Virgin Mary in Uganda

The Church has spread to all corners of the world and Mary has lead the way. This is very evident in Uganda. It is easy to spot many Catholics because they wear a rosary around their necks. We took 300 rosaries thanks to the efforts of my Aunt Carol Waldow and Nancy Craig along with their friends who made the rosaries. When we visited St Mary‘s Catholic Church we passed a rosary out to all children and adults. The rosaries barely fit over the heads of the adults. Knowing, this next year we will take bigger rosaries. We also passed out rosaries to the 8 seminarians, workers at the retreat center and schools.

There are numerous Marian shrines, grottos or chapels. I would say that most parishes we visited had a one or the other. They are usually used on Thursdays for mass or to pray the rosary. There are many groups of Legionaries of Mary. We passed many of the rosaries to two leaders so that they could pass them on. (One of these leaders is Fr Jude‘s mother.)

Towards the end of our mission trip my rosary broke and I found one rope rosary that had my favorite crucifix on it. I put it around my neck even though it was pink. and asked God to show me who I should give it to that day. I just knew he intended it for someone specific. Towards the end the day we visited a really nice primary boarding school run by some nuns. Father wanted us to see the educational opportunity gap that exists. (Boy does it exist! I will talk about that in a later post.). The entire visit we heard angelic music coming from the chapel. The Level 4 students were practicing for Sunday’s mass. When we finally made it to the chapel I was stunned to learn that the organist was a young student about 10 years old. She played flawlessly and I knew this was who God intended me to give the rosary to. I recognized her for developing her God-given talent through hard work in front of the other students before passing the rosary on to her. Mary, Mother of the Church, pray for us!