天主教信仰有许多传统和习俗, 其中有些是喜庆和丰富多彩的， 另一些则较庄严， 有的甚至是个人的。许多时候， 当中大多数是几个世纪以来信仰的一部分。有趣的是, 有时候即使是重要的历史活动和教会的纪念, 也会随着时间的流逝而被遗忘。
其中一个为新加坡——马来亚教会所遗忘的重要遗产是一个活泼和大规模的庆祝活动：玫瑰十字军。它在五十年代中旬开始，参与的包括教会中老少，其中也创造了 “真人玫瑰念珠 ”。
这一切始于1953年9月8日圣母圣诞庆节，教宗碧岳十二世随着他的通谕“光耀之荣冠”的颁布，宣布1954为 “圣母年” (1953年12月至1954年12月) 以纪念圣母无染原罪第100周年已成为我们信德的一个关键支柱。这一宣布之后不久，圣十字修会（CSC）的帕特里克·佩顿神父（Fr Patrick Peyton）将玫瑰十字军运动带到澳大利亚的布里斯班，在1953年9月20日举行了一次宏伟的游行。在此之际，2000 名儿童形成了真人玫瑰圈 (真人玫瑰念珠)。许多人目睹了这一切， 其中包括当时在澳大利亚的一位新加坡人。
首个真人玫瑰经
一个月后，将真人玫瑰经运动带到新加坡——马来亚的想法成为事实，当地的圣母军团员在1953年11月成立了一个委员会，在同年12月8日（圣母无染原罪庆节）所计划的烛光游行中，组织一个真人玫瑰念珠作为计划中烛光游行的一部分。游行在圣若瑟书院 (现为新加坡美术馆) 前的场地举行。圣母军青年团在主教座堂弥撒，重宣圣母军誓言后形成“真人玫瑰念珠”准备游行。
玫瑰念珠的“珠子”、“每一端”和“十字架”都由青年圣母军的男孩、女孩组成。在诵念“圣母经”时，每个“奥迹”中负责那一端的每个孩子，都将高举蜡烛，而其他人则低垂蜡烛。“真人玫瑰念珠”随着每一端的诵念如此重复着。
与此同时，在怡保的圣弥额尔学院场地，该区的天主教青年也在12月8日圣母无染原罪庆节时，以真人玫瑰念珠庆祝。Fr JP Francois, A Dorett and P Wong三位神父在操场上，为1000名教友举行了露天弥撒。结束时, 孩子们进行烛光游行，由修道院女生形成真人玫瑰念珠。
形式多样化
随着在新加坡和怡保各举办的第一个真人玫瑰经，这种形式的团体祈祷在1954圣母年广泛地在马来亚盛行起来。有趣的是，真人玫瑰念珠的形成并没有固定的格式或规则，也没有规定如何及用在何种游行、仪式、庆典或场合。每一个真人玫瑰念珠活动都是独特的。配合圣母年，以及佩顿神父发起的玫瑰十字军运动，真人玫瑰经成为天主教徒表达和分享他们对圣母玛利亚的敬礼，同时也可以让人们和团体聚在一起诵念玫瑰经。从根本上说，它在二十世纪五十年代成为堂区青年在大型活动中的“必做之事“。
在1954年5月圣母月，槟城和柔佛的教堂结合真人玫瑰经于各自不同的活动和庆祝。在槟城, 作为国际儿童为世界和平祈祷日的节目之一，在圣方济沙勿略学院的操场举行露天的祈祷聚会，当时，圣母蒙召升天庆节的傍晚弥撒后，圣方济沙勿略的男生和修道院的女生，都齐聚在操场参加聚会。数以百计的天主教男孩和女孩组成真人玫瑰念珠。圣沙勿略学院的学生和学长形成十字架，30个修道院的女生一起代表圣母经的“珠子”以及65个圣沙勿略的男生一起代表“天主经”。 此外， 80位 红十字会学生也形成了玫瑰念珠的首颗“珠子”。这可能是1954年在新加坡——马来亚形成的最大真人玫瑰念珠。
1954年的真人玫瑰经
在太平 (霹雳州)，他们的第一个真人玫瑰念珠是由来自圣乔治学院和修道院的700名制服团体学生组成。主要的十字架是由70位圣母军团员和联谊会会员组成。另有70个耶稣圣心联盟的女生形成念珠的中心珠子。在这个念珠链, 女生们形成珠子，而男生则形成衔接珠子的链。傍晚也以烛光游行结束。
在柔佛居銮，“儿童为世界和平祈祷日”弥撒后，堂区的孩子们在教堂周围形成了真人玫瑰念珠。亮着的”珠子”配合着堂区教友的诵念声高举起来。
1954年9月，在安顺(霹雳)的学校避静后，参加者也在圣安东尼学校的操场上形成了真人玫瑰念珠。同一个月份，马来亚铁路中心的工人在拉萨尔场地，组织了一个独特的晚间活动作为在sentul (吉隆坡)圣母年的庆祝之一。数以千计的成员形成了真人玫瑰念珠，五端的念珠由五组工人组成，分别是生产、 维修、 车厢、 机车和文员。
圣母年后的进展
在教宗碧岳十二世宣布1954为圣母年之前，佩顿神父所发起的十字军运动已极力鼓励家人一起诵念玫瑰经。他在1941年晋铎时便特别敬礼圣母玛利亚，他认为自己从肺结核中康复是因为圣母的转祷。也就是在这一年，佩顿神父阅读了勒班陀战役的历史, 从中了解到威尼斯和西班牙的士兵在即将被摩尔人打败时，跪下诵念玫瑰经而获得胜利。据说，这让佩顿神父开始发起玫瑰十字军运动，推广对圣母的敬礼，并宣扬诵念玫瑰经为团结家庭和捍卫信仰的途径。到了1943年，他开始在纽约电台宣传玫瑰经祈祷。从1947年起，佩顿神父已经带领了他的家庭玫瑰十字军远征加拿大安大略省，在那里他举办了第一次大规模的玫瑰经大会。1954年宣布的圣母年提供了佩顿神父动力，使他的十字军运动真正成为国际运动。
至于真人玫瑰念珠的习俗，人们普遍认为它始于1826年，法国大革命后，可敬者波琳·玛丽（Pauline Marie Jaricot ) 提出复兴祷文祈祷，尤其是玫瑰经。她召集了一组15人 (后成为真人玫瑰经协会)，每人每天诵念一个玫瑰经奥迹。这样, 即使每个人只诵念一端玫瑰经，团体里每一天都能够诵念十五端完整的玫瑰经。到了二十世纪五十年代，这种形式进展成为真人玫瑰念珠的形式。基本上，无论是早期的形式或是战后使用的格式，真人玫瑰念珠是为使玫瑰经复兴，邀请祈祷者成为祷文和祈祷组的一部分。
