Scottish Catholic Observer

Cardinal Keith O’Brien (above centre) will bless Scotland’s biggest and most colourful Rosary on Friday as Mission Matters Scotland launches its Year of Faith Mission Rosary campaign at Cardinal Newman High School, Bellshill.
The giant, five-decade Rosary, which is around four feet in diameter, has beads the size of tennis balls and a Crucifix two-feet high.

It was made by staff and pupils at Cardinal Newman as a large-scale copy of more than 100,000, normal-size Mission Rosaries being sent out by Mission Matters Scotland to parishes and Catholic schools, to reintroduce the Rosary as a form of daily prayer across the country.

The Rosaries are accompanied with easy-to-follow instruction cards for both adults and school pupils and represent Scotland’s contribution to a worldwide campaign of prayer organised by Pontifical Mission Societies and centred on the Mission Rosary.
Fr Tom Welsh, (above right with St Peter’s Primary pupils at Mission Sunday launch in Edinburgh), director of Mission Matters Scotland, said that the Mission Rosary, which has different coloured decades, representing each of the five continents of the world, ‘is an ideal way to raise the prayer life of Scotland and to remind people of the importance of the missions.’

“In this Year of Faith, when the Catholic Church is reaching out through its new evangelisation, it is a simple and ideal way of re-introducing the Rosary to Scotland at a time when the country and the world need prayer, and the benefits it brings, both at home and on the missions, as never before,” Fr Welsh said.

The campaign has the backing of Archbishop Philip Tartaglia, president of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, who believes the Rosary campaign ‘encourages families and schools to rediscover the great prayer of the Rosary, and opens minds and hearts to the work of missionaries overseas.’

“The bishops are delighted to support it as a real fruit of the Year of Faith,” the archbishop said. Speaking ahead of Friday’s launch, Cardinal Keith O’Brien said he is ‘very pleased’ to have been invited to bless the giant Rosary and copies of smaller ones now being sent out to schools and parishes across Scotland.

“We are all called to prayer and this campaign fits in well with Mission Matters Scotland, which follows the great and proud tradition that we have as a nation of missionary work, when it invites us to pray a little every day, both for this country and for the missions,” he said.

It is fitting that Cardinal Newman has been chosen as the venue for Friday’s launch, as, as Isabelle Boyd, the school’s headteacher, explained, the school has a great Rosary tradition ‘with Rosary prayed by pupils and staff every Friday in our oratory at lunchtime.’

“We see this as a great opportunity to boost the awareness of this accessible and easy-to-say form of prayer further among pupils, staff and parents in this Year of Faith,” she said.

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