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 Claire Chretien / LifeSiteNews

CROSS PLAINS, Wisconsin, May 1, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) ― Rosary Coast to Coast aims to unite Catholics across the USA and the world in prayer this October 13.

Depicting a world in turmoil, the stirring video announcing the now-annual event states that “There is no stronger weapon in this spiritual battle than the Rosary.”

The National Coordinator for the Rosary Coast to Coast, Bree A. Dail, told LifeSiteNews that the object of the mass prayer gathering is “simple.”

“[It’s] to do Our Lady’s bidding! Yes, it’s as simple as that,” she said.

That bidding is to be obedient to Christ and to pray the Rosary.

“Our Lady has said, time and again, ‘Do whatever He tells you,’” Dail explained. 

“She has warned us ― at Quito, La Salette, Fatima, Akita ― to do penance, amend our lives, pray the Rosary for conversions. She is warning us, but also promising her Triumph.”

Dail credits the Polish “Rosary to the Borders” of 2017 with inspiring the international but American-led Rosary Coast to Coast, and said her group has been in contact with the Polish organizers “from the beginning.”

“How beautiful, really, to think that these Rosary initiatives started as a ‘spark from Poland,’” she said, and invited readers to see the diary of St. Faustina Kowalska for context.

St. Faustina, often called the apostle of the Divine Mercy, recorded in her diary that Christ had told her that “I bear a special love for Poland, and if she will be obedient to My will, I will exalt her in might and holiness. From her will come forth the spark that will prepare the world for My final coming” (Diary, 1732).

The first Rosary Coast to Coast, held in 2018, united people from 1,100 sites registered in the USA and from over 50 countries. Dail estimates that “millions” participated in last year’s event. 

“The photos from India alone make us believe we were in the millions,” she said.

The worldwide event came together in six months, Dail stated, and some countries joined in at the very last minute.

“We were even contacted by Catholics in Iran,” she said.

The co-coordinator and chaplain of the Rosary Coast to Coast is Fr. Richard Heilman of Cross Plains, Wisconsin. Dail described the international prayer service as a progression from an event Fr. Heilman organized before the U.S. presidential elections of 2016. He called it the “Novena for Our Nation.”

“In 2016, Fr. Heilman called for a 54-day Miraculous Rosary Novena in response to the growing concerns the presidential elections would result in the most pro-abort, corrupt candidate in U.S. history — one openly hostile to Christianity,” Dail said.

The priest also hoped “to return our nation back to God.”

The Novena began on August 15, the Feast of the Assumption, and ended two days before the election. Dail believes that Mary used it to build the network needed for the first Rosary Coast to Coast.

“She was building us up to the international event,” the Coast to Coast organizer stated.