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EXETER — It didn’t matter that it was raining Monday morning.
The students of Wyoming Area Catholic School simply gathered to pray in their gymnasium instead of outdoors as about a dozen eighth graders held a large string of rosary beads fashioned from helium-filled balloons.
“Today is the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary,” school principal Eileen Rishcoff said, explaining why she didn’t want to postpone the annual event, which the school has hosted for seven years.
“We want to keep the traditions of our Catholic faith going,” she said, explaining how the rosary balloon event started. “We looked for a way to celebrate the rosary that would appeal to children.”
As the eighth-graders entered the gym through doorways decorated with the words “Christ, be our Light!” and “Shine in our hearts!” a bystander wished Mike Casey of Dallas a happy birthday.
“It’s pretty cool,” said Casey, now 14, explaining he first noticed as a second grader that his schoolmates were praying the rosary and releasing balloons on his birthday. This year, his final year at Wyoming Area Catholic, Casey said he’d be praying for “everyone around the world, people who might be in trouble, that it will all work out for them.”
Classmates Marissa Miller, 14, of Forty Fort, and Alexis Romanowski, 13, of Harding, told a reporter they wanted to pray especially for their families, and admitted they’d been looking forward to launching the balloon rosary heaven-ward since they were little kids.
“We get a lot of privileges” as eighth graders,” Miller said.
Taking turns with a microphone, the eighth grade students spent about 20 minutes leading their younger schoolmates, teachers, and some parents and grandparents in prayer, honoring five “Joyful Mysteries,” or events in the lives of Jesus and Mary.
“Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of death. Amen,” they prayed, 10 times for each of five decades of the rosary.
While some of the participants had mentioned they were praying for the world, or for their loved ones, perhaps someone included a little prayer that the rain would let up.
In any case, when the children finished praying, their principal peeked out the door and saw the precipitation had slowed to a misty drizzle.
“Don’t go out too far,” Rishcoff cautioned the eighth graders as they carried the balloon rosary outside and let it go — up, up and away, sailing heavenward.
“I like the fact that they release it up into the air,” grandmother Rita Moran of Pittston Township said. “Watching it float up to the sky, it takes my breath away.”
