WelCom November 2024
Pope Francis called for all Catholics to take part in this year’s World Rosary Day on 7 October, the Feast of the Holy Rosary, by coming together at their local time of 7pm to recite the Rosary at shrines, in community settings or at home.
The World Rosary began at 7pm in New Zealand at St Mary’s Pukekaraka, Ōtaki. Led by Ngāti Kapu, local Māori and Māori Catholic the Rosary was recited in te reo Maori and English. The prayers of people of St Mary’s and wider, who gathered in the soft evening light at the Pukekaraka Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes, were live-streamed across the globe.
From Pukekaraka, the Rosary moved across time zones with each country beginning their recitation at 7pm as a ‘relay’ creating a continuous wave of prayer encircling the globe.
Pope Francis invited all Catholics to participate in this 24-hour universal day of prayer and to unite for a single intention in a ‘symphony of prayer’: the spiritual success of the Jubilee of Hope 2025. The Holy Father asked that we gather in prayer, trusting in the intercession of Our Lady to accompany us on this journey toward hope, renewal, grace and peace.
Awe, e Maria, e ki ana koe i te kereatia | Hail Mary, Full of Grace
Global Rosary
Philip Cody sm
Pope Francis wanted the Church to prepare for the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope. He asked that on the Feast of the Rosary, 7 October, people pray the Rosary for that intention.
This request was taken up by Monsignor Umberto Angeloni of a Roman Dicastery. He approached Marion Mulhall of Worldpriest Global Apostolate, to ask if she knew some contacts in New Zealand so that the ‘Global Rosary’ could begin ‘at the ends of the earth’.
Marion has previously worked with the Faith Community at Pukekaraka and the Carmelite Sisters in Auckland for a global Rosary for Priests each 16 June. A ‘Global Rosary’ is a 24-hour, continuous Rosary, going in sequence around the world.
So Pukekaraka was chosen to begin the Rosary at 7pm on 7 October, 2024. A unique focus was that the Rosary was led by Ngāti Kapu, local Māori and Māori Catholic. One delightful aspect of that was two young children, Te Mauri and Harina Picchi-Cooper, beginning the prayer leading the gathering with the hymn ‘Mō Maria’.
Various people of St Mary’s and wider gathered at the Pukekaraka Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes and, accompanied by the singing of birds in the surrounding bush in the evening air, prayed the Rosary in te reo Māori and English.
This carries on the tradition established by the first French Marists with the blessing of Tangata Whenua who focused prayer at this shrine of Mary. Pukekaraka is a place of pilgrimage for the Archdiocese of Wellington as noted for the coming Jubilee Year. The Global Rosary focused on the foundation and continuing life of the Archdiocese around Mary.
