About Pittsburgh Radio Rosary and Consecration
Website Structure
Welcome to the Pittsburgh Radio Rosary and Consecration website. A site dedicated to you for praying to the intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, with prayers for the Holy Rosary, and to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, with a prayer of Consecration. Four main pages structure the website.
The first page, Praying Together is structured like a radio station and airs the WKHB radio daily broadcast every night at 7 pm. Just click on the bead before 7 pm to start the link for the Rosary and Consecration broadcast. The program on the website will air each hour at 7 pm for all six United States of America time zones starting with the Eastern and ending with the Hawaii-Aleutian zone. This page allows broadcast participation outside the greater Pittsburgh region so that all can come together to pray and have comfort. As apostles, we were allowed to be united and strengthened with our ability to pray together as God desired. Matthew 18:20: "For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them". Also, in development, between the 7 pm broadcasts and throughout other hours, there will be a variety of prayers, mini homilies, and faith and inspirational music playing genres from the mid-century during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s time period with all forms of Rock and Roll. The variations will cover inspirational Catholic songs and hymns with Coral, Organ, and Chants and include faithful selections from Standards, Gospel, and Orchestral instrumentals, where any song performed about true love is a prayer dedicated to God.
The second page is for Praying Independently the Rosary and Consecration when desired. The four categories of mysteries of the Rosary and the Sacred Heart prayer of Consecration are available. With the Rosary, illuminating beads guiding the order of prayer. This provides a special opportunity for all the faithful, especially children, young adults, and RCIA, to understand how to pray the Rosary. This form of presentation can especially be utilized in the classroom to enable group prayer.
The third page, Spirituality/Sponsors
provides a location for obtaining spiritual growth, whether
local or global, with links to other organizations' websites.
Sponsors also have links to their websites. Various spiritual
beads are provided to grow in faith, Spirituality with Father Mathew Hawkins
provides his writings, and videos from lectures
and homilies. Pittsburgh Catholic Resources
offers links to regional catholic organizations and associations
throughout the ten-county area serving the Pittsburgh and
Westmoreland Dioceses. Catholic Educational Resources
gives links to other Catholic sites in one
location. Praying the Rosary and Consecration presents the
Catholic Religious Significance for the Devotion to the Mysteries of the Rosary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Bishop Fulton Sheen bead provides a place to view his television series with YouTube links and corresponding books from the series so your able to follow in order.
Included are other videos and recordings. Special thanks to Allan Smith for his assistance in helping me organize the page.
Please visit: bishopsheentoday.com
Eucharistic Miracles bead is a link to the Carlo Acutis website.
This site categorizes all the locations in the world which had the transformation from Eucharistic Miracles.
The fourth page, the Bulletin Board serves to communicate upcoming regional Catholic events, spiritual requests, and provide a place for positive support. This resource gives a direct way to stay informed on other organizations and find like-minded friendships. This will provide for the ten counties a regional central location for all of us to have the ability to share through prayer or meet one another by attending events together. Overall, the four pages on this website allow an ability to come closer to God. This site emboldens the 7 Gifts of the Holy Spirit to offer prayer, growth, interaction, and support for one another in a pleasant loving manner.
Prayer Structure
As there are various free expressions of prayer in Catholicism, whether Latin, Novus Ordo, or Charismatic, the broadcast centers on contemplative, sincere, and uplifting prayer with a proper pace mindful for children and elderly to recite without rushing through losing contemplation. The holiness of these prayers was never intended as a rapid race to complete by a certain time limit or slow to where you lose interest and passion. The daily Mysteries are said in the tradition set by the days of the week.
| Joyful Mysteries | Sorrowful Mysteries | Glorious Mysteries | Luminous Mysteries |
| Monday and Saturday | Tuesday and Friday | Wednesday and Sunday | Thursday |
Sometimes, there will be an interruption from the regularly scheduled mysteries when a Holy Day reflects a specific mystery that does not correspond to the days of the week pattern. For example, Christmas is always December 25th, and if that day does not fall on the Joyous Mysteries, Monday or Saturday when scheduled for the given year. The regularly scheduled mysteries will not air that day, and the Joyful Mysteries will preempt this day. All Mysteries of the Rosary tell 20 parts of scripture, allowing us to reflect on each depiction's beauty, sacrifice, and amazement.
