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EIGHT
THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
JANUARY 5, 1957.
They Weave A Spiritual Crown For Mary
(By Stephen R. Noyak
Director, "Crown of Rosaries
Crusade")
A giant seems to be stirring in
the souls of the faithful across
this world Mary loves so much.
Since 1917, when Mary left her
throne in Heaven to bring her
message of love to the world, at
Fatima, countless souls have been
returning to her arms.
A new army is on the march.
While the diplomats sit around
tables and discuss the probabili
ties of peace, and while the ar
mies of the nations march in
preparation for a war no one
wants and everyone expects, a
different type of army is being
formed. This army has no weap
on, but the Rosary. This army is
sure of victory, because it is fight
ing under the banner of the
Blessed Mother. This army is the
Crown of Rosaries Crusade, a
band of people from all walks of
life united in a world-wide spiri
tual prayer for peace and love.
Like the Crusaders of old, men,
women and children of good faith
everywhere are turning to Heav
en for leadership in the heighten
ing struggle against an almost
overpowering enemy. Our Lord
has told us that where two or
three are gathered together in
His Name, He is there in their
midst. Love has no international
boundaries, and by praying to
gether, even though in different
parts of the world, we show the
love we have for one another, and
God is present in our midst.
Our united prayer exceeds the
strength of any material army.
With faith we can move moun
tains. We can renew the face of
the earth, and we have been
warned often enough that it needs
renewing. Our Blessed Mother
came to Fatima to bring this mes
sage of love and strength. She
told us that we mifst amend our
lives. She said the faithful must
do more good. She warned us that
Our Dear Lord was hlready too
offended by the sins of the world
and that He would allow man
to lead himself into great catas
trophes. And she promised that
peace would come to the world if
the Rosary were faithfully recit
ed.
The Rosary has many times
been the chain that has whipped
the enemy into ignominious de
feat. Heaven has told us that our
j weapon is faith and the Rosary.
I We need no physical arms—only
i the arms folded in prayer to bring
the peace of God to our crushed
world. We have been crushed to
the earth in the devil’s onslaught,
but he has brought us to our
knees where we can achieve our
victory.
United in this Crown of Rosa
ries Crusade, we are forming a
spiritual crown of Rosaries which
is encircling the globe with peace
ful good will. With people all
over the world saying the daily
Rosary in this united campaign
for peace' and love, not a minute
passes in time without someone,
somewhere, saying the Rosary.
Each person knows that he is say
ing his Rosary in unity with every
other person. Each is adding his
own garland to the spiritual crown
which has been formed through
out the world. Through the con
stant re-living of the Mysteries
of the Rosary, the true peace of
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Christ is brought into each and
every life, and, ultimately, will be
brought into the world.
HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE
At the beginning of the Marian
Year, on Nov. 6, 1953, Father
Lawrence D. McGinley, assistant
| pastor at Holy Trinity Church,
j Passaic, N.J., and myself, a lav-
| man, discussed the possibilities of
! a Marian Year Rosary Crusade
with the intentions as outlined
: above. We wrote to every member
of our parish Holy Name S^K-iet}'
and met with astonishing initial
success.
Encouraged by these returns,
T mentioned the Crusade in my
correspondence with Father Jos-
| eph, Director of the Mercy of God
Devotion, Marian Fathers. Stock-
bridge, Mass. Father Joseph wrote
; back immediately, calling the
: Crusade, “A new and inspiring
| apostolate,” and sending the Mer-
I cy of God Devotion mailing list.
Our response from this group of
faithful people was overwhelming,
j with better than 50 per cent join
ing and enlisting other members.
The Crusade had begun its world
wide ers irclement.
W'th this encouraged growth
0” + s "'de our parish, we wrote to in
dividuals, churches, schools, re-
-1 „, q communities, hospitals,
Holv Name and Rosary Societies
and the Catholic and secular press
throughout this country and
abfftad.
| Many religious communities of-
i fered their cooperation and serv-
| ices in distributing and mimeo
graphing and printing our Cru
sade folders as did individuals
throughout the world. The Trap-
pists of Our Lady of the Holy
Ghost Abbey in Conyers, Ga., un
der the wonderful Abbot Robert
McGann, were especially instru
mental in the spread of the Cru
sade,
The Catholic newspapers and
magazines, such as, The Advocate.
The Register, The Catholic News,
St. Joseph’s Magazine, Our Lady
of Fatima, Scapular, Immaculata
and about 100 others generously
aided the Crusade, through their
publicizing of the Crusade’s
growth.
Two letters from abroad seem
ed to prove the tremendous world
wide appeal of this Crusade in
honor of Our Blessed Mother. One
came from the Rector of the
Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in
Portugal; the other came from
the Rector of the Shrine of Our
Lady of Banneaux, Belgium, both
requesting folders and promis
ing their cooperation in the
spread of the Crusade.
The progress of the Crusade was
beyond any expectation. At the
end of the first week, only 40,000
Rosaries were promised. By six
weeks we had promises for 580,-
000 Rosaries. And for the entire
Marian Year, a phenomenal total
of over 3,000,000 Rosaries were
said!
Near the end of the Marian
Year, a report of the Crusade was
sent to the Bishop of Paterson,
His Excellency, the Most Rev
erend James A. McNulty. This re
port was then submitted to Rome.
His Excellency granted his im
primatur for our booklet and
personally encouraged us to con
tinue the Crusade and to enlist
as many members as we could.
Forming a special staff from
our Junior and Senior Sodalities
of Our Lady in our parish, we
printed several hundreds of thou
sands of folders, letters, member
ship blanks, posters, etc., for free
distribution to all parts of the
world. Original members were
contacted and were asked to con
tinue their membership indefi
nitely and were encouraged tb'
enlist other members.
