ST. PETERSBURG | Praying the rosary together after supper in the past few months has been a great help to Maria Chavez, a parishioner at St. Clement Parish in Plant City, and her family.

“We did it to bring unity to my family,” she said. “And it has brought unity.”

So she listened with great interest to the homily by Msgr. James Lara during the diocesan Hispanic Mass Oct. 27 at the Cathedral of St. Jude the Apostle in St. Petersburg.

October is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, said Msgr. Lara, a semiretired priest who assists at St. Luke Parish in Palm Harbor. During his homily, with Bishop Robert N. Lynch and several other diocesan priests in attendance, he talked about the importance of the Blessed Mother, someone who, he noted, was venerated throughout his native country of Spain, throughout South America, the colonies in the New World, the Caribbean and Central America.

He said all the saints were devoted to the rosary, and he added, “the fastest road to arrive at Jesus is through Mary, his dear mother.”

But, Msgr. Lara said that the rosary is not as much a part of Hispanic family culture as it used to be.

“If you ask young people what the rosary is,” he said, “they don’t have any idea.”

He recalled how his family used to pray the rosary before he went to sleep every day, and he remembered praying the rosary when he was in the seminary every day, as well.

Msgr. Lara, who recently celebrated the 50th year of his ordination to the priesthood, said he is convinced he owes his vocation to the priesthood to praying the rosary, during which vocations were sought. These prayers were answered in other ways because, he said, in his village after his ordination, more than 20 priests were eventually ordained.

He added that praying the rosary is a way to help re-evangelize “our hearts and our Hispanic families.”

He proposed in his homily several ideas that involve the rosary:

• All those who love the Blessed Mother should pray the rosary every day individually and also with their families.

• That all parishes with a Mass in Spanish take the time to pray the rosary before Mass begins.

• That people imitate the Virgin Mary in her fidelity to Jesus and in service to others.

• That people evangelize those who have left the church or gone to other Christian churches.

The Hispanic Mass is an annual event, usually in October, during which various Latino cultures are invited to the cathedral. Before the Mass began, as a way to represent the diversity of the Hispanic culture, people entered the cathedral carrying flags from the different countries, including Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Costa Rica. Some people wore costumes native to their countries.

Jennifer Gutierrez, 13, wore a dress traditional to her family’s home country, Colombia. It was white, red and green, and flared out when she held it from the bottom. She wore it, she said, as a way to celebrate her culture.

The priest’s homily about emphasizing the rosary resonated with Jennifer, who agreed that praying the rosary was “important” and she said prays it when she feels scared.

“You feel like a blanket of safety (after praying the rosary),” she said. “And you don’t feel scared any more.”

Her cousin, Myrom Londono, 14 wore his high school Army ROTC uniform as a way to celebrate being an American and to show “that no matter what country you’re from that we can all get along together as one.”

That point was echoed by Marcela Madrinan, a parishioner at Most Holy Name of Jesus Parish in Gulfport, who found it “amazing” that so many cultures could gather in one place. “It’s a nice and unique way to get together and pray together,” she said.

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