FORT SMITH — Catholic school students in the Fort Smith area united for one morning to pray the rosary.
"The rosary connects us to one another and to God. It connects our hearts to God and our actions to love. It connects us to our big Catholic family," Alex Siebenmorgen, Christ the King School's student council president said, welcoming 1,000 children and adults to the Rosary for Unity and Peace.
Students from Christ the King, Immaculate Conception, St. Boniface, and Trinity Junior High schools in Fort Smith; St. Joseph School in Paris; and Subiaco Academy came together Oct. 18 at the Fort Smith Convention Center for the unique event. A hushed reverence filled the room as students, teachers, clergy and sisters and parents realized that their prayers were joined with one million children across the globe praying the rosary at 9 a.m. in their respective time zones.
The movement to gather a million children to pray the rosary at 9 a.m. each Oct. 18 is an initiative of the National Council for the Laity in Caracas, Venezuela, that began in 2005. By 2008 students in 30 nations on six continents were participating. The group promotes the movement on a website, acninternational.org/millionkidspraying/en/, available in 18 different languages. Its aim is to encourage prayer for inner peace for all children, and unity and peace for each family, each country and the world.
Marna Boltuc, Christ the King School principal, led her school to participate in 2010. "This year I got brochures and invited other schools in the deanery to come," she said. "We were so glad that St. Joseph School in Paris and Subiaco Academy were able to attend. Trinity brought its eighth graders, and Subiaco brought its jazz ensemble, but the rest of their students interrupted classes at 9 a.m. to pray the rosary with us."
Each decade of the sorrowful mysteries was led by eighth and ninth graders from Trinity Junior High and St. Joseph School. They introduced each mystery with a short meditation and ended with a prayer recalling Jesus' passion and death. Students prayed the second decade in Spanish and the fourth decade in Vietnamese to represent the many cultures practicing Catholicism in the River Valley and throughout the world. Students who had never learned the Spanish and Vietnamese prayers followed along in the printed program.
"I loved hearing the children praying in Spanish and Vietnamese," Boltuc said. "It's so important for them to see that they're a part of something so much bigger."
"We pray the rosary because the world needs peace and unity, because children are the future of our world, and because when the Virgin appears to children she asks them to pray the rosary," Claire Kutchka, a Christ the King student, said.
Tia Marsh, a religion teacher at Trinity Junior High School, prepared the service, and Rebecca Velez, a music teacher at Christ the King and St. Boniface schools, led the children in singing "On This Day, O Beautiful Mother" and "Hail, Holy Queen." Following the rosary, the Subiaco Jazz Ensemble, conducted by Deacon Ray Goetz, played a set with an international flavor, "Green Onions," "Caravan" and a number of Latin instrumental pieces.
Boltuc said this was the first time all six schools had gathered together in the same location, but that she hoped the Rosary for Peace and Unity would become an annual event. "I see opportunities for vocations," she said.