Since the end of the Marian
j Year in December, 1954, when 3
million Rosaries were said in the
Crusade, in two years our mem
bership has increased fivefold, so
that during the year 1957. more
than 15,000,000 Rosaries will be
I said in every State of the United
I States and in 45 other Countries.
THE MOMENTUM GATHERS
As the Crown continues to en
circle the globe, it grows stronger
1 and stronger.
The superiors of many religious
communities throughout the world
have given great impetus to the
[ growth of the Crusade, by uniting
the Rosaries of their members
! with the Rosaries being said by
i the other members of the Crusade.
The Salesian Fathers, Head
quarters in Turin, Italy, have en
rolled their entire group of priests,
brothers and students in the
world, numbering 18,000 mem-
| bers. The Brothers of Christian
j Instruction, Jersey, England, en
listed their whole Congregation
of 2,000 members. St. Stephen’s
Convent, Nova Scotia, enrolled
1,500 members. The Mallinckrodt
Sisters of Christian Charity en
listed every member of their con
gregation throughout the entire
United States. In all, more than
100 religious communities have
enrolled in the Crusade and have
undertaken to distribute member
ship blanks and folders.
The Fatima Shrine in Portugal
has again requested folders in
j English and French., The National
; Shrine of the Immaculate Heart
I of Mary has also distributed our
folders.
German and Tagalog (Philip
pine) translations of the folder
have been made and are in proc
ess of being printed. We des
perately need the volunteer work
of some reader to do translations
into French, Spanish, Italian,
Polish, Hungarian, Russian, Chi
nese, Japanese, Portugese, and
other foreign languages. Further
extended expansion would thus
be helped.
THE LAYMAN'S ROLE
This is primarily a Crusade of
the laity. It was begun by a lay
man with the cooperation of a
priest. It has been extended by
the active participation of lay
men in' all walks of life in all
parts of the world. Many thou
sands of individuals have under
taken to become Captains in the
gigantic spiritual army being
formed. By enlisting their parish
ioners, bv speaking to their Socie
ties, to their relatives and friends,
by writing to strangers, by plac
ing our folders in pamphlet racks,
and by unsolicited contributions,
they have claimed this work as
their bwn and have demonstrated
that this is a concrete way of
performing Catholic Action.
Many have written us asking
how they can best help the Cru
sade. First, we recommend pray
er for our work and for our mem
bers. Then, we ask only that they
distribute our folders, which pre
sents the story of the Crusade
and its purpose. We seek no
money, no contributions; we seek
only to sprehd the good will and
the love so sorely needed in the
world today. We have many
needs, such, as paper for our fold
ers, typewriters, and anything
connected with the mass distri-
I button of literature. However, we
have the basic necessities and
j can proceed as rapidly as Our
Mary’s blessing, it would spread
as quickly and as effectively as
she herself wished. We did the
routine work necessary for its be
ginning, and we asked that Mary
bless our work, if she so wished.
After the Crusade began to
spread so rapidly to every corn
er of the globe, we began to feel
that it indeed had Mary’s blessing.
We saw the faithful recitation of
the Rosary by peoples all over
the world — with never a minute
passing by without someone pray
ing the beautiful prayers of the
Rosary. With this act of love by
each individual, there would in
deed be formed around the world
a spiritual crown for Mary’s
greater glory among her children
everywhere—a Crown of Rosa
ries—woven by the prayers of all
those who love her and trust her.
“You have blessed our work,
Dearest Queen, and you have in
spired so mans'- to become lead
ers in this new Crusade. We pray
that we are forming a gigantic
army dedicated to conquering the
world by love, with you, Our
Heavenly Queen, as our leader.
Taking the armor of God. having
| our loins girt about with truth,
wearing the breastplate of just
ice, our feet shod with the prep
aration of the gospel of peace,
bearing the shieM of faith, having
on the helmet of salvation and
carrying the sword of the Spirit
(which is the word of God), we
shall fight the enemy to its
death.” Lead us on, O Mary, to
Jesus and peace.
The slaughter of the Hungarian
nation chills and torments peo
ples everywhere. In each of our
hearts, we can feel the guilt of
our own inaction. If we had only
prayed more! If we could have
i our past to re-live and knew that
j our prayers would have saved
| this gallant people would we not
j eagerly grasp our Lady’s hand
I and say: “Show me how to pray,
\ Mary, to prevent this.” Now we
j must squint into the future and
| try to imagine what terrible ca
tastrophes hang over our heads,
j But, we need not look any farth-
j er than the fingertips which hold
| the Rosary beads to find the
; answer to the riddle of the future.
Here, right in our hands, lies the
power of breaking the chains that
i bind a world in agony.
The Rosary! The Rosary) The
. Rosary! Echoes Fatima.
We ask that you join the Cru-
sade, that you try to help spread
it among your family, vour
friends, your societies, your clubs,
your school, etc. No donations
will be asked for. Most important,
please pray for the spread of the
j Crusade. Without prayer for our
I success, there could be no suc-
j cess. The founders of the Crusade
directed many prayers to the
Little Flower. Saint Therese, and
j feel that it was her direct in
tercession which spared the rapid
growth of the Crusade,
j To join, please send your pro-
j mise to say the daily Rosary to:
j The Crown of Rosaries Crus-ade,
Passaic, N. J.
UPHILL ALL THE WAY
j Life is worth living even if
| man does almost kill himself tr
ing to raise the cost of it
Blessed Mother so favors us. Our
only concern is’ the spread of
Mary’s Rosary and the love it
generates.
As we look at the progress of
the Crusade, we see Mary’s hand
I guiding it steadily to its destined
place in our beloved faith. With
’ Mary, all things are possible.
When the Crusade began, we
knew that, if the Crusade had
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