Power of prayer
CRANBERRY TWP — Tom Lander joined the Cranberry Township council of Knights of Columbus 15 years ago to make prayer an active part of his life.
Through the council's living rosary, Lander's prayers are acted out, giving special meaning to each mystery in the life of Christ.
About 20 people participated in a living rosary presentation Monday night at St. Ferdinand Roman Catholic Church on Rochester Road.
"The rosary is very important to the Knights, we try to pray it as often as we can," said Lander of Cranberry.
"We have learned that prayer is very powerful — it changes people's hearts, and that's what we're here for, to soften people's hearts."
To reach that goal, Cranberry Knights of Columbus member Dave Mashuda, now deceased, created a 90-foot-long rosary of 60 tennis ball-sized wooden beads connected by a metal chain, Lander said.
A set of rosary beads contains fifty beads in groups of 10 with an additional large bead before each group.
Praying the rosary combines meditation on Jesus' life with reciting the Lord's Prayer followed by 10 Hail Mary prayers and a Glory Be to the Father prayer.
"This is such a simple, easy way to pray where you just contemplate the life of Christ and meditate on it," Lander said.
The idea to create the giant strand of beads came from the Wexford Knights of Columbus council, which has a series of stepping stones representing the prayers that each member stands on outside its hall in Wexford, Lander said.
Mashuda spent a few months over the winter of 2001-02 to create the Cranberry Knights' rosary to honor the Year of the Rosary, from October 2002 to October 2003, Lander said.
Since Mashuda has passed away, the Knights now recite the living rosary in his honor.The beads extend from the entrance of St. Ferdinand down to the altar and must be kept in a suitcase to keep from becoming tangled, Lander added.Each participant holds a bead and recites the corresponding prayer, he said. The entire rosary takes about 30 minutes to say.The Cranberry Knights of Columbus recite the living rosary the first Monday of every month, he said.They also help St. Ferdinand religious education students learn the prayers."At the CCD (Confraternity of Christian Doctrine) programs, unfortunately, many parents don't teach their children to pray," Lander said."This, in some cases, is their first introduction to the rosary."Carol O'Shea, sixth, seventh and eighth grade program manager at St. Ferdinand, said her students participate in the living rosary once a year."It's been a very nice experience for the kids," O'Shea said.As Catholics created the rosary based on the life of Christ, she said students are saying Hail Mary prayers but really focusing and reflecting on their faith."The whole purpose is to bring you closer to Jesus," O'Shea said."The idea of all these people, kids, students praying the rosary together — everyone saying one of the prayers — the idea of that whole large group praying together is really a beautiful experience for the kids."The Knights of Columbus is an international Roman Catholic fraternal service organization. There are more than 13,000 councils and 1.7 million members, according to the group's Web site, www.kofc.org.
