By Elizabeth Brown, Director of the St. Cloud Mission Office, and Nina Walz
As we enter the beginning of the school year and approach World Mission Month in October, our office is especially busy! We start receiving more requests from all around the country and world for World Mission rosaries to be used in programs for faith formation, youth ministry and Catholic school classrooms. Thankfully, we have many individuals and groups who are creating them for us all year long and are ready to supply them if a special request arises.
On Sept. 24, Archbishop Fulton Sheen, the previous National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in the U.S., will be beatified. It was 75 years ago that Archbishop Sheen created the World Mission Rosary as a way to unite the world in prayer, by representing the five regions of the world with five different colored decades: green for the grasslands of Africa; red for the Americas; blue for the islands of Oceania; white for Europe; and yellow for Asia.
To mark this special moment in the life of the Church, the National Office of the Pontifical Mission Societies has asked that at least 75,000 World Mission rosaries be created from across the country for the beatification so that every person participating in the liturgy that day be able to pray together to honor Archbishop Sheen.
Receiving the ask in July from the National Office, we put out this special request to some of our rosary makers to help us fill a pledge of 6,000 World Mission Rosaries to be sent from the Mission Office to St. Louis for this special celebration. Let’s just say that everyone willingly offered to help and we were completely overwhelmed with the response and the supply!
Tom and Gloria Roelike from Long Prairie are one of our rosary making couples that we called immediately. They make World Mission Rosaries as well as assorted rosaries for us, and very humbly bring them in and drop them off with a big smile. Tom makes the wire rosaries and Gloria makes the cord rosaries, and Tom noted, “Gloria makes four of her rosaries to my one because bending the wire and such takes a bit more time.”
Gloria added, “I also have Tom put the crucifixes on the cord rosaries so that gives me a bigger edge in more being completed!”
Tom and Gloria have taken their rosary making skills to the schools, teaching the youngsters in their daughter’s classroom as well as in Our Lady of Mount Carmel School. The Roelikes combined delivery of World Mission Rosaries was 1,520!
Another group of about 15 women and men who create rosaries for the Mission Office year-round are the Sacred Heart/St. Luke Rosary Makers from the Tri-Parishes of Boyceville, Elmwood and Spring Valley in Wisconsin. Cindy Schlegel from Baldwin, Wisconsin, helps coordinate the effort. Cindy was already making rosaries on her own as was a friend of hers, so they then taught a class per request in Spring Valley as there was so much interest. Boyceville then followed.
Cindy noted that, “The Boyceville group are the ‘Go-Getters’ led by two ladies in particular who only make World Mission Rosaries at about 225 each per month!” The Sacred Heart/St. Luke Rosary Makers have been together since 2015 and have collectively sent out over 60,000 rosaries. The average age of the members is 65; the oldest member is 77 and the youngest is 55. The group gets together once a month to fill the variety of requests that they receive from around the country as well as from around the world, most recently Ghana; Sudan; India; and the Mission Office. We have received 800 rosaries from Cindy’s groups.
We also have the St. Rose of Lima Group from St. Francis Xavier Parish in Sartell, who have quickly produced 4,180 World Mission Rosaries for us! This group of 16 women who gather twice a month have been together since 2018. Mary Fasen is the Regional Chair of four groups which includes the St. Rose of Lima group, and evolved from a gentleman named, Marlyn, who back in 1978 created his first rosary one bead at a time.
We have received the 6,000 pledged World Mission Rosaries and more! Everything has been counted, packed, labeled and shipped off to St. Louis for the beatification of Archbishop Fulton Sheen.
If you’d like to help make rosaries, donate or would like a rosary for yourself, please contact the St. Cloud Mission Office at 320-251-1100.
Click here to download a printable brochure on the World Mission Rosary.