The Sacred Heart Consecration is a devotional prayer in which we invoke Jesus to be a part of our lives allowing us to fulfill his loving will. This is a fascinating prayer unknown that is unknown to those who wrote it. Each day can invoke a certain need. The Sacred Heart can assist by providing what is necessary to fulfill your life. In return, we receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit and enlighten our ability. One part of the prayer that is always interesting to contemplate. “Make me humble, patient, pure, and holy obedient to thy will.” Saying the prayer often will reveal itself to you in its relevance with time. As a suggestion, with my family, after Sunday or with any mass, we always find an image of the Sacred Heart and pray the prayer of Consecration. After the prayer, ask for your special intentions. This is a great means of strengthening the family and having God in our lives.
The broadcast and website can allow us to be in the presence of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Even when you’re not holding beads and praying in place, you may be performing a daily routine and might want to be surrounded by the prayers. For example, at 7 pm in my home, there are instances when we listen while preparing or eating dinner, and the broadcast is programmed to start on its own with our Amazon Alexa. Listening daily at any given moment can help us stay focused on what matters most to be in the presence of God.
The Creation of the Pittsburgh Radio Rosary and Consecration
A Pittsburgh Broadcast and Listener Tradition, Hopefully a Worldwide Tradition
The broadcast at 7 pm has been a Pittsburgh tradition for over the past 50 years and was sponsored by the Bellevue Knights of Columbus. The program started in October 1971 on WPIT, 730 am, until 1993 with a change of station ownership, and has since resided on WKHB, 620 am. In recent years, FM translator signals were added and broadcast on frequencies of 92.3, 94.1, and 102.1 for different areas in the Western Pennsylvania region. Now, with the www.pittrrc.org website, there is a greater ability to reach a worldwide audience.
When I was a young listener back in the early 70s, I was first introduced to the Rosary through the broadcast. After dinner on occasion, my father would take me to visit my Italian grandmother in the evenings around 7 pm. He would talk with my uncles about their construction businesses in the basement office. My grandmother did not speak English, nor did I speak Italian so there were no conversations. She always smiled at me, and we listened to the Rosary and prayed together. Other times when I was older, on walks, I would pass by houses in the neighborhood and hear the broadcast, knowing somehow, we were all connected with faith and devotion. Even after I was married and moved to the suburbs of Pittsburgh, taking my kids trick-or-treating for Halloween, I heard the Rosary broadcast again at different houses. Unfortunately, with time, many have passed away, and others have searched for means to pray with national media, whether EWTN or larger institutional sites. What I am concerned with today as Catholics and Christians is that we are being pulled selfishly apart into islands of isolation where we are not unified in one apostleship as God would hope we could. The 7 pm broadcast could be a means for us all to gather in the presence of the Immaculate and Sacred Heart. Consider Jesus gathered apostles, who in turn gathered the masses, who created the church with each of us being the brick or stone to form as one body in Christ.
Realizing the Calling from a Broken Car Radio
Being guided somehow by faith and the craziest circumstances, a moment came in early April 2022 when I was compelled to do the will of God. In hindsight, I realize this was planned for me long ago, back from my time with my grandmother and throughout my years. I always felt that there was greater importance for this broadcast in some manner for everyone in the world to pray the daily Rosary and Sacred Heart Consecration at 7 pm. When the recent moment happened to begin this mission, it started simply when my car radio display panel burned out. I could no longer listen comfortably to SiriusXM. It was Still fortunate to have the push buttons pre-programmed and functioning only for FM radio. One of my stations was WKHB, 620 am where the FM translator at 102.1 plays many classic rock and roll songs with limited interruptions. One evening, while picking up my youngest son, Luka, from a late high school practice. I was constantly trying to find the next good song to listen to on any station. Just at 7 pm, I happened to press the button for WKHB. I heard the announcement that the Knights of Columbus would stop airing the Rosary broadcast as I later learned they lost interest and did not receive enough monthly donations to cover the cost from listeners. This was going to cease, on May 1st. I looked at my son with shock and disgust, saying aloud, “I don’t think so.” My middle-aged frustration kicked in and said, “That’s Enough.” Being 55 and living in Pittsburgh and assured in any Rust Belt city in America, you constantly feel declining from industry, businesses, church closings, and losing the next time-honored tradition.
