Pope Francis greeted and blessed a prayer group in Argentina of the Entretiempo [period between seasons] Movement, people that since June 3, 2021, come together virtually to pray the Rosary for COVID-19 patients, stated the Movement on its Instagram account.

“Dear brother, thank you very much for your e-mail. Thank you very much for praying the Rosary. To you and to all the friends of Entretiempo I send a warm greeting and my blessing. Keep going! May Jesus bless you and the Holy Virgin look after you. Fraternally, Francis,” was the Holy Father’s message addressed to the group on their social network account.

By way of gratitude, the Entretiempo account answered the Pontiff, saying the following: “Thank you, Francis, for praying for us, for being Pastor, for this huge act of love and for taking the time to write to us. We, of the Entretiempo community, thank you and pray for you. Long live the Pope!”

A First E-mail

 As the Argentine Catholic News Agency (AICA) reported, Rodrigo Fernandez Madero of Entretiempo said that he wrote the Pope a few days ago to tell him about the Movement’s daily praying of the Rosary. “It seems to me to be an immense gesture of love on his part for having taken that very fleeting time, given all that he has to do, to pay attention to this portion of the Church in Buenos Aires. It is a lovely gesture at this time in which so much is said about the Pope. This shows that he is close to Argentines, that he prays for us <and> accompanies us,” he said.

Fernandez Madero added that the papal message was “very comforting spiritually, given that yesterday was a sad day because of Javier Galli’s death (he was one of “the close persons for whom we were praying)” and, he added, the deceased’s wife, who also joins us in these moments of Marian prayer, felt “very moved” to have Pope Francis’ blessing at such a time of sadness.

Fernandez Madero explained that the daily virtual praying of the Rosary began “spontaneously” on June 3 when two friends of Entretiempo were suffering complications from the coronavirus.

“Since that day, every night at 10 o’clock we connect through Zoom to pray the mysteries of the Rosary. In the beginning, we were about 100, but now there are days that we exceed 250 ‘connections,” which include married couples, whole families, grandparents, people who are alone,” he continued, and even people  “alienated from the life of faith” have joined the prayer group.

Fernandez Madero pointed out that every night a different priest offers a reflection and gives a blessing. Initially, it was only members of the Entretiempo that came together but, gradually, other Movements and Institutions of the Church joined them. Entretiempo has filled a gap, as “for two years we have been unable to attend retreats in person given the pandemic. However, the Lord has given us this tool to be able to reach people, many of whom are alienated from the faith, and to talk to them about the message of the Risen Jesus,” he concluded.

Translation by Virginia M. Forrester