James Foley, journalist murdered by ISIS Islamic terrorists, prayed the Rosary
I was sent a link to this at the site of Marquette University:
Phone call home
A letter from James Foley, Arts ’96, to Marquette.Marquette University has always been a friend to me. The kind who challenges you to do more and be better and ultimately shapes who you become.
With Marquette, I went on some volunteer trips to South Dakota and Mississippi and learned I was a sheltered kid and the world had real problems. I came to know young people who wanted to give their hearts for others. Later I volunteered in a Milwaukee junior high school up the street from the university and was inspired to become an inner-city teacher. But Marquette was perhaps never a bigger friend to me than when I was imprisoned as a journalist. [Keep in mind that Foley had been kidnapped previously.]
Myself and two colleagues had been captured and were being held in a military detention center in Tripoli. Each day brought increasing worry that our moms would begin to panic. My colleague, Clare, was supposed to call her mom on her birthday, which was the day after we were captured. I had still not fully admitted to myself that my mom knew what had happened. But I kept telling Clare my mom had a strong faith. [That sure came through in the TV moments I have seen since he was killed.]
I prayed she’d know I was OK. I prayed I could communicate through some cosmic reach of the universe to her.
I began to pray the rosary. It was what my mother and grandmother would have prayed. ?I said 10 Hail Marys between each Our Father. It took a long time, almost an hour to count 100 Hail Marys off on my knuckles. And it helped to keep my mind focused.
Clare and I prayed together out loud. It felt energizing to speak our weaknesses and hopes together, as if in a conversation with God, rather than silently and alone.
[...]
Read the rest there.
I am reminded of the fact that the feast of Our Lady of Rosary (first known as Our Lady of Victory), 7 October, was instituted to commemorate Our Lady’s intervention at the Battle of Lepanto, during which Islamic invaders were defeated.
Our Lady of Victory, pray for us. Pray for the Foley family. Intercede to save the potential victims of these Islamic terrorists.
