Rosary peace plan spreads in schools

Sydney
23 June 2002

St Pio – newest saint

US calls in Australian archbishop

Order pays $3.6 million

Fund for ‘tragic cases’

Shame and sorrow for all in Church, says schools head

‘Humble, but delighted’

Church stands alone in war on poverty

Giving and receiving

Religious urge Govt to sign Kyoto treaty

Appointee ‘daunted’ but committed

New employment relations commission installed

Call to keep tough embryo laws

Editorial: In search of a better life

Letters: Back to the ‘bad old days’

Conversation: No platitudes – ‘all our teaching has to be real’ - Sybil Dickens, school principal

Reflections: ‘Welcome’ in a new faith family

Rosary peace plan spreads in schools

Students, teachers prepare for Youth Day pilgrimage

St Charbel’s students welcome bishop

Opinion: A role for entertainment and media in ‘new evangelisation’

A new beginning for Tampa refugees

Inspirations: Good hair day for young Maronites

Rosary peace plan spreads in schools

Kids can’t manage a whole rosary a day ... but they can manage a decade of rosary a day

By Marilyn Kerjean

“Kids can manage a decade; they can’t manage a whole rosary,” says Mary Haddow, a parishioner of St Patrick’s, Wallsend, in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese.

That is why she approached the parish’s primary school principal late last year with the idea of supplying the children with rosary beads so they could pray a few Hail Marys for peace in class each day.

Her proposal was met with enthusiasm and quickly gathered a momentum of its own.

The result is A Decade a Day, a movement that has seen a network of people provide up to 11,000 sets of rosary beads to more than 50 Catholic schools – mainly in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, but also as far as Canberra.

And there have also been inquiries from Melbourne about setting up A Decade a Day in a school there.

Schools that want to take part receive beads and a rosary prayer guide for each child.

Children also receive a membership certificate to remind them that they are among many children who are praying daily for peace.

Some schools do not require the rosary beads from A Decade a Day, but still make a commitment to take up the daily practice.

Mary and her husband Cedric, who are the main contacts for this lay initiative, received “thank you” letters recently from Year 5 students in Muswellbrook.

The catalyst for A Decade a Day was Pope John Paul II’s post-September 11 call for individuals and communities to pray for peace in which he commended the rosary to all Catholics.

When the Haddows offered to help their parish school take up Our Lady’s prayer for peace, their friends asked their parish principals too.

“The schools really embraced it. (The requests) got into the thousands, all within six weeks. Word just kept spreading,” says Mary.

“I was praying to the Holy Spirit about how were we going to pay for all these rosary beads!”

The answer was that she was already part of a small but determined team who believed in the power of prayer and had a devotion to Our Lady.

They found a supplier for the sets of rosaries and a sympathetic printer to run off the certificates at a low price.

And they raised $1300 from a community garage sale, to which 50 families contributed items.

“We take the rosaries to the schools personally and without any fanfare,” says Mary.

“It’s absolutely beautiful to see the feedback and response and people have been so generous.

“It’s very exciting to hear it’s still travelling.

“It’s been everybody’s effort and especially Our Lady’s.

“Our Lady must want it or it wouldn’t work otherwise.”

For more information on A Decade a Day call (02) 4955 8902 or email maryhaddow@ozemail.com.au