1954年的圣母年是一个及时的平台，促进家庭玫瑰十字军，同时让真人玫瑰经成为吸引人祈祷的有效方式，尤其是提高当时的青年对于玫瑰十字军运动的兴趣。1954年12月圣母年的结束并未使努力结束。进入1955年，新加坡—马来亚的玫瑰十字军运动只是将“敬礼圣母玛利亚和诵念玫瑰经”的焦点转移到“家庭一起祈祷和玫瑰经”。举例说，1955年2月露德圣母庆节，当赎主会会士欧麦利琼斯神父召集太平圣路易斯教堂的教友游行庆祝时，活动以玫瑰经大会形式进行。
圣母年举办的玫瑰经大会所带来的热烈反应，为帕特里克·佩顿神父在新加坡的家庭玫瑰经大会铺好了路。在他把集会推广到这里之前，佩顿神父的家庭玫瑰十字军已经推广到世界各地包括纽约、伦敦、印度、曼谷、澳大利亚、非洲一些地方和南美。他在180个集会上发言，在那里他接触了200万多人。他被称为“广播和电视神父”、“天主教的葛培理”（ Billy Graham )。他在马来亚旋风式的宣教集会, 首先把他带到怡保 (2月18日)、这之前, 他在槟城宣讲 (2月19日)、吉隆坡 (2月20日)，最后在新加坡 (2月21日)。 在怡保，5000个马来亚天主教徒聚集在圣弥额尔学院操场，聆听佩顿神父宣讲家庭如何一起诵念玫瑰经祈祷，因为一起祈祷的家庭，凝聚在一起。在怡保，为使那些不习惯以英语祈祷的人受益，大会以不同语言交替诵念每一端玫瑰经。
新加坡家庭玫瑰经大会
五十年代，佩顿神父的家庭玫瑰经大会在惹兰勿刹体育场——新加坡最大的体育场举行。虽然在1955年，新加坡只有3万5千天主教徒，但当时预计大会将吸引5万人，包括非天主教徒和其他访客。然而, 体育场即使在伸展时，也只能容纳2万名参与者。大会开幕时，450名青年在场上组成真人玫瑰念珠。大会以英语进行，并译成泰米尔语和华语。配合大会的举行，马来亚广播电台播出一个电台节目，它把听众带到新加坡各个家庭中，展现家庭如何诵念玫瑰经。这广播之旅也让华族和印族家庭听众收听到，如何在日常生活中以自己的语言诵念玫瑰经。广播节目还包括拜访一所医院，在那里有病人、护士和医生一起诵念玫瑰经。电台有关玫瑰经的报道也深入孤儿院，而佩顿神父在集会上的演讲也在马来亚电台播出。正是在这次集会上，孟总主教发表了一项承诺，在马来亚的每个家庭推广玫瑰经祈祷。
无论是在人数、范围、承诺和媒体报道各方面，1954年的家庭玫瑰十字军大会是新加坡教会一个史无前例的多语言福传大会。这不只是一个祈祷聚会，它将整个天主教团体，不拘母语，都聚集在一起，通过家庭共同祈祷以促进家庭团结。十字军和教会领导人认为，基督徒家庭受到不利的社会和居住条件、现有的离婚法律和共产主义兴起的威胁。
这次集会的后续行动，是数百位教会工作者被派前往拜访7000户天主教家庭(3万5千天主教徒)，鼓励他们每天一次，一起祈祷。
新加坡的大会结束后，佩顿神父把他这项任务带到曼谷，然后是孟买，在那里20万天主教徒听到了他有关祈祷的信息。接着，他回到新加坡，于1955年5月29日圣神降临主日，在马来亚电台分享玫瑰经的故事。
后记
无论是站立，端坐或是游行，真人玫瑰经仍然在今日世界不同角落进行着，虽然其盛行程度不比当初佩顿神父推广十字军的日子。1950年中旬，新加坡和马来西亚采用真人玫瑰经活动，把整个教会聚集在一起，参与一个特殊的祈祷活动。可惜的是, 今天, 很少有天主教徒记得这种敬礼和传统。
1995年后玫瑰十字军在新加坡的进展情况，以及真人玫瑰经是否有继续在我们的堂区或学校呈现，这些都没有历史文档的记录。然而, 重要的是，真人玫瑰经只是一种方式，要通过信友的积极参与，让玫瑰经重新盛行。广义上说，真人玫瑰念珠中, “每个参与者不仅诵念玫瑰经祈祷，同时也成为玫瑰经的一部分”。当中并没有规定的模式或样板可循，即使是玫瑰珠花园或只是一个例常的玫瑰经游行祈祷，也是一种生活玫瑰经。
2012年6月，在榜鹅圣亚纳堂的坚振营，100多名参与者以紫色和金色的氦气球系成一串“玫瑰念珠”，上升到三层楼高。参加者在纸条上写下他们的个人祈祷意向，置入代表着59颗玫瑰念珠的每颗氦气球里。通过这种方式，玫瑰经不仅为那些年轻参加者“活起来”，他们也学习到玫瑰经是一个可以共享的个人祈祷。
在武吉知马圣若瑟堂，每当教友在堂区设有大型玫瑰珠子的玫瑰经花园散步诵念玫瑰经时，他们其实也是形成了一个“生活玫瑰经”。今年圣母玫瑰之后庆节时，圣若瑟堂组织了玫瑰经游行，走过真人大小塑像的十四处苦路，帮助他们默想神圣玫瑰经的奥迹。无可置疑，这也是另一种生活玫瑰经。
二十世纪五十年代家庭玫瑰十字军运动的真人玫瑰经现在似乎已被天主教徒遗忘了。可以说，这种方式在十字军的日子之后便没有继续。因为考虑到这种活动需要很大的空间，同时它通常是在学校和堂区隔邻（以提供堂区使用学校场地）的情况下才可完成。新加坡的现代发展，在六十年代发展了卫星乡镇，加上随后学校及其附属堂区在实质上并无直接联系，使得在教会活动中使用真人玫瑰经成为不切实际的事情。
无论如何，教会不应忘记，有一段时间我们曾聚在一起，以一个壮大的方式庆祝和诵念玫瑰经，这是为强调，每个家庭该当以此作为团结家庭的方式——同祷的家庭，凝聚在一起。
最后，家庭玫瑰十字军的创始人佩顿神父，尽他所有的热情和努力促进祈祷和保卫家庭，教廷展开了佩顿神父的封圣程序，教宗方济各于2017年12月18日册封这位爱尔兰裔美国神父为可敬者。
文：刘伟强／译：海星报
(3)The Living Rosary and the Rosary Crusade
Our Church’s Forgotten Community and Family Prayer Tradition
Clement Liew Wei Chiang
All rights reserved: No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means Electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner．
