to Christ,\u201d Wichorek observed.<\/p>\n \t\u2018A believer from the very beginning\u2019<\/p>\n \tWichorek\u2019s walk with Christ seems to have the steady cadence of the rosary he prays.<\/p>\n \t\u201cI was a believer from the very beginning,\u201d said the now white-haired Wichorek.<\/p>\n \tThe more he studied and researched \u2014 and he has read the Bible cover to cover several times \u2014 he found nothing to dissuade him from the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n \t\u201cI\u2019ve always had faith,\u201d he noted, and \u201cI\u2019ve always had a devotion to our Lady.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\u201cIt just happened naturally,\u201d he explained. \u201cIf you love Jesus you\u2019re bound to love the Blessed Virgin Mary.\u201d<\/p>\n \tHis first memories of the rosary go back to his Polish-American parish in Cleveland, Ohio, where on Wednesday and Friday evenings parishioners prayed together as World War II raged abroad. Wichorek continued the practice at Purdue University where daily he joined other students at the Newman Center to say the rosary. As a soldier at Camp Pickett, Va., during the Korean War, and later in Germany \u2014 where he met his wife and fellow Catholic, Rita \u2013 Wichorek continued his prayers.<\/p>\n \t\u201cAs far back as I can remember he\u2019s always had a very deep, strong faith,\u201d explained Wichorek\u2019s daughter Mary Kinder, 47, who is close to her father and who attends Holy Family with her own family. While she was in high school with her dad still working for the Alaska District Corps of Engineers, the two would go to Mass together in the early mornings. And across the years she joined her parents\u2019 pilgrimages to Rome and the shrine to the Blessed Virgin at Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico.<\/p>\n \t\u201cI just thought everybody grew up that way,\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n \tAnd since 1991 Kinder has watched her dad spend a prayerful retirement. In addition to leading the rosary and attending Mass every day at the cathedral, Wichorek serves as a parish sacristan, lector and extraordinary minister of Holy Communion.<\/p>\n \tKinder said that her dad\u2019s strong faith and endurance in the rosary have proved fruitful for her and her three brothers. All are practicing Catholics.<\/p>\n \t\u201cI\u2019ve been spiritually spoiled,\u201d Kinder added smiling. \u201cI have a deep love and a deep appreciation of my faith. It\u2019s like the greatest gift I could have ever received.\u201d<\/p>\n \tA?guide to Christ<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \tWhile the rosary isn\u2019t the only prayer Wichorek prays, it is a priority.<\/p>\n \t\u201cI couldn\u2019t separate it from my faith,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \tThat\u2019s because Mary is the picture of what it is to be Christ-like, which is especially important during Lent, Wichorek explained. During the 40-day penitential season leading up to Easter, \u201cwe are asked to kind of straighten out our life and become better Catholics,\u201d Wichorek noted, and he believes there is no better guide than Mary.<\/p>\n \t\u201cShe more closely imitated Christ than any other human being in the history of the world,\u201d he said. \u201cBesides being the Mother of Jesus, the Mother of God, Mary participated in the sufferings of Jesus during his Passion.\u201d<\/p>\n \tIn fact, the depth of her compassion \u2013 which means \u201cto suffer with\u201d as Pope Benedict XVI has noted \u2013 goes to her soul.<\/p>\n \t\u201cMary feels it in her soul because Mary was conceived without original sin,\u201d Wichorek said.\u00a0 Like Eve before the Fall, he explained, Mary\u2019s mind, body and soul are \u201cconnected completely.\u201d<\/p>\n \tThe Protestant question<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \tWichorek knows that not all Christians are at ease with a prayer that recalls the Mother of God \u2014 despite references to Mary in the Gospels and the long Christian tradition of asking her intercession. It boils down to a different understanding of God and the saints, Wichorek believes. Protestant Christians think God is far off in heaven, and the saints \u2014 like Mary \u2014 are static, ancient characters that go no further than the pages of a Bible, he said.<\/p>\n \tBut \u201cGod is here now\u201d in the Eucharist, Wichorek observed, and Mary continues to make herself known and advocate for humanity.<\/p>\n \t\u201cMary has been with us for centuries,\u201d he said. Accounts of Marian apparitions\u00a0 at sites like LaSalette and Lourdes, France, and Fatima, Portugal \u2013 have inspired conversions and healing the sick in body and soul, he noted.<\/p>\n \t\u201cShe\u2019s been very active in helping people and trying to bring them back to Jesus,\u201d Wichorek said.<\/p>\n \t\u201cWhen you say the rosary, that\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to do,\u201d Wichorek said. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to help people be converted to Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n \tMeditations on the mysteries<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n \tAnd that\u2019s what Wichorek hopes to facilitate with his new book, \u201cMeditations on the Mysteries of the Rosary.\u201d It consists of 15 meditations \u2014 one for each mystery of the rosary \u2014 to reflect on while praying.<\/p>\n \tWichorek hopes the book will help others cultivate virtues that correspond to the mysteries. For instance, in the Annunciation Mary\u2019s humility is central.<\/p>\n \t\u201cShe\u2019s asked to receive the Messiah, and she says, \u2018Yes\u2019 without asking a bunch of questions,\u201d Wichorek said. The same is true of Saint Joseph, he added. \u201cThey don\u2019t question, \u2018Why did God do this?\u00a0 Why didn\u2019t God at least have a place at the inn for us?\u2019 They show unquestioned faith in and obedience to God. This is something that we can look at, and it should help inspire us to be the same \u2014 to be like Mary in our humility, to be like Mary in our unquestioned acceptance of what God gives us in our life.\u201d<\/p>\n \tSpiritually walking alongside Jesus and Mary can be challenging, but Wichorek offers encouragement. In his meditation for the fourth Sorrowful Mystery \u2013 the Carrying of the Cross \u2013 he writes, \u201c(God) wants us to keep trying. Keep praying. Keep up hope. Go to confession and the Eucharist. Pray daily. You will be triumphant in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n \tPosted with permission from Catholic Anchor<\/a>, official publication of the Archdicese of Anchorage, Alaska.<\/p>\n