The reason and purpose behind the sticker

I sincerely want to thank you for your interest in the Dominus Vobiscum sticker.

It was in 2002 that I started to feel an immense pull towards the Faith, searching and looking to fill my cup. As I looked to daily signs, I noticed that there were plenty of stickers to put on your vehicle to profess being Christian; however, I was unable to find a sticker that had a definitive "Catholic" feel to it. Even though I did not put bumper stickers {of any sort} on my own car, I felt there was a need to create something for my fellow brethren who wanted to share the Faith on all levels. And so started the process of creating something - I wasn't sure yet what it would be or what it would encompass.

In 2007, I decided to contact a few companies with my ideas to see if they were able to make my vision a reality. My initial vision was not possible, so my next idea was to create a sticker using a photo I took. I have been doing photography since I was 15, so I was excited at the idea of really being able to create this on my own, start to finish.

In the sticker, you will see several elements that played into the final design of the sticker. First, the rosary. The beauty and power of the rosary as an instrument of prayer to help us take our petitions before our Lord must be adequately recognized. I found a few quotes from EWTN that I think help exemplify the marvel of this wonderful meditation:

• Among all the devotions approved by the Church none has been so favored by so many miracles as the devotion of the Most Holy Rosary" (Pope Pius IX).

• "Say the Rosary every day to obtain peace for the world" (Our Lady of Fátima).

• "There is no surer means of calling down God's blessings upon the family . . . than the daily recitation of the Rosary" (Pope Pius XII).

• "We do not hesitate to affirm again publicly that we put great confidence in the Holy Rosary for the healing of evils of our times" (Pope Pius XII).

• "No one can live continually in sin and continue to say the Rosary: either they will give up sin or they will give up the Rosary" (Bishop Hugh Doyle).

• "The Rosary is a magnificent and universal prayer for the needs of the Church, the nations and the entire world" (Pope John XXIII).

• "The Rosary is the compendium of the entire Gospel" (Pope Paul VI quoting Pope Pius XII).

• "Meditation on the mysteries of the Rosary . . . can be an excellent preparation for the celebration of those same mysteries in the liturgical actions [i.e. the Mass] and can also become a continuing echo thereof" (Pope Paul VI).

• "My impression is that the Rosary is of the greatest value not only according to the words of Our Lady at Fátima, but according to the effects of the Rosary one sees throughout history. My impression is that Our Lady wanted to give ordinary people, who might not know how to pray, this simple method of getting closer to God" (Sister Lucia, one of the seers of Fátima).

• "How beautiful is the family that recites the Rosary every evening" (Pope John Paul II).

• Pope John Paul II has called the Rosary his "favorite prayer," after the Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours.

• St. Louis de Montfort warns us against both the ignorant and scholars who regard the Rosary as something of little importance..."the Rosary is a priceless treasure inspired by God."

  Read more HERE

I knew the placement of the rosary was instrumental as well. The rosary I used is a crushed rose petal rosary from the Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe, New Mexico. {It was a rosary I picked up for my oldest daughter in October 2003 while there to photograph a friend's wedding in Albuquerque} I wanted to put Christ in the foreground so that the emphasis was appropriately placed on Him first. I then draped the rosary around in such a way that you can see our Blessed Mother in the background. She brings to mind a gentle, loving and motherly reminder that we should always be focused on Christ. Lastly, we see the connection between our Lord, Jesus Christ and His mother - our Blessed Mother - through the connecting beads of the rosary.

As I edited my photos, I realized that this particular picture {having almost 100 pictures to choose from of four different rosaries} was the one with the perfect composition. The next task was deciding on whether wording was necessary and if so, what would I use? It doesn't seem like much of a challenge, but I struggled with this. We all know that the word Catholic, means "universal".

How was I going to make this a universal sticker?

And a fellow Catholic sister reminded me that Latin, being the universal language of our Church, would be an excellent choice for a phrase.

Next...what phrase would encompass what would be used for the sticker? I thought of several choices for the phrase, but settled on Dominus Vobiscum, or "The Lord be with you". I had the wonderful experience of attending a parish that celebrated the Novus Ordo in Latin and, as a result, heard the familiar salutation that Father Fasano would say to us, "Dominus Vobiscum" and our response was "et cum spiritu tuo" or "and also with you" or more traditionally "and with your spirit".