Father Donald Calloway, Vocation Director for the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception, chats with Father Dave about his book, “10 Wonders of the Rosary.” He shares his journey to the Catholic Church and stories about the power of the Rosary.
Father Dave asks Father Calloway about the Marian Fathers, “We were founded in the 17th century in Poland by Saint Stanislaus Papczynski, primarily to promote devotion to Our Lady and to pray for the souls in purgatory, and now we have a little over 600 men worldwide … Our claim to fame in the United States is the National Shrine of Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.”
Father Dave points out that Father Calloway also has a strong devotion to Divine Mercy, “I’m a recipient of mercy. It’s done so much for me, so now I want to be an apostle of mercy … I wasn’t raised with any faith. I wasn’t baptized or anything. I grew up in a very tumultuous home. I had three fathers before I was 9 years old, and my teenage years were rough. I dropped out of school, got kicked out of a foreign country, we were living in Japan at the time. I went to two drug and rehab centers and got thrown in jail when I was 18. And my parents, through all that craziness, became Catholic. I thought they were nuts. I had no idea what it was. But then, three years later the Divine two by four came my way and I got hammered by the truth and fell in love with Jesus Christ, Our Lady, and the Catholic Church. I became a Catholic, discerned my vocation and now I’ve been a priest for almost 16 years.”
“St. Thomas Aquinas says that mercy is God’s second name. He is love, and when he creates and knows that we’re a mess, he extends mercy to us. And without mercy I don’t know where I’d be. I’m still a mess. I had a conversion, it was great. But everyday is a conversion and I need a lot of mercy.”
Father Dave asks how Mary can lead us closer to Christ. “Mary knows Jesus better than anybody,” Father Calloway responds. “If you want to find out about someone, you talk to their mother. Theoretically, if I got lost for three days when I was growing up, my mom would tell you all about it. She would tell you all the details. So, she has an inside perspective. And that’s what Mary gives us.”
Father Calloway demonstrates the power of the Rosary through the story of Bl. Bartolo Longo, “This guy was a fallen-away Catholic in Italy about 100 years ago. He went off to college and ended up getting involved in the occult. He got so steeped in this that he actually became an ordained satanic priest … he was worshipping satan. And this led to depression and thoughts of suicide. Well, he ended up humbling himself and went to talk to a Catholic priest. And that priest told him about the Rosary and he said, ‘This is your way out of the occult. This will give you hope and be an anchor for you.’ He believed it and changed his life. He became a third order Dominican. He built a Rosary shrine in Pompeii, Italy. And now he is Blessed Bartolo Longo, he’s a blessed of the Church. It’s incredible! That’s the power of the Rosary.”
“The Rosary has the ability to make you a better father, mother, student. The Rosary can bring peace in any situation. In your trials and tribulations, the Rosary is going to be there for you night and day.” (Original Air 1-15-19).
