Madeleine Choir School classes hear history of the rosary

Intermountain Catholic

+ Enlarge

Madeleine Choir School 3rd- and 4th-grade students pray the rosary after learning its history from Beth Mahoney (behind), Holy Cross Family Ministries mission director. IC photo/Christine Young

SALT LAKE CITY — Beth Mahoney, Holy Cross Family Ministries mission director, led a hands-on presentation "The History of the Rosary," for 3rd- and 4th-grade students at The Madeleine Choir School Oct. 5. During a two-week period, Mahoney will visit all the Catholic schools in Utah.

Mahoney focuses on the history of the rosary, the mysteries and what the students can learn about their lives from Jesus and prayer. She also gave presentations to Saints Peter and Paul and Saint Mary of the Assumption parishes and to the Holy Cross Associates.

"It’s so exciting to be able to do this at the beginning of the Year of Faith, which starts Oct. 11," Mahoney said. "We view the rosary as a catechism on a string because it begins with the Annunciation and talks about how Jesus came into our world by the invitation of the Angel Gabriel and continues through his public life with the Mysteries of Light. It then goes to the Sorrowful Mysteries and to the fact that he rose at Easter in the Glorious Mysteries and is with us now through his Holy Spirit."

The Mysteries of Light added to the rosary in 2002 by Pope John Paul II "really gives the story of the life of Christ a completion because for the longest time in our Church we went from the fact that Jesus was lost in the temple as a teenager to the beginning of the end of his life in the sorrowful mysteries," Mahoney said.

Mahoney explained to the students how the rosary was developed in the second century by the monks who prayed the psalms six times a day and dropped a stone after each prayer. Mahoney also asked the students how many times a day they pray.

"As the monks walked to and from work and worked on the farm they would pray 150 psalms," she said. "But some would forget the psalms and would pray the prayers of the faithful or think good thoughts. So they all decided to pray the same prayers and decided to pray the Hail Mary on 150 stones in groups of 10 and tie them around their belts."

The other prayers of the rosary were added later.

Holy Cross Family Ministries, headquartered in Massachusetts, is celebrating its 70th anniversary. The ministry has four components: Family Rosary, Family Theater Productions in English and Spanish, Family Rosary International, and The Father Peyton Institute in Peru, Spain and Ireland.

In Salt Lake City, Father Omar Ontiveros, Saints Peter and Paul pastor, plays 60-second spots from Family Theater Productions in Spanish on his radio programs on KDUT 102.3 FM and KXTA 1600 AM. "I have received positive feedback from these spots in emails," he said. "They are about family values, anger management, prayer life and different topics that are of interest to the Latino family. They are being produced in a format for the Latino culture. We have plans to run 30-minute shows during Advent."

The programming is geared toward the Latino experience in the United States because the Hispanic Church is growing, said Susan Wallace, Holy Cross Ministry director of external relations. "As we talk to families, we learn that they struggle with basically the same issues: family unity, communication and forgiveness. What we are able to do with these stories is put them into a context that is meaningful for the first and second generation Latino families in the United States. Our outreach as producers is completed when we find partners in ministry with stations like KDUT and KXTA in Utah and around the world."