News from China

From Zenit.com

Another Chinese Bishop Arrested
BEIJING, AUG. 25, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Shortly before the spectacular closing ceremonies of the Olympics, Chinese authorities arrested another bishop. More.

Happy Days Are Here Again? or Rocky Mountain High

This weeks mission field is one that will challenge the greatest prayer warriors of all time: The Democratic National convention! Here's a little history to get you started.

Let's not pray that a given candidate will lose (or not), or that God will smite (nicely) our enemies. Let's pray that we learn to love those we disagree with, that the Holy Spirit will speak to the hearts of the attendees and candidates to draw them close to Christ. Let's also ask that God's people in at the convention will have the courage to speak the truth in love and to give reason for the hope they have with gentleness and reverence.

Goodnight Ladies

The Olympics come to a close tonight. We'll be wrapping up our time of focusing on China. So if you haven't prayed for missions this week, now's the time!

Feast of the Assumption

Today is the Feast of the Assumption of Mary. In the Eastern Churches, it is referred to as the Dormition of Mary. Either way it's a good day to pray the Rosary for missions in China during the Olympics!

Day by Day

Are you settling into your Olympic viewing? While you're grabbing the chips, dip and frosty cold beverage, don't forget your Rosary! To help you out, look under the "Rosary and World links" list for History of the Catholic Church in China or click here.

Color My World

No doubt tonight's opening ceremony will be bright, colorful and at least a little over the top. Here's a way you can redeem the time. During the parade of nations, or every time you see a national flag, say a brief prayer for that country. Pray for the people you see profiled. And don't forget to pray for this apostolate. Thanks.

When I Find Myself in Times of Trouble, Mother Mary Comes to Me

Once I decided to start this blog to coincide with the Olympic Games in Beijing, certain things became clear. Certainly the Blessed Mother, Mary, had been involved, not only in using the Rosary to pray for missions but because of the important Marian celebrations that occur in August: the Assumption on the 15th, her Queenship on the 22nd and my favorite, but little known, Our Lady of the Snows on the 5th (same day as the dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major, of course). On the 8th, we have the feast of St. Dominic whose Dominican order helped popularize the Rosary.

However, I decided to start the blog officially on August 6th, the feast of the Transfiguration of Jesus. In the Transfiguration, Jesus showed Peter, James and John his divine glory. You can read about it here. What better day to start praying for missions to change the world by revealing who Jesus is! The Transfiguration is also one of the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary given to us by Servant of God Pope John Paul II.

Again, if you’re not used to praying the Rosary or it makes you uncomfortable, feel free to pray any prayer that will help you think of the great needs of the world and Christ’s greater love for it. After all, that is what the Rosary does!

You May Ask Yourself, How Did I Get Here?

My hope for this blog is to encourage praying the Rosary for world missions. The idea first came to me after a series of talks and Eucharistic Adoration given at my parish church by a seminarian friend of mine, Vince Druding. While the basis of the talks were Rick Warren’s “The Purpose Driven Life”, I think the inspiration had less to do with the book than Vince’s take on it. In the talks he had managed to bring a Catholic viewpoint to it. The discussion groups that followed helped me see a need for deeper teaching and prayer in the parish. I also felt a desire to help meet this need.


The idea for Rosary Around the World came to me soon after. I remembered Patrick Johnson’s book “Operation World” which I had once used. It gives basic demographic information and lists prayer needs for every country in the world. I thought how helpful it would be to have something similar for Catholics to use in prayer, which immediately led me to the Rosary. I thought of a set of Rosary beads encircling the globe as if in an embrace. It seemed that combining the Rosary with information about specific countries or mission needs would be a great way to encourage prayer for “the New Evangelization.”


Of course, it didn’t take long for me to completely forget about this idea! That is until thinking about the Olympics in China this year and of another (Baptist!) friend of mine who has a great love for missions in China reminded me of Rosary Around the World. I also realized the need to keep the blog ecumenical. So while praying the Rosary is greatly encouraged, any prayer for bringing the gospel of Jesus Christ to the nations and peoples of the world is welcome!

Our Lady of the Snows, pray for us.