When the broadcast started, Pittsburgh in the 70s was about hard-working families and friends with traditions centered around our unified faith. Pittsburghers had more exuberance, being provided with an enjoyable, affordable, vibrant life. Ominously on the horizon, the decline was eminent with the late 70s recession. A sign of faith being a part of our culture came from Pittsburgh sports. Myron Cope, the Steeler’s color commentator and eventual friend whom I worked with at WTAE, named the Franco Harris famous catch from the 1972 Steeler AFC Divisional Playoff game the “Immaculate Reception” after the “Immaculate Conception” of our Blessed Mother. This was our faith and life intertwined with our great, long-standing traditions. As I mentioned, the broadcast of the Scriptural Rosary was a fundamental bedrock to the Western Pennsylvania Christian community and synonymous with tradition, just as we regarded our sports. I could not let this broadcast tradition disappear and our ability to be united by faith.
Knowing of the impending cancellation in just a few weeks and having enough mention of more decline, I realized how God was preparing me for this exact moment. All experiences now had a purpose. I always did my best efforts, not knowing why this was meant to be. I had various career changes in different fields, trying to find my place amongst the uncertainty of conditions. I worked at local radio stations in college, producing broadcasts, and hoped to work a career in broadcast management. Still most stations started consolidating then, no places were available for entry-level managerial positions. I finished college and continued working in construction management, which derived from my family business, and in sales, going door to door selling cable equipment and services or with business telephone system equipment. Recently, working as a Sales Operations Manager, I’ve learned the final crucial part of business development. In hindsight, I made great achievements with all my work but was not satisfied overall, although I kept learning a great deal from each experience.
At that moment, when I said, “That’s Enough,” my journey was complete. Radio stations taught me how to make the broadcast productions; construction gave me the persistence to complete the work, sales to raise funds, and business management qualified me to form a non-profit corporation confidently . Even all the various classes in college were developing my skills to prepare me for this moment to keep faith and prayer available to all who seek it. God always has a plan for you, mine now makes true, clear sense. I want you to understand with patience, and when you believe, God’s plan will develop for you to help Him. Just give Him the time he needs to put that plan in place for you to serve a purpose.
Divine Providence to Build a Rosary and Consecration Broadcast
A Divine Gift When You Have Friends of Faith
For so long before, when I would hear this Rosary broadcast before receiving ownership, I would converse freely with God, telling how I would want to improve the program. When I did decide to take this leap, I realized this was no longer my thoughts but my reality. How do you compose a prayer that would please God and your audience? Now, I felt like a child waiting to be guided and simultaneously having the adrenaline to want to get this accomplished. I knew God would guide me, and friends of all kinds would lead me to achieve this accomplishment. To succeed, I needed to conceive this unique endeavor with a business model approach by implementing five stages of development: creating a non-profit corporation, collecting local business donations to cover the annual cost, producing a new audio broadcast recording, creating a website for international coverage and support listeners needs, and promotion so this can become better known so many can gather and pray together.
My blessing came through my friends, old and new. What is unique is my education and career experience; there were friends who I instinctually knew many years ago were going to help me sometime in the future. Always had this sensation of Deja Vu and not understanding how this had a future purpose. You realize that God puts good people in your life who care for you and you for them and know you can create a greater good in turn for God’s plan if we can realize it together. Just patiently give it a little time.
