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THE ORIGINAL FREE MULTIMEDIA
ROSARY AND PRAYER NETWORK |
| get virtual rosary || get modules || use prayercast |
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| latest prayercast request:
For my brother, Karl, Kat, Harlyn, my Christi... Wed. May 22, 2013 12:21 pm add your own |
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Just what it says,... a little bit about what this is all about.
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Ministry Background
Virtual Rosary Mission Statement
Well, it's been 5 years now, and nope, I stil don't have a fancy statement. Maybe soon. However, this is what it's all about:
There are three current goals of Virtual Rosary
To teach the Rosary to as many people as possible
To help make it a new dynamic experience
To gather together a worldwide intercessory prayer network with PrayerCast
So who's behind this anyway?
Michael Monteleone
Founder of the Virtual Rosary project.
David Jenuwine
Author of the Mac and first Palm versions.
James Sturdevant
Author of the current Palm version.
Matt
The new guy... Awesome programmer, designer, dreamer.
Nicole
Faithful friend. Faithful site moderator. Faithful challenger.
Michael
The other new guy and site mod. Proud owner of a standard.
Where are you people?
The mecca of the lower 48 states, New Orleans, LA.
"Who me?" The story behind Virtual Rosary
"'But ah Lord I know not how to speak...' 'Say not I am too young.'" - Jeremiah 1:6,7
In my case, it would have been, "But ah Lord, I know not how to program..." =) My name is Michael Monteleone, and I've been given the awesome opportunity and responsibility of starting Virtual Rosary. The story starts at the end of 1997 in a Holiday Inn by a swimming pool. I was on my first retreat, and had just taken a first step into a new, beautiful, world, a world filled with Truth and Life, a world filled with God. This was the first time I ever truly knew and believed in the Lord and started the lifelong process of handing my life back to Him.
It so happened that this first night of the retreat, some friends of mine had decided to pray a rosary at midnight around the Holiday Inn pool. Red Warning lights blinked in my head as they asked me to join. Along with many other things about our Catholic Faith, I had all but forgotten how to pray the Rosary, much less why I would want to. Thank goodness for ignorance. It prompted me to action. Upon returning home, I flipped through yellowed pamphlets, prayer cards, and websites to learn just how to say the Rosary. I taught myself the best way I knew how, with computers. Being the nerd that I am, and being as I had just begun to learn how to program, I made a tiny program that cycled through the prayers and called it Virtual Rosary. To be honest, it was more of a hobby and "something to do" at the time since it helped me to start to really learn the computer and become interested in the Rosary and prayer. My family seemed more interested in it than I was though, telling others about it. So I decided to hobble together a few more features, giving it scripture verses and illustrations. And to top it off, my friends seemed to like it so much that they wanted copies and suggested it should go online. And so it did. The first website went online around February of 1998. However, I felt sorry for those few rare souls who actually did stumble across it every few weeks then, since the site had only "potential" at that time. And throughout this all, I basically worked on it as a hobby without any true regards to our Mother or the Lord.
That all changed during another retreat 7 months later. People who knew nothing of this little program passed on a word of knowledge to me that I was "doing something with imagery and prayer which would soon reach the whole world. And the Lord wants you to keep it up. And He wants you to know it is He who is doing it." It didn't take long until I started making the connections. I contemplated the absurd possibility that the God of the Universe is interested enough in me and actually wanted me to help somehow. Literally starting the day after the retreat, the site exploded in popularity and I began receiving messages from people in places I couldn't even pronounce.
Ever since then, it has been a gradual evolution and unfolding of this plan that I am so thankful to be a part of. The site has gained a worldwide following, media acclaim, and is even ranked as the highest-referenced rosary-related website according to Google. That isn't to say there haven't been headaches and sleepness nights. It is only to say that it is all worth it. If there's anything I can tell you for serving the Lord, well I can say that it's definitely all worth it... every achingly painful and beautiful moment of it. And we have nothing to fear. He who begins a good work will see it to completion. He's calling out your name. I dare you to listen.
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© 1998-2013 - Michael Monteleone |