Retro: Everything is Going to Be Fine.

The 1st of May, 2009. The month before, the H1N1 Flu had first been reported in the state of Veracruz. Now all of Mexico, in fact, the whole world, was talking about what soon would be labelled a “pandemic”.

On this day, 10 years ago, I snapped this photo

“Everything is going to be fine”, claims the poster. What is the solution? The rosary.

The rosary is a prayer of devotion to the Virgin Mary. The poster promoted a website (no longer available) that aimed to tally three million prayed rosaries to the Virgin in order to counter the H1N1. “Your prayer can make the difference!”

The website listed promises (supposedly) from the Virgin herself. For example, “The soul that is commended by the Rosary will never perish”, and “Whoever serves me, praying my Rosary every day, will receive whatever grace he asks of me” and “I will soon free the souls from purgatory that are devoted to the Rosary”.

Those days were actually an interesting study in what people really trusted, and what their priorities were. Trusting in the recitation of the rosary to Mary was only one example. Although the crisis soon passed, there were some lessons learned that will not be forgotten.