Goal: 100,000 Rosaries by Election Day

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A "man in the pew" is calling all Catholics to do a big thing before Election Day.

In an interview with Church Militant, layman Robert Sass urged the faithful to pick up their Rosaries with the goal of saying 100,000 Rosaries by Nov. 3 for the good of the country. According to Sass' calculation, this means a little over 1,100 people must pray one Rosary each day to reach the goal.

He said he got the idea in the middle of praying the Rosary himself and instead of dismissing it, he said, "yes," thereby paving the way for the Pray the Rosary Campaign (PtR).

Sass is trying to enlist 1,177 faithful to pledge one Rosary per day until the election, by signing on at the PtR website.

Because of Mary's "yes," he says on the website, "the doors of Heaven were once again opened."

"She didn’t know what would happen," he adds, "but because of her faith and absolute trust in God she was able to confidently say ... simply, "yes."

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TRANSCRIPT

Church Militant: Please tell Church Militant viewers a bit about yourself and the Pray the Rosary (PtR) campaign. How did the idea come to you?

Robert Sass: I live in the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota about 15 miles from my actual workplace. And so it gives me an opportunity — as I'm driving to and from work — to take some time and just be silent. And during that time, I pray the Rosary. I've been doing this for quite some time now. I'd rather honestly just be silent or pray the Rosary or do other mental prayers versus listening to the radio.

And so last Thursday I'm driving to work — nothing unusual — pretty much the same old same old. And as I'm praying, suddenly this thought pops in my head. Actually, it was more of a question. And that question was simply: How many people would it take to pray 100,000 Rosaries before the election? It just popped in my head! And I made a quick calculation in my head — that's about 1,177 people over 85 days.

I thought, wow, that's a lot of people and prayers. And so I just kept going with that. And that's really how just it happened. I wasn't thinking about it. All of a sudden, it was there — just that question.

When I got to the office a short time later, the question kept nagging at me. So I just sat down by my desk and started to think about it a little more. And I thought: What can one person do? 100,000 Rosaries — I can't do that by myself. And so I wondered if I could convince 1,100 plus people to join me in the campaign. And so I said, I'm only going to ask people to pray one Rosary a day. I don't want people to think suddenly, oh, my gosh, I've got to do three, four or five Rosaries a day. I just want you to do one.

And if I can get those people to join me, maybe I can convince them to do two Rosaries. That would cut my number down — now I'm thinking statistics — and now I only need less than 600 people to do that. And then I thought to myself, you know, what? I can do this. This is doable. I mean, it's just a matter of taking the end goal of the big product and breaking it down into manageable pieces.

How many people across this country overall — 300 million? I only need about 1,100 to make this happen. And so with that, I called a close friend of mine, Corey, and said, "This is the question that came to mind. This is what I'm thinking. I want to challenge my local Knights of Columbus council to take up this challenge." And what do you think — he immediately committed to join me in the prayer campaign.

But he said, "You need to take this way beyond our own council and our own parish." So that's that's kind of where it went. I just knew at that point I was going to do something.

CM: What made things move so quickly for you?

Sass: First and foremost, the reason is that I said "yes" to that prompting.

And once I said "yes," the floodgates of grace just opened up and God gave me the means and the tools to start something. He's graced me over the years with different talents and different things. I've put websites together, and I'm in the mailing business here — I do a lot of work with designing things for customers and clients. And so I was able to very quickly design a website, a flyer and prayer cards — the kind you put in your wallet and carry with you. It kind of gives you accountability. And so I just jumped on board and threw something together.

I knew also that it was not going to be fancy. It was going to be plain. It was going to be simple, because, really, all we're looking for here is to pray the Rosary. I'm not looking for fluff or fancy. I just want you to pray a Rosary. I just want you to pray a Rosary for the country. That's all I want.

CM: What kind of feedback have you gotten? What challenges have you faced?

Sass: I realized my target date was Aug. 10, and my idea came on Aug. 6. I realized that's only four days. But that's OK. Once I said, "yes," then the graces opened up; then anything can happen.

The feedback has been quite surprisingly positive. Nobody I've talked to about the campaign has looked at it and kind of scratched their head or said, "Why are you doing this?"

One thousand seven-hundred seventy-seven prayer partners is the goal. Right now I've got 27 people committed and 3,500 Rosaries already committed ... We've got a long way to go, but I cannot imagine but that this is just going to just move upward. It's a simple math problem. It's just like marketing. You just got to get it out there and let the next person tell the next person and just do it.

Every time we offer a prayer and give it to the Blessed Mother, and she in turn gives it to Jesus, she takes that and she multiplies the grace on that. So it may be 100,000 Rosaries, but the effect of those 100,000 prayers could be millions.

CM: You spoke earlier of a coincidence that struck you at the time as meaningful. Can you talk a bit about it?

