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Rosary at the Borders in Poland.Facebook

UNITED KINGDOM, February 8, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Catholics in the United Kingdom are following Poland, Italy, and Ireland in holding a Rosary rally that they hope will stretch the length of the British coast to ask the Blessed Mother’s intercession to restore faith, life, and peace in the British Isles. 

The initiative of the lay faithful has the strong endorsement of Bishop John Keenan of Paisley, Scotland.

In a video posted about the event on the “Rosary on the Coast” Facebook page, Keenan urged Catholics to take part in “this big national event” for Scotland, England and Wales. The rally is scheduled to take place at 3:00 p.m. on April 29, 2018.

“It’s a call for all of you to make your way to some part of the coast and pray a Rosary, imploring Our Lady to now arouse a great renewal of our Christian faith in our country,” said Keenan.

The Mother of God will “bring about an end to the scourge of abortion in our land, and usher in a new era of peace for all our nations,” he said. 

“Our poor country is being tossed around in a dark and turbulent storm of aggressive secularism that’s threatening ever more the dignity of the human person, the sanctity of life, and the joy of authentic relationships,” said Keenan.

“All the while tensions are rising in our country, hope’s fading in Europe and it seems a new terror [is] rising across the world,” he noted.

The solution “will come only from a great renewal in the Church that’s strong again in faith. Our Gospel can dispel the present confusion and lead us into a welcome era of peace and light,” the bishop said.  

“When our world has no wine, He invites us to turn to Mary who draws down God’s great glory from heaven to earth,” he added.

“May God bless this important venture and begin the conversion and reconciliation of our Isles.”

Poland was the first to hold a Rosary on the Borders. It took place October 7, 2017, which is the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary and marks the victory of Christian forces over Ottoman Muslims at the naval Battle at Lepanto in 1571. 

When more than a million people lined Poland’s 2,000 mile border to pray, the media and critics warned the “controversial” event signaled a rise of xenophobia and Islamophobia.

But Polish organizers countered that the Rosary at the Borders was an expression of Catholic faith. 

“We desire to pray for the conversion of Poland, Europe and the whole world to Christ so that more souls will be saved from eternal damnation and find their path to God,” organizer Maciej Bodasiński told LifeSiteNews in an earlier interview.

“We entrust everything to Mary, and we leave up to her what the fruits of this prayer will be. We try to be more like children,” he said. 

“Mother has asked us to pray the rosary, so we pray the rosary. She asked for penance, so we do penance. We try to believe in her unreservedly, having absolute certainty that if we entrust the fate of Poland and the whole world to her, we will be saved.”

2017 was also the 100th anniversary of the Marian apparitions at Fatima, Portugal, where Our Lady exhorted people to pray the Rosary frequently for the conversion of sinners and for peace.

Italy followed suit with a day of fasting and praying the Rosary October 13, and on November 26, some 30,000 people lined the coast of Ireland for the Rosary on the Coasts for Life and Faith

The Irish prayed for a renewal of the Christian faith in their country, and that their laws protecting the child in the womb would be upheld.

Poland’s Rosary on the Borders also inspired a Rosary service across the United States December 12, 2017, and a spiritual event called the Rosary to the Interior on February 2, 2018, also in the United States.

Keenan hopes that all the sites of the Rosary on the Coast of the British Isles will “join up together, and form a ring of grace around our coast for faith, life, and peace, that God will see from heaven, as it were, and come down to bless forever.”

He urged Catholics to “prepare” for the Rosary on the Coast by joining in the 40 days of prayer, fasting and almsgiving before the event the organizers are calling for, and following “their daily intentions for the 40 days” on the Rosary on the Coast Facebook page.

“So this is an invitation to the whole people of God, to every Catholic,” Keenan said, “But also to all our Catholic societies and associations, and our many ethnic chaplaincies and groups up and down the country, to gather together as one, and call down for heaven a rebirth of faith, and of life, and of peace.”

For more information on the Rosary on the Coast, go here.

Related: 

Massive turnout for rosary crusade in Poland. Liberals furious

Rosary crusade draws 30,000 to the coasts of Ireland to pray for God’s blessings