Photo Caption: Sarah Collins leads a “Patriotic Rosary” at St. Mary Church in Pontiac June 25 during the parish’s weekly prayer vigil for our nation.

By: By Tom Dermody, The Catholic Post

PONTIAC — While Independence Day and the just-ended Fortnight for Freedom gave Catholics additional reasons to ask God’s blessings and guidance on the United States and its leaders, our nation is lifted in prayer every Tuesday night at St. Mary Church in Pontiac.

The weekly, hourlong prayer vigil in Pontiac for the United States began in early February and will continue “for the foreseeable future,” according to Father David Sabel, pastor.

Beginning at 6:30 p.m., dozens of parishioners pray silently with Jesus exposed in the Blessed Sacrament, and also recite a Patriotic Rosary that incorporates reflective quotes from the Founding Fathers at the start of each decade. In addition, individual states are named prior to each Hail Mary as a way of remembering their leaders and citizens in prayer.

“I’m very uplifted by the support of the parish,” Father Sabel told The Catholic Post this week. He explained the practice began after a parishioner brought him a copy of the Patriotic Rosary.

“I thought it would be a good thing to do,” said Father Sabel of incorporating the special rosary into a holy hour, “especially with the state of affairs of our government in Illinois.”

Parishioners lead much of the rosary, and patriotic hymns such as “America the Beautiful” are interspersed between the decades.

“We go every week,” said Pat Mishur, who attends with her husband Dave. “We feel it’s a priority.”

Father Sabel would like to expand the practice in the fall to include a Mass leading into the holy hour.

While he is grateful to live in “a very blessed country,” Father Sabel said he is concerned that “our nation as a whole has become much more secular” and its leaders and culture “for some reason believe human reasoning solves all our problems, taking God out of the scenario. I don’t think that’s working very well.”