WASHINGTON (CNS) — The eighth annual global rosary relay June 23 involves 125 shrines in 63 countries throughout the world.
With 25 new sites, there’s an expectation that 10 million people will be saying the rosary in support of priestly vocations and the sanctification of priests.
The relay is hosted and planned by the Worldpriest apostolate. The founder of the apostolate, Marion Mulhall, is the organizer of the group’s biggest event of the year.
The rosary began eight years ago because a voice spoke to Mulhall.
“I was awoken very early one morning eight years ago,” she told Catholic News Service. “I very gently heard four very simple words: 20 countries, 20 mysteries.”
She decided to ask a group of colleagues where they thought this was coming from and what it meant.
“We discerned it very quickly,” Mulhall said. It was Mary calling her to start something where the rosary would be prayed in 20 countries on the same day.
“In about two to three days’ time,” she recalled, “we had basically announced the first global rosary relay ever to be held anywhere in the world.”
Mulhall and her team decided to commit one day where the whole world could pray the rosary continuously. Since then, millions have participated in this event calling for more vocations to the priesthood.
“We never had a global rosary relay for any particular purpose,” Mulhall said. “The one purpose people are asked to pray for is the sanctification of priests.”
“It’s just growing all the time,” Mulhall said. “In these times, we really need to pray for our priests.”
Each year, shrines throughout the world are asked to join in the rosary relay. This year, shrines in Japan, Korea, Pakistan, Sweden, Iceland and 20 other locations are participating for the first time.
“We have a Byzantine-rite group gathering from Sacramento in California,” Mulhall said. “They are actually going to sing the rosary. They are praying the glorious mysteries and they are going to sing that in their Byzantine rite.”
In addition to the scheduled rosary time slot, each shrine can hold other events such as Mass or adoration.
“In some places, they will have a Mass either before they pray their slot or they might have a mass afterward. They might have a eucharistic procession. They might have a Holy Hour,” Mulhall said. “Different places do different things and pray in various different ways. It reaches out to the whole world and the whole world can participate. I think that’s fabulous.”
Mulhall sends each shrine information on how to pray during the relay. She mentions what time the shrine needs to begin the rosary in order for it to be taken up by the next location and continue throughout the world.
“We have a program in place that people follow,” Mulhall said. “It’s the running order on how to pray on the day. So they know what they are supposed to do.”
This year, the relay will begin when the clock strikes midnight GMT June 23. The rosary will start in Seoul, South Korea, and end in Hermosillo, Mexico, at the Shrine of the Divine Child Jesus.
The rosary relay will be broadcast this year by 19 different stations, according to Mulhall. EWTN and other television broadcasts will be filming the rosary at several sites including the United States, France, Hungary and Puerto Rico.
Worldwide, people are asked to pray a special intention for Pope Francis at 6 p.m. Rome time.