St. Louis Reporter

Unite Our Nation's St. Louis event Saturday will feature a rosary rally in hopes of fostering peace and prayer to the city and the nation.

Event organizer Jason Walter told the St. Louis Reporter that St. Mary of Victories Catholic Church, the sponsor of the event, will continue as it has in the past several years to offer a public rosary.

"For the past three years the St. Mary of Victories Chapel Community has offered a very public promotion of the rosary with the establishment of  the St. Louis Rosary Run and Divine Mercy Mile," Walter said. "The event has always featured a Marian Procession [in addition to a Holy Water Station, Mystery Markets, Icon awards and the veneration of a relic of the Blessed Mother's veil."

The church could not continue its previous years' events due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Unfortunately, this year, due to COVID-19 restrictions we are unable to offer the run but we wanted to continue to provide the Marian Procession and relic veneration," Walter said. "This year we will also present a relic of St. Joseph's Cloak as it is the 150th anniversary of the declaration of his title Patron of the Universal Church."

Walter said he decided to organize the Unite Our Nation event in St. Louis as St. Mary of Victories and the movement share a mission of seeking divine intervention.

"I discovered Unite Our Nation as we have a shared mission," Walter said. "Their founders understand our need to look beyond politicians to solve the numerous challenges we are facing but instead seek the intervention of the supernatural."

Walter explained that he hopes the upcoming event will encourage prayer.

"Our desire is to offer something beautiful in the public sphere in hopes to awaken wonder, fortify our brethren and encourage a practice of prayer," Walter said. "The rosary has a proven track record of producing miracles. We are humbling and encouraging people of good will to unsheathe this spiritual weapon, bring our inadequate petitions to Our Lady as to perfect them and bring them to our Lord, Jesus Christ."

In the past two months, Unite Our Nation has grown into a national movement. From its initial gathering in Madison, Wisconsin, where more than 3,000 gathered together in prayer, a number of gatherings have have been held and more are planned.

"Unite Our Nation, a laity initiative, is a call for Catholics to put into practice the rich devotions entrusted to the church by our founder, Jesus Christ," Walter said. "Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen said these words about the laity: 'Who’s going to save our Church? It’s not our bishops, it’s not our priests and it is not religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes and the ears to save the Church.'"

"We may not know this side of heaven, the graces to come to those who publicly honor our Lord and our Lady but we can have hope in the Unite Our Nation events, after all we are a church of miracles."

The St. Louis rally will be held 8:30 a.m. at Historic St. Mary of Victories, and is a non-political and family-friendly event.