By Teresa Rodriguez
Cynthia Nunes, an Army veteran with 20 years of service, protected our country through her military service. Now, she safeguards souls by praying with the elderly at the Veterans Community Living Center at Fitzsimons in Aurora.
When she first moved to Colorado and settled in Aurora last year, Nunes sought a way to get involved with her faith and community.
“Thankfully, I found The Rosary Team and began volunteering to pray the rosary with seniors,” she shared, remembering her start with the ministry that serves the elderly through prayer and presence. When she reached out to The Rosary Team, Nunes was connected with another volunteer, Margaret, and the two became fast friends.
“She was the first person I met upon moving here and has become a very dear friend,” Nunes recalled. “It worked out beautifully. Because of Margaret, I’m now a parishioner at Our Lady of Loretto. Through my Catholic faith, God gave me more family and people in my life, filling my heart. I never feel alone; I just find a parish and pray to be next to God.”
With her new community, Nunes got to work with The Rosary Team, praying and accompanying seniors in assisted living facilities. As a veteran, she desired to bring prayer to the veteran community especially, to ensure their spiritual needs were met and show gratitude for their sacrifices. In this way, she and the other Rosary Team volunteers act as God’s spiritual soldiers, bringing Christ’s love to those in society who are often forgotten.
Attending to the care of souls in the last months or years of life demonstrates the immeasurable worth of those very lives. Catholic teaching holds that every human life possesses profound dignity from conception to natural death.
“Getting out the door to volunteer on Monday mornings is sometimes hard,” Nunes said of the spiritual battle. But once she is at the nursing home praying with the gathered residents, she experiences a deep joy. “It energizes me by prioritizing God and spreading love,” she added.
Even while serving the residents, the chance to pray with them helps Nunes deepen her own faith and remain focused on God. In each visit, Nunes and the residents bond over faith and share stories of their military service, the places they were stationed, and their experiences of war.
“We are tight; they know me and Ohana,” she said, referring to the labradoodle she brings to give extra companionship to the residents. “They are very protective of each other. I am grateful to have a place where I can pray with fellow veterans; we all sacrificed our time for the military and have an unspoken understanding.”
Nunes also prays the rosary at Renew, an assisted living home in Aurora, alongside a Rosary Team of volunteers. “We all thank God we met each other to share our Catholic faith by bringing prayer to the seniors in our community,” Nunes said of the dedicated team.
Despite enduring many personal sufferings in her life, Nunes remains firm in her faith. A survivor of the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon, she wrestled for years, though never losing her faith in God.
“My first assignment was at the Pentagon as a computer coder, which I loved. I worked in what was called the E-Ring, right where the plane hit on 9/11,” she recalled. “I felt shocked at how our country was being attacked, and then a feeling of sadness came over me. I never lost faith in God. He did not make this happen. But I wondered how my life had been spared when so many others would forever be scarred by the loss of life and sense of security we would have to embrace forever. My feelings of shock and sadness moved to pride as fellow countrymen and veterans worked tirelessly to put their own safety at risk just to make sure that others were saved.”
“Being a part of the Rosary Team helped me begin the journey towards healing because it required that I think of others before myself,” Nunes said. In her deepest days of depression, she felt God whispering to her, “Please, give me one more day.” So, Nunes continued on because she knew there was “nothing to lose by living one more day. I feel like the Holy Spirit is telling me I have more to do.”
“Today, I am so much healthier both mentally and physically,” she said. “The weekly visits with my fellow veterans praying the rosary and every other week praying at a local assisted living facility have helped me continue putting others before myself and understand how powerful both prayer and a sense of community are in this beautiful life that God has provided me.
“The power of the Rosary and being a member of the Rosary Team has positively impacted my life. In fact, these experiences as a member of the Catholic faith have saved my life,” Nunes concluded.
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For more information on The Rosary Team and to get involved, visit their website.
Teresa Rodriguez is the founder and president of The Rosary Team. She was taking care of hospice patients when she said “Yes” to this calling. With a graduate degree from the Augustine Institute with a focus on evangelization and catechesis and a Master of Science in Nursing, she is a hospice nurse practitioner. She was a guest on EWTN Radio’s Take 2 With Jerry and Debbie. Marian Father Chris Alar also filmed The Rosary Team in action for EWTN. To become a Rosary Team volunteer or mission partner visit: http://therosaryteam.org/.