Signum Fidei, October 2018
“The Family that Prays Together, Stays Together” Father Patrick Peyton, 1955 [1]
The Catholic Faith has many traditions and practices, of which, some are festive and colourful while others are more solemn and even personal. And in most cases, most of them had been part of the faith for centuries. Interestingly, sometimes, even important historical activities and observances of the Church end up being forgotten with the passage of time.
One of the more significant forgotten heritage of the Singapore-Malaya Church was a lively and large-scale celebration that took place in the mid-1950s that involved the young and old within the Church – The Rosary Crusade which also saw the creation of the “Living Rosary”.
It all started when Pope Pius XII declared with his encyclical, the Fulgens Corona (“Radiant Crown”), on 8 September 1953, the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, that 1954 would be a “Marian Year” (December 1953 to December 1954) to mark the 100th Anniversary of the Immaculate Conception having been made a key tenet of our faith.[2] Not long after this proclamation, Father Patrick Peyton of the Congregation of Holy Cross (CSC) brought his Rosary Crusade to Brisbane, Australia, where a magnificent procession was held on 20 September 1953. On this occasion, 2,000 children formed a human rosary ring (Living Rosary). This was witnessed by many, including a Singaporean in Australia at that time.[3]
The First Living Rosaries
A month later, the idea of bringing the Living Rosary movement to Singapore-Malaya became a reality when members of the local Legion of Mary formed a committee in November 1953 to organize a Living Rosary as part of a planned candlelight procession to be held on 8 December 1953 (Feast of the Immaculate Conception) on the open grounds in front of the old St Joseph’s Institution (now Singapore Art Museum). The junior legionaries, after mass at the Cathedral and renewing their Legion pledge, formed up for a procession that led to the formation of a “Living Rosary”. The “beads”, “decades” and “cross” of the Living Rosary was formed mainly by boys and girls of the Junior Legion. The children of the “decade” of each “mystery” being in reflection during the recitation of the “Hail Mary” held their candles up high, while the others lowered their candles. And this was repeated with each “decade” of the Living Rosary.[4]