The first man I thought I would consider advice from was a kind friend and fellow usher from Saint Paul’s Cathedral, Pittsburgh who always gave me a great smile and encouragement each time I saw him. Joe Nocito understands how businesses succeed and is enthusiastic about bringing them to fruition. Once I told him my idea for taking this program over, he guided me to form a non-profit entity. Also, with their great benevolence and belief in the idea, Joe and his wife Judi wanted to provide financial support to air the broadcast. Since 1999, Joe and Judi have been instrumental to Pittsburgh bringing to Downtown a larger-than-life nativity scene and the world’s only replica of the Vatican’s St. Peter’s Square display in Rome, now known as the Pittsburgh Creche. Another great supporting friend and who has been very sympathetic from the beginning and believes strongly that we all can pray together is John Diogaurdi from Rome Monument.
While the entity was established and financed, I realized this was the moment needed to complete the crucial third stage for creating a new Rosary broadcast and adding the Sacred Heart daily prayer of Consecration. Considering the many elements needed to work well, I needed to examine all areas, from the prayers, to the length of time, and talent. Importantly, within the tone of the Rosary and the repetition of prayer, each needed to be said subtly uplifting, in harmony, and paced to keep a proper flow. Time, was at first, always a major consideration. All radio broadcasts are fixed on a time block, so I was trying to consider the best approach to limit the content to the station format. I realized this was a wrong approach because prayer to God is not based on a time limit. So, how do you pray without it being a race based on meeting a time limit? You cannot, as that would not be praying with purity of heart. I decided just to make the overall broadcast as natural as it should be and leave out the time consideration. Graciously, the station owner, Bob and Ashley Stevens, agreed and saw the importance of praying well. I want to thank them, and their son, Michael, for believing in the program and knowing how serving God matters the most in the purest form. Another element needed was a brief dramatization for each scriptural mystery to express the relevance and meaning behind the prayers. What I always remember and profoundly influenced me when I was young listening every Saturday at 5 pm to a children’s bible radio broadcast on WPIT. The program gave great biblical stories and a dramatic presentation to teach children their faith. I considered this same approach for a new generation of children and adults to contemplate.
During this same time while producing the updated broadcast, I came under a challenge with interim funding. The Knights of Columbus assisted during the transition in providing the last amount from listener contributions. My immediate desire when I took over was to stop the guilt-ridden requests for personal donations from the listeners who are elderly and needy. Immediately, I wanted to provide a fresh environment to create a natural, peaceful place to pray with no worries about broadcast funding bringing this public solicitation to an end. My wife, Nevenka, and I were committed to supporting the monthly broadcast for several months. Still, during this interim period, we knew that the new broadcast needed to be ready to support itself by August 1st, 2022.
So, within one month, I searched and assembled immense talent from old and new friends with great faith, character, and voices. The main question for me and necessary was to have a priest lead the broadcast. I was searching for a voice with radio resonance and a pace with loving compassion. As I said before, this was well-planned for me before. I knew of this one parishioner many years ago and had a chance once to hear him speak to a group at a monthly Opus Dei gathering, providing as a layman such wisdom and intellect. Eventually, he became a priest in his later years. When my moment came to find who would be a good fit, I searched for a priest from the Pittsburgh diocesan website and watched their YouTube videos to listen without looking for a certain voice well suited for radio. After a while, all voices seemed the same. Except one voice was different. Father Mathew Hawkins had that distinctive resonating, loving voice and taught faith extraordinarily. Beneficially, please explore his tab to enjoy the spiritual insight.
