DEKALB—While candles flickered and glowed below a painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe, 35 people recited the Rosary Sunday afternoon at St. Mary Parish in DeKalb for the 27th annual International Living Rosary.

Participants volunteered to “be a bead.”

Sandi Schmidt, president of the St. Catherine of Genoa  Parish Council of Catholic Women, gave participants a number from one to 10 so they would know when it was their turn to “be a bead” and say a Hail Mary. Both English and Dutch languages were spoken.

It was the first time participating for Eleanor Manecke, who came with several others from St. Catherine of Genoa Parish.

“I just wanted to be part of it,” Manecke said. “I think it is special. The ladies just felt they wanted to come.

“I like to pray the rosary. It is very special. I think, once you are alone — I am a widow — the Blessed Mother becomes very special to you,” she said.

Accompanying her on the visit to DeKalb were Mel Callaghan and Ginger Makovic.

“I was told about it and I thought it would be nice to try it,” Makovic said. “I haven’t done this before.”  
She added that the afternoon reciting the Glorious Mysteries made her want to say the rosary more often.

The International Living Rosary was sponsored by the Rockford Diocesan Council of Catholic Women, this year in the DeKalb Deanery with hosts St. Catherine of Genoa CCW. People from many area parishes took part, said Cathy Vendemia, president of the RDCCW.

Vendemia lit a candle and prayed before a painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe together with seminarian, James Linkenheld of St. James Parish in Belvidere.

“The rosary is one of the most powerful weapons our Lord has given us to conquer satan, who Mary crushes under her heal,” Linkenheld said. “It reminds me of everything our Lord has done.

“When we are saying the Hail Mary, we are talking to her, but we are reflecting on Jesus. Mary always brings us to Jesus. I see more young people taking up the rosary and the Divine Mercy chaplet. It’s beautiful,” he said.

The seminarian is completing his third year studying for the priesthood at St. Gregory the Great Seminary in Nebraska. He said he decided to follow Christ and study to become a priest after he had a conversion, while a sophomore studying sports management at the University of Illinois.

“The Lord really revealed that he wanted me to leave (U of I),” he said.

Another participant at the Aug. 6 event was Gaby van Blyenburgh, formerly of Holland. She agreed that the rosary is a very powerful and important weapon against evil.

“It is a spiritual weapon,” she said. “It is an answer to so many problems in the world. We do believe in miracles and that God’s will be done.”  

She attended with her husband Hans. They are members of St. Mary Parish in Sycamore.

“We can come to the mother of Jesus and she brings it all to her son. What son would refuse a mother?

“The rosary also is getting you out of the deepest pits in your life,” Hans said, recalling living in the Dutch East Indies after WWII, which saw much fighting and damage.

His family’s statue of Our Lady was damaged, but he said they knelt and prayed the rosary at what was left of the statue, every morning and night.

“For seven years, the country was in a vacuum.  I was living with my dad in a God-forsaken tiny garage after the war. Rats were crawling all over and the vermin were running over our legs, but we kept praying.

“We prayed and believed she would take us out. We prayed, ‘Get us out of this hell hole,’ ” and God did. “It was an incredible miracle. He brought me to America and I married (Gaby). The rosary means more than words can tell,” Hans said.

“Didn’t our Mother Mary say to Juan Diego, ‘Am I not your mother?’” Gaby added.  “I want to do things for her now. We participate (in the living rosary) whenever we hear about it.”

Following the rosary, refreshments were provided by DeKalb’s St. Mary Parish Catholic Daughters of America.