Jean Sanderson, OSSM, prioress, and Anne McCain, OSSM, secretary of St. Juliana Community, Ladysmith, prepare 500 Mission Rosaries for mailing. (Submitted photo)
The Secular Servites of Ladysmith completed 500 Mission Rosaries to be among more than 75,000 rosaries to be distributed Sept. 24 at the beatification ceremony of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen in St. Louis.
The Servites responded to a request for volunteers from Msgr. Roger J. Landry, national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies USA.
Archbishop Sheen was a Catholic evangelist whose television and radio programs, books and articles brought the teachings and love of Christ to vast multitudes.
His beatification will be an opportunity for people of every age to learn from his example and formally invoke his intercession in their own efforts to live and share the faith, close to home and across the world.
The World Mission Rosary was designed by Archbishop Sheen 75 years ago this year, in 1951, at the beginning of his tenure as national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies. It was a concrete way to help everyone pray to Our Lady, Queen of Apostles, for the success of the Church’s missionary efforts across the world.
The first decade was colored green for the rich green fields of Africa; the second, blue, for the oceans of Oceania and the Pacific Islands; the third, white, for Europe, where the Pope dressed in white dwells; the fourth, red, for the Americas, evangelized so often through the blood of the martyrs; and the fifth, yellow, for Asia, the continent of the sun rising in the East.
The Secular Servites began with a rosary-making learning session on June 17 and by July 29 had the 500 rosaries ready for mailing.
