EL CENTRO — The perfect mix of a bustling parish center, an air of prayerful tones and the patented raffle callouts like only Catholics can do were in the desert air as Our Lady of the Valley held its annual Community Rosary.
The bilingual event is held to foster a community of prayer at Our Lady of the Valley — the joint parish of St. Mary and Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic churches in El Centro — and to honor its patroness, the Blessed Virgin Mary, through fostering a devotion to the rosary among its faithful.
The Community Rosary takes place on the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, Oct. 7. The idea for the event, which has been held at St. Mary Church since 2018, came about through the devotion to the rosary of its event coordinator and founder, Eddie Madueño.
Madueño, who credits God with the inspiration, modeled the event after the “rosary rallies” made famous by Father Patrick Peyton. Those rallies began in the late 1940s and continue through the present day.
“I read up on him, and people were always talking about organizing (rosary) rallies, so I decided to try one here and got Father Mark (Edney)’s blessing, so we held one,” Madueño said. “It was so well received, so I’ve decided to keep doing it, trying to grow.”
Held at the St. Mary Parish Center, the Our Lady of the Valley Community Rosary 2025 saw about 300 faithful come together, with the outer ridge of the school gym lined with about 10 tables filled with Catholic ministries and resources. These included the Legion of Mary, Birth Choice, the Knights of Columbus and JP2 Radio, among others.
In addition to the ministry/resource tables, new to the Community Rosary was the addition of PowerPoint visuals.
“I want to promote the rosary. I want people to pray the rosary … I’ll keep doing it as long as long as I have the wonderful volunteers that help to put it together,” Madueño said. “I promise people (praying the rosary will) bring you a sense of peace.”
“I’m hoping (this event) encourages them to pray it by themselves,” he said.
Those who attended were greeted by friendly faces and a large statue of Our Lady at the entrance of the main area, carefully outlined in a “cupcake rosary” — that is, cupcakes on a table outlining the statue in the form of a rosary.
The introduction, and the rosary itself, was prayed in both English and Spanish, led by locals who themselves have a devotion to the rosary.
The event was emceed by Madueño’s online co-host for the weekly “Live Fire Rosary,” Carlos Gonzales.
“I think it’s important that we remind the community (and) everybody who is looking for answers … that (peace comes from) putting all of our faith in God, asking our Blessed Mother to intercede for us, and asking the Holy Spirit to be able to fill us with that peace, joy and that love that comes through the Holy Spirit,” Gonzales told The Southern Cross.
For Gonzales, the Community Rosary on the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary — a feast formerly known as “Our Lady of Victory,” commemorating the victory of allied Catholic armies over the Muslim Turks of the Ottoman Empire on Oct. 7, 1571, in the Gulf of Patras of Lepanto, Greece — is a reminder that the Blessed Mother is always there to intercede for her children, be it in military battles like Lepanto, or in our own daily struggles.
“All of us here, every single one of us, has a battle that we go through in life every single day,” Gonzales told the faithful during the opening introduction. “It could be a battle, a challenge — someone who is ill in our families, the aftermath of a loved one who has passed away, maybe a marriage — but those challenges are being faced, and so we pray.”
“Just like on Oct. 7, 1571, the (western) world prayed to Our Blessed Mother for her intercession to help with a battle which was taking place,” he said, “it is in the power of the Blessed Mother, who we ask, to still intercede for us in the daily challenges or struggles that we deal with.”
Gonzales said that, throughout the centuries, saints and popes have identified the rosary as “the most powerful weapon” in spiritual warfare.
“The evil one will do anything in his power to keep us from getting to Heaven,” he said, “but we remind ourselves that we have the holy sacraments, that we can pray the rosary, and we can count on our Blessed Mother to be there and guide us.”
Madueño and Gonzales also lead the “Live Fire Rosary” on Facebook, every Monday at 7:30 p.m. (Pacific), through the St. John Paul II Radio Facebook and YouTube pages at facebook.com/JP2Radio and youtube.com/@jp2radio.
