Shelter Island Reporter Photo Quiz: What is that? March 29, 2025

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No one heard this rooster’s call from last week (see below). The proud bird is perched on the boulder outside the Our Lady of the Isle’s Parish offices.

He gains significance every Lenten season leading to Easter, said Father Peter DeSanctis. “The rooster is a symbol of Easter, and he brings good and bad news.”

First the bad news. Father DeSanctis noted that Jesus, before he was taken into custody leading to his death on the cross, said to his disciple Peter, “I say unto thee, that this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice.”

And Peter did just that, saying three times when asked by authorities that he didn’t know Jesus because he was afraid for his own life. He later repented and gave his life for his faith.

“Now the good news,” Father DeSanctis told us. “The rooster is a representative of the dawn when Mary Magdalen and other women went to the tomb where Christ was laid after his death, and found it empty. He had risen.”