Meanwhile, over at Ipoh, on the grounds of St Michael’s Institution, the Catholic youth of the district also celebrated the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on 8 December with a Living Rosary of their own.[5] Three priests, Frs JP Francois, A Dorett and P Wong, held an open air mass for 1,000 Catholics on the field. It ended with the children forming a candlelight procession and the convent girls forming the Living Rosary.[6]
In All Forms, All Over Malaya
Following the first Living Rosaries organized at Singapore and Ipoh, the participation in this form of community prayer became vogue and widespread across Malaya throughout the 1954 Marian Year. Interestingly, there was no fix format or rules as to how a Living Rosary should be formed or what processes, ceremonies, celebrations or occasions when it could be formed. Each Living Rosary event was unique. In context of the Marian Year, and the Rosary Crusade launched by Fr Peyton, the Living Rosary was a way Catholics could express and share their devotion for Mother Mary and praying the rosary together as a people and community. Essentially, it became, in the 1950s, the “thing-to-do” for mass events involving youths in the Church.
In May 1954, the month dedicated to Mary, churches from Penang to Johore organized their own Living Rosaries in conjunction with various events and celebrations. At Penang, as part of the international Children’s Day of Prayer for World Peace, an open air prayer rally was held on the grounds of St Xavier’s Institution where a living rosary was formed by hundreds of Catholic boys and girls.[7] After a special evening mass at the Church of Assumption, the boys of the St Xavier’s and the girls of the Convent gathered at the field for the rally, where they formed a Living Rosary. While three platoons of St Xavier cadets and school prefects formed the cross, 30 Convent girls formed each Hail Mary “bead” and 65 St Xavier boys formed each Our Father. In addition, 80 Red Cross cadets also formed the apex of the Rosary.[8] It was probably the largest Living Rosary formed in Singapore-Malaya in 1954.
The mass celebrating the Children’s Day of Prayer for World Peace on 23 May 1954 at Klang, Selangor, was followed by forming of a living rosary the parish girls on the open field where a stage was also set up for the children who performed the Nativity story during the recitation of the rosary. The evening ended with a candlelight procession.[9]
