Job's 'I know' and Thursday's 10 pm Rosary

From Job's 'I know' to the 10 pm Rosary

The liturgy for Thursday 1 October 2026 offers no certainties: it offers endurance. The first reading, from the book of Job (19:21-27), is the lament of a stripped-bare man clinging to a single sentence —'I know that my redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the dust'—, the responsorial psalm answers from the other side —'I hope to enjoy the happiness of the Lord in the land of the living'— and Luke's gospel (10:1-12) adds the awkward part: the messengers set out with no bag, no haversack and no sandals. The day closes at 10 pm with the recitation of the Holy Rosary.

Job's 'I know' and the vertigo of others being right

The reflection accompanying the readings —written by Sister Teresa de Jesús Cadarso, of the Monastery of Santo Domingo de Caleruega— dwells on what the Jerusalem Bible titles 'The triumph of faith in the abandonment of God and of men'. The patriarch's suffering, she notes, comes not only from divine silence but from something more twisted: the possibility that those accusing him might be right, that the punishment might be deserved.

The text's conclusion is that Job stops arguing. He does not win the debate; he abandons it. He walks alone into the night and lets go of every certainty. 'More than believing, he knows', it sums up. It is a fine and far-from-comfortable distinction: faith as an inner given, not as an argument ready to hand for convincing anyone on the landing.

Seventy-two messengers with no bag, no haversack and no sandals

The gospel of the day is the sending out of the seventy-two disciples, two by two, to the towns Jesus himself intended to visit. The instructions are of an austerity that sounds like a joke today: no luggage, no greetings on the way, and a single opening line —'Peace to this house'— that stays where it is received or returns with the one carrying it.

'The harvest is rich but the labourers are few', the text warns, before adding the kindly detail: if you are not received, shake the dust from your feet and move on. No long reproach, no pending revenge.

How is the 10 pm Rosary prayed?

With litanies —not obligatory, but pleasing to the Mother of Heaven—, the Salve and the sung Hail Mary, according to the illustrated guide issued for the occasion. The call sets a strictly timed maximum duration of between 25 and 30 minutes, and those behind it maintain that the prayer is worth keeping all year round, with a list of intentions ranging from reparation for offences against the Sacred Heart to the defence of life from conception to natural death.

The piece also includes the catalogue of promises attributed to the Marian apparitions: protection, special graces, not dying without the sacraments, and deliverance from purgatory for those who pray devoutly. It is devotional material, not magisterium, and should be read as such.

Chaplet at 3 pm and sayings of the desert

Two more blocks are added to the daily agenda. The Chaplet of Divine Mercy is ideally placed at 3 pm, the hour of Mercy, and the day is completed with the sayings of the Desert Fathers, the alphabetical collection compiled in the 17th century by the Jesuit Heribert Rosweyde and translated into French by Guy, Regnault and the monks of Solesmes.

All of this rests on a discipline of schedule, not on a burst of enthusiasm. With the Rosary fixed at 10 pm and a list of intentions renewed each day, continuity will depend on someone keeping the call alive once the novelty wears off. No one has promised to do so.