Sass: You know, I'm a Church Militant Premium subscriber. But I don't make it a point to go online and listen every day to all the sites. But on Monday, I decided to go to a back episode of The Vortex. And I thought it was very interesting how in that particular episode Michael Voris talked about the Blessed Virgin Mary being the Patroness of this country. It just reminded me and hopefully a lot of others that she's just not the Blessed Virgin Mary. She is our Patroness. She is the mother of this country. And so many people either don't know it or have forgotten. And they need to be reminded of that.

And that was the day the idea to pray the 100,000 Rosaries came to me. So on the coincidence of watching The Vortex about Mary, Patroness of our country, on the same day I said "yes," I'll leave that up to the Blessed Virgin Mary. I'm going to let Mom decide. It's for us to do our job and pray the Rosary and let the Blessed Mary — let Jesus — take it and go with it.

And I don't want people just "to say" it — I want them "to pray" it. There's a big difference. A lot of times people just say a prayer. I want people to concentrate and actually start praying and praying ... It's through the praying of the prayer where the graces are really going to come out. But if you're having a bad day and all you can do is "say" the prayer, then "say" the prayer.

CM: What's the best way to join the Pray the Rosary Campaign?

Sass: The best way to join is just go to the website. The very first blog post tells how this all came about. And from there, they can decide to join in.

You can download copies of a flier and prayer cards too. If you don't know how to pray the Rosary, there's a Rosary guide. Then just click on the "Join the Campaign" link at the top — that's it.

Hopefully, you'll say "yes" and join.

CM: What do you say to other Catholics who may be feeling a prompting from Our Lord or Our Lady to do something to help combat the evil in our Church and in our country?

Sass: We get so caught up in our daily grind — just the noise of life that goes on. And we actually miss so much. And we're so busy doing millions of things at once that we're going to miss something. And you know what? We are missing something. We're missing the sound of God speaking to us in this gentle whisper. He doesn't yell at us. He doesn't throw up big flames to draw our attention. He speaks to us as a whisper, as the gospel says. We're missing him wanting to be a part of our life. And so, first and foremost, we have to take time and just be silent. We have to listen for Him. We have to. Because without Him, we are nothing.

When people are starting to feel the world is caving around them, and they think everything is going wrong, they need to just stop and take the time to be silent. Call to Him in silence and then just listen. And it is there that you will hear Him and where you will find peace and joy, and that's why for me — even though I'm not where maybe I want to be with the PtR — I'm very calm. I know He's the one that's going to make this happen. So for those that are feeling any type of prompting, just ask Him for the grace and have the courage to say "yes."

When you say "yes," you need to be prepared for a whole new world. Because when you see things from His perspective, you begin to see Him and all those around you and what this world can and will be. And Satan and evil will be no more.

So we need to just be quiet — listen to Him. And if you have to beg God for the grace to say "yes," because it is so hard for our human nature to turn things over to Him, do so.

So I would just say about the promptings, pray about it and most importantly, ask for the grace and the courage and the fortitude to say "yes." You'll be surprised.

CM: What significance does the Rosary have for the 2020 election on Nov. 3?

Sass: The election date came to me because it's a significant event ... not only for me but also for the country.

But the whole point of the PtR campaign is not about us praying for who we want to win or to lose. It's not about individuals. It's about this country. We are hurting as a country. We are made up of people of all backgrounds, of all different viewpoints, and so it's not about the election.

And the reason I picked Nov. 3 is because praying 100,000 Rosaries within the 85 days until Election Day means it's urgent. We don't have time to wait. Let's get started today. We're now into day three of this campaign. So I need people to make a decision today to move forward, because the sooner we get praying, the sooner the Blessed Mother can start pouring out her graces.

It goes back to the urgency. ... Satan is powerful. ... The real battle is between Satan and our souls — that is the battle. I want Satan to understand that there are a lot of people who are willing to stand up and fight him with whatever means it takes. We're not going to sit back and allow him to take any souls if we can prevent it.

CM: Is there anything else you'd like to say to Church Militant followers?

Sass: We all get these promptings. We all do. We just don't realize it. And I think the reason a lot of us don't say "yes" is because we're afraid. We're afraid that if I say "yes" to this, God's not going to allow me to do this or I'm not going to be able to enjoy that ... that's the human reaction. ... It's been so interesting to be able to just talk to people about this campaign and just say, hey, we just need your help. We need everybody. And whether you know the Rosary or not, it doesn't matter. Just say "yes." Join me in this cause.

And what's going to happen ... [the Rosary] is going to become a habit for you. So when this campaign supposedly ends, it's not going to end because my desire would be you're going to keep praying. You're going to keep praying the Rosary and you're going to just keep sending those prayers upward.

There's way more to this than this little 85-day campaign. We have a lot of hurting people and souls out that are just waiting to be blessed.

To join the 'Pray the Rosary' campaign, click here.

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