At Taiping (Perak), their first Living Rosary was formed by 700 uniformed group students from St George’s Institution and the Convent. While the main cross was formed by 70 Legionaries and Sodalists, another 70 girls of the Sacred Heart League formed the Heart of the rosary. In this rosary chain, the girls formed the beads while the boys formed the chain that joined the beads. The evening also ended with a candlelight procession.[10]
In Johor, at Kluang, after the mass celebrating the Children’s Day of Prayer for World Peace, the children of the parish formed a living rosary around their church. The lighting up of the “beads” was synchronised with the recitation of the rosary by the parishioners.[11]
In September 1954, at Telok Anson (Perak), following a school retreat, a Living Rosary was also formed by the participants on the grounds of St Anthony’s School.[12] In the same month, at Sentul (Kuala Lumpur), as part of the Marian Year rally, the workers of the Malayan Railways’ Central Workshops organized a unique evening event on the LaSalle field where thousands of its members formed a Living Rosary. The five decades of the rosary formed by five groups of workers – Production, Maintenance, Carriage and Wagon, Locomotive and Clerks.[13]
Beyond the Marian Year
Fr Peyton’s crusade to get families to pray the rosary together had started years before Pope Pius XII declared 1954 a Marian Year. It was in 1941, when he was ordained a priest, that he developed a special devotion to Mother Mary whom he attributed his recovery from tuberculosis. It was also in this year that Fr Peyton read the history of the Battle of Lepanto where he learned how the soldiers of Venice and Spain, on the verge of defeat at the hands of the Moors-Ottoman forces, emerged victorious after they knelt and prayed the Rosary. It was said that this convinced Fr Peyton to start his Rosary Crusade to promote the devotion to Mother Mary and praying the rosary as a means to unite the family and defend the faith. By 1943, he started going on radio in New York promote the praying of the rosary. From 1947, Fr Peyton had taken his Family Rosary Crusade to Ontario, Canada, where he started hosting his first large-scale rosary rallies.[14] The declaration of the 1954 Marian Year provided Fr Peyton the impetus to make his crusade a truly international endeavour.
