By Dorothy De Piante
 Block Rosary Representative

For 37 years I've been working with Block Rosary, and only recently decided it was time to visit the spot where our Lady appeared to bring us this devotion. So I went to Detroit to visit the home where Our Lady appeared to a suburban Detroit wife and mother, Mary Hall, and gave her the Block Rosary. Mary Hall died in 1991. She was 81 years old. In her old neighborhood I spoke with people who knew her for many years.

Our Lady, who came as our Lady of Sorrows on her visits to Detroit,    asked her twice to pray the Rosary with her neighbors. Mary Hall kept telling Our Lady she couldn't do it. "I'm no good, I'm unworthy", she said. 

Our Lady came back a third time, asking her, "What are you waiting for?"  Suddenly Mary Hall hastened across the street, as though she were being pushed. Two older people were there, Mary Hall's friends. She asked them to join her in saying the Rosary. They did, and those three people joined in the first Block Rosary.

Mary Hall went to the parish priest with her story, and permission was granted for her to begin the devotion. Block Rosary groups

were formed in neighborhoods, hospitals and sanitariums. In those first years, Block Rosary groups were formed on all continents. Our Lady said to Mary Hall, "You will take them the first week, another the next. House by house, street-by-street".

"Wherever these groups will gather, I will give them protection. I shall bless their homes. I will be in their midst. I shall watch over their homes." Block Rosary - one night a week. This is a small price to pay for the assured protection of the Mother of God on our homes and our street.

Did Our Lady foresee that the neighborhoods would be in trouble as we see today? Will these Block Rosary homes be 'marked' homes, the way those biblical homes were marked with the blood of the lamb? Will these homes be marked for protection, too, as was the rectory where three priests were praying the Rosary at the moment the atom bomb fell on Hiroshima? Everything in sight was devastated, even the church next door. The rectory was untouched. The priests spent many years telling people all over the world the story of "The Rosary of Hiroshima". Our Blessed Mother appeared in THIS country with the BLOCK ROSARY devotion. Is it meant for the American people to make known this devotion? Do not delay. Go now. Ask you neighbor to pray the Rosary with you one night a week.

Because of recent media coverage, the devotion is spreading throughout the world. A Block Rosary Crusade was held in Nigeria in 1995. One hundred thousand people attended the three day event. Three bishops were present. Groups are forming in Manila and the Philippines. A request came recently from a person in jail. He wants to start a Block Rosary. Other groups have been started in Shamokin, PA and Spokane, WA .

On August 4th and August 5th, 1997 Block Rosary was held in Detroit for the first time in many years. We hope it will continue, for this is where it began, the first Block Rosary, February 25, 1945. Pray for increased devotion to the Block Rosary. Our Blessed Mother came down from heaven to give Block Rosary. She is the same Blessed Mother who appeared at Fatima and Lourdes. We must answer her plea, "JOIN MY BLOCK ROSARY'. Write for information on how to form a Block Rosary group on your street: Send a Self Addressed, Stamped Envelope to Block Rosary, PO Box 748 Waxhaw, NC 28173-1004 or contact us by e-mail at   olmc@carolina.rr.com