Fortunately, the greatest gift was assembling a team of talent with great and unique talents who have the same belief in providing others with this opportunity to pray. Julie Beroes narrates the Glorious Mysteries. Susan Deluca narrates The Sorrowful Mysteries and the Woman at the Tomb. Luka DePasquale, my son, delivers the voice of Simeon in the Presentation, Officer in the Sorrowful Mysteries, and the Steward of the Feast for the Wedding at Cana. Michael Dongilli announces the broadcast and has the voice of God for the Transfiguration. Don Marinelli provides many versatile voices as the Angel Gabriel in the Annunciation, Angel at the Birth of Jesus, Pontious Pilate for the Sorrowful Mysteries, Young Man inside the tomb for the Resurrection, Man in the white garment for the Ascension, Uzziah in the Coronation, and John The Baptist in the Baptism of Jesus. Ken Milchick narrates The Joyful Mysteries, Officer in the Sorrowful Mysteries, and Devout Jew in the Decent of the Holy Spirit. Anthony Perry is the voice for Jesus. Paula Taggart narrates the Luminous Mysteries, and Elisabeth for the Visitation. Jennifer Whitley rehearsed for Mary's voice and recorded initial prayers but, unfortunately, came down with COVID on the day of the main recording, substituting for her was Lauren Ricci.
We rehearsed weekly in the basement of Saint Paul’s Cathedral and Saint Bede, finding our harmony and dramatization. We were all ready to make the recording at Broadcast Communications, and the first attempt was on Monday, July 26; strangely, the power went out after we just started for no explained reason, and fortunately, we regrouped and completed the recording on Sunday, July 31st with a long session afterward of editing with great thanks to Michael Stevens and Ben Lawrence. Finally, with great expectation, on August 1, 2022, began the first broadcast of the Pittsburgh Radio Rosary and Consecration with the inclusion of a weather warning.
Divine Providence to Build a Rosary and Consecration Website
A Divine Gift When You Have Friends of Faith, Part II
With the daily radio broadcast in place, I anticipated the fourth stage to create a website for anyone worldwide to listen to and participate in. I wanted a dedicated website location based on search engine optimization to reach an audience in search of a site offering a broadcast to pray together at 7 pm every night, to pray independently, and have a centralized resource to locate local and educational Catholic information for the laity, and an interactive bulletin board for us to communicate. This concept took time to conceive and await guidance for enlightenment and, with the eventual help from others, to build the website and provide relatable artwork.
Fortunately, the blessing finally came most uniquely after spending many months considering how to assemble this site so it can be meaningful to so many. I had no experience building and implementing a brand-new website centered on prayer. Once again, the moment strangely happened; I was waiting, this time at a local bar, a part of my youth close to where I was picking up my son, Luka, from a high school event. Bootleggers is known for being a college bar for the University of Pittsburgh. I overheard a young man across the empty bar, Kaisamba Wisniewski (known as Kai), talk and express his anxiety about his upcoming presentation and finals in computer science to the bartender. I was about to leave and went over to tell him he would be fine. I went through this myself when I went to Pitt. I said first, “Don’t sweat it.” We started a conversation for a moment. He eventually told me he and his friend knew a great deal about website creation. Just then, his friend Ivan Bondarenko arrived, and immediately, they easily saw the possibilities and uniqueness of the website and reassured me this could happen without any hesitation.
What makes this story unique is the location of where they were standing. Many years ago, just after I finished college, I prayed the Rosary often with Novenas and even completed the Saint Louis-Marie de Montfort 33-day prayer of Consecration. I always used rosary beads belonging to my older brother, Joe, which were from his first communion, very standard black beads with a silver metal chain. One time, in conversation with my friend Sister Brigid Moriarity, a Sister of Mercy said to me in her beautiful Gaelic accent, “If you pray with those Rosary Beads enough; they will turn gold.” I told her then that she was crazy for this kind of change and did not expect or want this to happen. She, with her great wisdom, was right, they eventually changed. The chain links turned to rose gold. Of course, I cherished having them and felt blessed to have been considered and given a great gift. One night many years ago, I finished a novena at the Cathedral and immediately went down to this same bar to meet my friends. My rosary beads were in a pouch inside my leather coat pocket. I took the coat off at the bar and threw it on a bench in an empty booth. The next day, I realized the rosary beads were not in my coat and returned to search. I was angry that this happened and asked the Blessed Mother, Why? I upsettingly said okay, you will bring me my new beads and lost my interest in praying devoutly.
