Hands of Mary: 60 years of Rosary graces
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...Laurene Moore prayed the rosary long before she was Catholic. As a young woman, Laurene found herself torn between the faith of her Protestant family and that of her Catholic boyfriend. When her boyfriend’s mother gave her a rosary, Laurene began praying it and seeking clarity through the prayers. “We lived out in the country on a farm so I would get off the school bus and walk a couple miles, and I’d pray the rosary. I’d say ‘I don’t understand this faith at all, what am I supposed to do?”’ My family was not happy that I was thinking about becoming Catholic.” Clarity eventually came through the graces of prayer and the Catechism classes Laurene secretly took through a mail-in course offered by the Knights of Columbus. “I never looked back. Becoming Catholic was the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Laurene Moore prayed the rosary long before she was Catholic. As a young woman, Laurene found herself torn between the faith of her Protestant family and that of her Catholic boyfriend. When her boyfriend’s mother gave her a rosary, Laurene began praying it and seeking clarity through the prayers. “We lived out in the country on a farm so I would get off the school bus and walk a couple miles, and I’d pray the rosary. I’d say ‘I don’t understand this faith at all, what am I supposed to do?”’ My family was not happy that I was thinking about becoming Catholic.” Clarity eventually came through the graces of prayer and the Catechism classes Laurene secretly took through a mail-in course offered by the Knights of Columbus. “I never looked back. Becoming Catholic was the best thing that ever happened to me.”
After marrying and starting a family, Laurene and her husband were devastated with the loss of their newborn son. It was again in the midst of confusion and trial that the rosary became a lifeline for Laurene. “My sister-in-law, Dorothy, was suffering too. We were at her kitchen table flipping through a Sunday Visitor magazine and saw an advertisement for making rosaries.” The ad from a group based in Louisville, Kentucky, was an appeal to join in a ministry making rosaries to be sent with missionaries around the world. Laurene knew she had found an avenue to help others experience the graces she had come to know from the intercession of the Blessed Mother.
Now celebrating 60 years of the Hands of Mary Rosary Makers, the group, based at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Lansing, makes over 20,000 rosaries a year. The rosaries are sent with missionaries, priests, and sisters to schools, churches, hospitals, military bases, and prisons in dozens of countries, and have landed in the hands of over a million people; a lifeline of grace.
Karen Richards, a longtime member of the group, is humbled by how far-reaching their simple ministry is. “Each one of our inexpensive little rosaries is like a ripple that goes out somewhere in the world, you never know where they will go.” The feedback from people who receive rosaries is an extra blessing. “We get letters from people expressing how important it has been. That’s what keeps me going,” Karen says. “I knew a man who got one of our rosaries while he was in the hospital and with it was a note that a child at the school had prayed for him and his intentions. After he passed away, his wife told me how much it meant to him that a child prayed for him as he lay dying.”
Laurene says each member of the group plays an important role in God’s plan. “All God asks is that we say ‘yes.’ And he uses each simple yes. Each person who has made rosaries over the years said yes at some point, and that’s how we’ve ended up here at this point.” While the group meets for training sessions twice a month, once a member has been trained, they are free to make rosaries at home at their own convenience and pace. “One of our members and her husband had been putting together packets for us. Her husband just passed away and she still wants to do it. She told me she can’t do a lot of other things but she can do that. She said, ‘I can do something special for God.’” Touched by each person’s ‘yes,’, Laurene remembers many of the volunteers from the sixty years of the ministry, all of various ages, backgrounds, and abilities. “We had two blind people who made rosaries with us years ago. Right now we have a recent amputee who is happy to be able to make rosaries at home while he recovers. Everybody plays a part. And you need every part.”
Dan Spitzley, a member of the team, says his unique part was learned over time and with prompting from the Holy Spirit. “Someone saw that Mother Teresa and her religious order used seeds from a plant called Job’s Tears to make their rosaries. I wasn’t sure they would grow here but I got a hold of some and they did grow!” For many years now, Dan has carefully executed the growing and harvesting process. “Last year, I planted about 100 plants and that gave us about 20,000 beads. I pick the seeds off of the bushes then I drill a hole in every seed to put the pins in that connect the seeds to make the decades. They last forever and the beads beautifully darken over time as you pray because of the oils on your hands.” Despite being a tedious process, Dan is motivated by faith to do his part year after year. “I have made 155 rosaries in a year.”
Laurene is grateful for each member of the group and the way the ministry has grown. She is certain that it is by the grace of God that the Hands of Mary are celebrating sixty years of making rosaries. “Our reliance on the Blessed Mother and our devotion to Jesus is paramount.” And while the ministry isn’t without effort and work, Laurene says she sees God’s blessing in it all. “We are blessed that this is something we can do for God. It takes some sacrifice, but I’ve seen how God gives back to you. A thousand-fold!”
