PRAY: Encouraging the Family Rosary

Courtney Vallejo shares her family's journey toward praying the family Rosary, inspired by a new film about Venerable Patrick Peyton.

Father Peyton, the “family that prays together stays together” priest, was a missionary for promoting the recitation of the Rosary.

I converted to the Catholic faith during my senior year in college. While talk of praying the Rosary was fervent in my community, the Rosary was a prayer that filled me with boredom and dread. Instead of praying for our Lady’s intercession, I found myself praying the Rosary would go quickly or that I could find a way to skip the prayer. It wasn’t until recently, when my sister-in-law was preparing for marriage, that her fiancé asked the bridal party to pray a 54-day Rosary novena for the couple. The idea of 54 days of praying the Rosary seemed dreadful, but my husband, being a people pleaser, committed to the task.

I noticed that the first time we prayed together at night, that I could feel that strong bond between us. I looked forward to praying with him after our kids had gone to bed, as a special way to be together as husband and wife. The Rosary has become a prayer that is dear to my heart and to the sanctity of our family. We have started praying the Rosary with our children on Sunday as a family Rosary and we invite them to join us in our Rosary during the day as well. We have also found that while we’re all in the car together, it’s a great time to pray the Rosary together.

Having worked in Hollywood after my conversion and getting to meet Fr. Willy Raymond, C.S.C, and the staff at Family Theater Productions, I desired to know more about Fr. Peyton. His reputation and famous words, "the family that prays together stays together," left him as an icon -- but as with most celebrities, many of us know little about them. PRAY is the awe-inspiring story of a priest who set the world on fire with the Rosary. This film let us journey with him through his childhood, priesthood and mission of spreading the Rosary and family prayer! Father Peyton’s contagious zeal for prayer and for the Rosary is contagious.

Having a master’s degree in film, I find myself often times critiquing the production of the film, along side the story. This film is beautifully executed and has a high level of production value. It’s extremely well produced and directed and the original score glides through the background behind the beautiful images on the screen.

This film inspired me to continue to pray the Rosary after our novena and to share this most important aspect of our faith with my children.