As for the practice of forming a Living Rosary, it is widely believed that this began sometime in 1826 when Venerable Pauline-Marie Jaricot came upon the idea of reviving the recitation of prayers, in particular the rosary, in the aftermath of the French Revolution, by gathering a group of fifteen people (which became the Living Rosary Association) who would each recite a “mystery” a day. In this way, even though each person recited only one decade of the rosary, a whole rosary is said everyday by the group as a whole.[15] By the 1950s, the form of the Living Rosary had evolved to having the people forming a rosary chain to resemble the rosary. Fundamental, be it the earlier form or the format used in the post-war years, a Living Rosary was about making the Rosary come alive by inviting the praying participants to become an integral part of the prayer and prayer group.[16]
The 1954 Marian Year was a timely platform to further the cause of the Family Rosary Crusade, and the Living Rosary became an effective means to draw interest to the Rosary Crusade, particularly amongst the youths of the time. The ending of the Marian Year in December 1954, however, did not end the endeavour. Going into 1955, the focus of the Rosary Crusade in Singapore-Malaya simply shifted emphasis on “devotion to Mother Mary and the recitation of the rosary” to the “family praying together and the rosary”. As a case in point, in February 1955, when Fr O’Malley Jones (Redemptorist) gathered the parishioners of St Louis Church in Taiping for a procession to celebrate the feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes, the event morphed into Rosary Rally instead.[17]
The hype and excitement of the Rosary rallies created during the Marian Year had set the stage for Fr Patrick Peyton’s Family Rosary Rally in Singapore. Prior to bringing his rally here, Fr Peyton had already crusaded (Family Rosary Crusade) all over the world in places like in New York, London, Newcastle, India, Bangkok, Australia, parts of Africa, South America.[18] In all these places, he had spoken at 180 rallies where he reached out to more than 2,000,000 people. He was known as the “radio and television priest”, the “Catholic Billy Graham”.[19] His whirlwind mission rallies to Malaya took him first to Ipoh (18th February), before he preached holding rallies in Penang (19th February), Kuala Lumpur (20th February), and finally at Singapore (21th February).[20] At Ipoh, 5,000 Malayan Catholics gathered at St Michael’s Institution’s grounds to hear Fr Peyton preach how families should pray the rosary together as The Family that Prays Together, Stays Together. At the Ipoh rally, alternate decades of the rosary were recited in the vernacular for the benefit of those not accustomed to pray in English.[21]
Singapore’s Family Rosary Rally
The Singapore leg of Fr Peyton’s Family Rosary Rally was held at Jalan Besar Stadium, the largest sporting stadium on the island in the 1950s. Although there were only 35,000 Catholics in Singapore in 1955, the rally was expected to draw a crowd of 50,000, including non-Catholics and other visitors. However, the stadium could only accommodate 20,000 participants, even when stretched.[22] The rally opened with the creation of a Living Rosary on the field which took up to 450 youths to form.[23] The proceedings were in English and translated into Tamil and Chinese as well. And in conjunction with the rally, a radio programme was broadcast through Radio Malaya. It took listeners to various homes in Singapore to show how the rosary was recited in the family. This radio journey also took the audience in the homes of Chinese and Indian families to hear how the rosary was recited in the vernacular by these families. The radio programme also covered a visit to a hospital where a patient, nurse and doctor prayed rosary together. The radio coverage of rosary sessions also ventured into an orphanage and Fr Peyton’s full speech at the rally was also broadcast over Radio Malaya.[24] It was at this rally that Bishop Michael Olcomendy issued a commitment to spread the praying of the rosary “in every home in Malaya.”
