World Mission Rosary

In February of 1951, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen (national director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith from 1950 to 1966), in a The Catholic Hour radio address, inaugurated a World Mission Rosary. “We must pray, and not for ourselves, but for the world. To this end, I have designed the World Mission Rosary. Each of the five decades is of a different color to represent the continents.” Praying this Rosary, Archbishop Sheen said, would “aid the Holy Father and his Society for the Propagation of the Faith by supplying him with practical support, as well as prayers, for the mission territories of the world.”

Each decade of the World Mission Rosary calls to mind an area where the Church continues her evangelizing mission:

GREEN for the forests and grasslands of AFRICA;

BLUE for the ocean surrounding the ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC;

WHITE symbolizing EUROPE, the seat of the Holy Father, shepherd of the world;

RED calling to mind the fire of faith that brought missionaries to the AMERICAS

YELLOW, the morning light of the East, for ASIA.

Our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, encouraged everyone to “intensify your praying of the Rosary…to obtain from the Lord those graces that the Church and humanity especially need."

Embrace the world in prayer - pray the World Mission Rosary online at www.worldmissionrosary.org

For a downloadable booklet to use for yourself or with students, please click here.

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