Clay Rosary Project is long-standing Cathedral School tradition
SCROLL THE ARROWS to see more photos.
Eighth-graders fashioned colored bits of clay into beads of various sizes, leaving unique fingerprints on each.
They were making their own rosaries while being called to make the Rosary their own.
“The main goal of this project is to draw attention to the beauty of the Rosary as a prayer,” said Joseph Powers, junior high religion teacher at St. Joseph Cathedral School in Jefferson City.
Catholics observe October as the Month of the Rosary.
The students fashioned the rosaries out of durable super-sculpting clay and fishing line.
They also learned about the Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious and Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary, and why it’s important to incorporate them into a fruitful prayer life.
“I think they’ll be more likely to pray the Rosary if they make one,” Mr. Powers stated. “And I think they’re also gaining a valuable insight into their relationship with God.”
Namely, if they’re pleased with something they create, how much more so is the One who created them?
“They can view their rosary with a sense of value, because every bead, every spacer, even the cross, they made it with their own hands,” said Mr. Powers.
“I think that reflects how God looks at his creation and how he looks at each one of us,” the teacher stated.
The clay rosary project has been a rite of passage for an entire generation of Cathedral
School students.
“It helps us connect more deeply with the Rosary,” said eighth-grader Fisher Jones. “We actually create the beads ourselves, and we get to pick out the colors of the clay we want to use.”
“It’s very personal, because you’re the one who gets to make it,” said eighth-grader Beatrice Baker.
“You get to choose what colors you want, so you can connect to God in your own way,” said eighth-grader Liam Quinn.
The students take small pieces of clay and roll them into the various sizes of beads for the rosary, then use a needle to poke a hole through them.
The make 53 “Hail Mary” beads, six “Our Father” beads, and 90 to 100 divider beads.
The dividers are smaller, flat beads of the same color, that keep the prayer beads properly spaced apart.
The students place the beads into one of the compartments of a divided cookie tray, which Mr. Powers takes home and bakes in his oven.
The process hardens the clay without scorching it.
After the beads and dividers have stood up to the heat, the students string them through loops of fishing line, tying them tightly at the base, then adding the beads for faith, hope and charity, then the cross.
“You know, when a kid helps make a meal, he’s like 90 percent more likely to eat it and enjoy it,” said Fisher. “It’s kind of the same way with this. You make that rosary, you’re going to be 90 percent more likely to enjoy the Rosary.”
Liam said this is much more than an art project or an easy “A.”
“You’re making it for Mary and for God, so you want it to be the best you can do,” he said.
But it certainly needn’t be perfect.
“It’s actually made by somebody — handcrafted,” said Beatrice. “Even any little flaws help make it your own.”
“Powerful force”
Tom Kusick, now retired, started the Clay Rosary Project during the first of his 15 years teaching middle school religion at Cathedral School.
“With all of our new technology, it’s so nice for these kids to be able to make something with their hands. I think that’s what makes it important,” said Mr. Kusick, who retired in 2015 but came back to visit on Oct. 15 and survey this year’s students’ handiwork.
The crucifix he made still adorns Mr. Powers’s classroom.
He marvels when his former pupils tell him they still have the rosary they made in his class, and that they still pray with it.
“One girl said her grandfather was buried with the rosary she made,” Mr. Kusick noted.
Others took what they learned about rosary-making and ran with it.
“I’ve had some tell me they’ve made them as presents for cousins and people like that,” he said.
He made his own first clay rosary when his children were young and he was just starting out as a teacher.
“We had three kids and hardly any money,” he said. “I wanted to buy a rosary and thought, ‘I really can’t afford this.’ So I made one.”
He refined the process over the years, creating some rosaries with intricate designs on each bead and presenting them to friends and family.
“You want to make them beautiful, but they also have to be sturdy enough to be usable,” he said.
Mr. Kusick and his family moved from Kansas City to a farm in Frankenstein, where he served as principal of St. Mary School for 11 years.
He later helped residents of the former Central Missouri Correctional Center in Jefferson City prepare to take their GED.
He didn’t know what students at the Cathedral School would think of making rosaries when he introduced it to them the first time.
“Whenever you implement something new, you wonder if it’s gonna’ go over,” he said. “But it did go over, and now it’s something the kids really look forward to.
“And it’s such a wonderful thing to do because praying the Rosary is good, and prayer is the most powerful force on earth,” he said.
“Go deeper”
Younger students thought they’d lose out on rosary-making when Mr. Kusick retired in 2015. But his successor, Annie Crider, visited him at home and learned the whole process.
She, in turn, passed that knowledge along to her successor, Mr. Powers.
“Annie left me very good, thorough instructions about how to do every step of making the rosaries,” said Mr. Powers. “I’m very grateful for that.”
He also went to visit Mr. Kusick and observe the process in his workshop.
Other students see the eighth-graders making rosaries and get excited about it when their turn finally comes.
“I’m glad I can be part of that and part of such a longstanding tradition,” said Mr. Powers.
“We pray the Rosary to honor the Blessed Mother,” he noted. “By doing that, we honor her Son, too. This object is meant to remind us of that. We give honor and glory back to the one it’s meant to honor, which is Jesus through his mother, Mary.”
Mr. Powers enjoys being a teacher — specifically, a Catholic school teacher.
“All education should be formative from an academic standpoint, and it is here,” he said.
“But it must go deeper. It must also be formative spiritually and personally,” he stated. “I think Catholic schools do an excellent job of that.
“Being able to walk with our students on their journey with God, especially in junior high, when they’re maturing and questioning what they believe, it’s a challenge that I absolutely love,” he said.
Inspired by this confidence
Liam emphasized the importance of turning to the Blessed Mother for help.
“If you pray to Mary, she’ll pass it on to God,” he noted.
Fisher said holding onto the rosary beads and moving his fingers from one to the next helps him keep track of the prayers while he meditates on the Mysteries for each decade.
Liam likes when he and his classmates pray the Rosary together, with a story or meditation from the life of Jesus and Mary at the beginning of each decade.
“It’s a really good way to connect it to your own life,” he said.
Beatrice said she offers each individual prayer in the Rosary for different people or different prayer intentions.
She pointed to how those who pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet do so “in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.”
“We’re not just praying for ourselves but also for everyone in the world — not just on earth now but potentially for people who have died,” she noted.
All three said they benefit from taking part in their school’s XLT Adoration and XLT Ignite.
These activities bring fifth- through eighth-graders together for social interaction and communal Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament with contemporary worship music.
“There’s also Reconciliation,” said Liam, “so you can give your sins to God and allow yourself to be forgiven. And you pray to God with your friends and have fun with them before that.”
All three said they appreciate going to a school where they can explore and grow in their faith.
“It really builds a strong foundation,” said Fisher. “If you have that, you’re less likely to veer away from it later in life.”
“Here, you don’t have to hide your faith from others,” said Liam. “You can be yourself in all areas of your life.”
Beatrice pointed to a moment this past summer that she could only have experienced if she was Catholic. “It proved to me that God does exist and he does care about all of us,” she said. “And praying the Rosary helps me to connect to that moment even more.”
