Rosary Issue?

July/August 2009 Issue | Posted by Tom and April Hoopes in Editor's Note

April: This issue of Faith & Family is a Rosary theme issue. By mistake.

We didn’t intend for this to be a Rosary-themed issue. The way we planned it, we expected to highlight other themes:

Family Communication. “Yell No More” is Daria Sockey’s excellent article about communicating — quietly — with kids (page 26). “Unlocking Your Ears” is about listening to what your spouse is communicating to you (page 23).

Summer Fun. This issue explains how to take better pictures (page 35), enjoy ice cream more (page 67), and even what to get for your picnic (page 20).

Promoting Vocations. We offer both our vocation guide (page 81, with vocations ads throughout) and our Year of the Priest feature (page 47).

But then, when the proofs came back, editors started to ask: Why do we have so many articles on the Rosary?

Tom: In magazine publishing, there are two ways to handle the problem of having too many articles on one subject. One is to change the headlines and content such that they appear to be about different subjects. Another is to pretend you meant to do it that way.

We’re going with that second option.

We meant to have a My Faith and Family feature on Gary Sinise titled “Dog Tags on a Rosary” (page 59), followed immediately by an article on “True Rosary Tales” (page 62), and then end the magazine with a Back Porch essay about Susie Lloyd’s adventures with rote prayers (page 96). We did that on purpose.

April: Well, we didn’t and we did. We didn’t set out to, but grace surprised us.

It’s the same with our family’s daily Rosary. We were always sporadic about the Rosary in our house. But then, during the Year of the Rosary we fell into a rhythm with it, and we have been pretty consistent about saying it every day. We have even found new ways to add variety and keep it from becoming tedious for the children (find them at FaithandFamilyLIVE.com, “Resources”).

In our house now, the Rosary is a natural way for our family to convene and pray at the end of the day, and wind down before bedtime.

We have found what so many people in Lisa Mladinich’s “True Rosary Tales” have found: The Rosary made Jesus, Mary, and Joseph familiar members of our family.

Which makes me think that it might not be a mistake after all. In a magazine called Faith & Family, the Rosary can always be a theme.

Tom and April Hoopes, Editorial Directors

P.S. Last issue’s mix-up is this issue’s gain. Enjoy two Umbert cartoons: The one we skipped by mistake (page 90) and the new one (page 95).

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