Some years later, I met my future wife at the Cathedral as an usher. For our first time getting to know one another, I was invited for dinner at her cousin Alice’s house, and we talked about many subjects, especially Croatia where Nevenka is from, and nearby Medjugorje, where she had just visited. Around this time, she was asked to translate for the visionary Ivan Dragicevic for a couple of Marian conferences so she understood well. When I was about to leave, she said to wait, and she had something for me in her bedroom. She came down the stairs and said, “This is for you.” and placed the Rosary Beads in my hand. I told to myself, “You’re Good,” referring to the Blessed Mother. This time, the beads are made of wood with heavy black thread which is good enough, nice, and humble. I was truly blessed as I got my rosary beads back and a wife. The main significant ironic point for me since the bar was renovated is that Kai and Ivan stood in the same place where the beads were lost. Many years later were found in another form, blossoming into a Rosary website for all to have our beads. If you notice, I wanted the chains between the beads to be in the same rose gold color on the site.
Considering the website artwork's appearance, I wanted to express a simplistic portrayal of love and compassion restoring the unifying faith the broadcast provides the City of Pittsburgh. The Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus surround us as Pittsburghers; now, for everyone elsewhere should have unity. They want us to know how much they love us. We must understand that we’re never alone. The Rosary and prayer of Consecration will allow us to find the spiritual communion and understanding we all need to sustain our lives.
A challenging task is conceptualizing a visual thought and how to express this to an artist. How can the artist comprehend your vision, especially when depicting the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary surrounding the City of Pittsburgh? Even more so when the artist had never seen the City before. Fortunately for me, through a Google search I found Upwork, a website for independent artists from around the world who you can commission to create digital artwork. How blessed again I was to locate Gustavo Rabelo Landsmann from Brazil. His was patience and understanding to extract my thoughts to express a meaningful and loving vision for the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts. I am grateful for his time and perfection in getting the image as I perceived it.
As mentioned, the website was designed uniquely for four distinct pages: Praying Together, Praying Independently, Spirituality/Sponsors, and the Bulletin Board. Ivan Bondarenko worked on custom coding to achieve the specialized functionality of creating a unique website for you so you can have a moment to pray together, learn spirituality, and communicate with each other. If you need to hire a distinctive website designer, I highly recommend contacting, Ivan Bondarenko and his company, www.ivanbond.tech for a consultation. With Ivan's new position and other recent demands, I received further assistance to complete the website from the University of Pittsburgh with a computer science capstone opportunity. Justin Zeng built the mobile capability and made final adjustments to functionality and appearance. Drew Puszko, a friend of my sons who attended Central Catholic with them, was generous in helping manage the site and designing the capability for having a radio broadcast on page one for Praying Together. I must also thank my nephew Ivan Smolkovic, who helped me with coding pages on page 3, Spirituality while visiting us on vacation. All five of them had tremendous patience in dealing with a novice’s vision and passion to provide an ability for us to pray and live together with our faith, so I am very thankful for their work and mastery.
Hopeful Conclusion
Now Come and Join Us as One Body with Christ
The broadcast and website are “A Moment of Prayer Dedicated to You,” which is for finding peace and joy through prayer knowing you’re always loved by God through the intercession of Jesus and Mary, who wants to be in your life. You’re also not alone, as others are praying together for you and with you, and we are all in One Body with Christ. As I mention in the Sacred Heart prayer of Consecration and from my experience throughout, please be humble, patient, pure, and holy obedient to thy will as his plan will come to you. Please share this website so others may know of our existence and provide a guiding light to them. Hopefully, other cities' radio stations can air this broadcast at 7 pm. Please contact me by email with your thoughts and interest in pursuing the broadcast for your area, and I can share the model to make it happen.
Take loving care,
John DePasquale
President and Founder
Pittsburgh Radio Rosary and Consecration
pray@pittrrc.org