In many ways, in terms of numbers, scope, commitment and media coverage, the 1954 Family Rosary Crusade Rally had been an unprecedented multilingual evangelical gathering for the Singapore Church. It was not just a prayer meeting. It was a meeting that drew the whole Catholic community together, regardless of mother tongue, to promote family unity through praying together as a family. It was conviction of the crusaders, as well as Church leaders, that Christian families were under threat from adverse social and housing conditions, existing laws on divorce and the rise of Communism.[25]
As a follow-up to the rally, several hundred church workers were sent out to visit 7,000 Catholic families (35,000 Catholics) to encourage them to pray together once a day.[26]
After the Singapore rally, Fr Peyton brought his mission to Bangkok and then to Bombay where 200,000 Catholics heard his message of prayer.[27] He returned to Singapore after that and went on Radio Malaya to share his story of the Rosary on Pentecostal Sunday, 29 May 1955.[28]
Postscript
Standing, seated or in a procession, forming the Living Rosary is still done in different parts of the word today, though not as popular as in the days of the Fr Peyton Crusade. Participating in the Living Rosary in the mid-1950s was the thing to do in Singapore and Malaysia that brought the whole Church together for a special community prayer activity. Unfortunately, today, few Catholic here remember this act of devotion and tradition.
There is no historical documentation on how the rosary crusade progressed in Singapore after 1955, or if the practice of forming human-chain Living Rosaries had ever been done again in our parishes and schools. However, forming a Living Rosary is essentially a means to bring the rosary alive through the active participation of the Faithful. While broadly speaking, in a Living Rosary (human-chain), “each participant not only prays a Rosary, but helps to form one”, there is no prescribed model or template on what form this activity should take. Even a rosary garden or just a normal procession praying the rosary is a form of Living Rosary.[29]
In June 2012, over 100 participants of a Confirmation Camp at St Anne’s Church (Ponggol) created “a ‘living rosary’ made up of purple and gold helium balloons,” that rose up to three-storey-high. They wrote personal prayers on slips of paper which were inserted into 59 balloons that representing the beads of the rosary.[30] In this way, the rosary did not only come alive for the young participants, they also learned how the rosary can be a shared as well as a personal prayer. Over at St Joseph’s Church, Bukit Timah, each time parishioners say the rosary while walking around the parish’s newly created life-size Rosary Garden, they are also making a “Living Rosary”. In the recent feast day of Our Lady of the Rosary on 6 October 2018, parishioners of St Joseph’s organized a rosary procession that walked the length of their life-size Stations of the Cross, which beyond doubt, aided their meditation of the mysteries of the holy rosary. This is unquestionably, another form of the Living Rosary.
The Living Rosary of the days of the 1950s Family Rosary Crusade appears to have been forgotten by Catholics today. It is therefore, safe to conclude that the practice of forming human-chain Living Rosaries did not continue beyond the crusade days. Considering the fact that such activities require large spaces and were mostly done when schools and parishes had been located side by side (which provided the parishes the use of the school fields), modern developments in Singapore that saw the creation of satellite townships from the 1960s and the subsequent physical decoupling of the schools and their affiliated parishes, had made using the Living Rosary (human-chain) in church activities a most impractical thing.
Nevertheless, the Church should not forget that there was a time we came together in a big way to celebrate and pray the rosary, and this was with the emphasis that it should be done within each family unit as a means unify families. The Family that Prays Together, Stays Together.
On a final note, Father Patrick Peyton, the founder of the Family Rosary Crusade, for all his zeal and exertions to promote prayer and safeguard the family, Pope Francis started Fr Peyton’s journey to sainthood when he named the Irish-American padre a Venerable on 18 December 2017.
