Wilfred Soong
Marion Tong
A Kalihi Valley couple has turned a humble rosary-making side project into a global sharing of the power of prayer.
Wilfred and Rachel Soong of Our Lady of the Mount Church, with friends and fellow parishioners, have made and sent overseas tens of thousands of rosaries each year for the past decade. In 2013 alone, the group crafted about 11,000 strings of beads for distribution to prisons, missions, hospitals and other places worldwide.
This being October, the month of the rosary, the Hawaii Catholic Herald asked Wilfred and Rachel Soong Oct. 16 to share the story of their generous ministry.
Wilfred Soong said it began in the early 2000s. Eight months after he retired in November 2002, he had open-heart surgery. During his recovery, he appreciated the daily visits and the Eucharist provided by Catholic hospital ministers.
On the last day of his hospital stay, a sudden burst of inspiration caught Wilfred off-guard. Normally someone who is uneasy with the bleakness of hospitals, Wilfred said he surprised himself by telling a friend that he would like to be a volunteer visitor.
“I told him, ‘I want to become a minister just like you,’” Wilfred said. “After he left, I told myself, ‘What did I say?’”
Wilfred later spoke with Father Paul Smith, director of diocesan hospital ministry at the time. That conversation led to his commitment to the ministry.
“I said, ‘When do I start?’” Wilfred explained. “Just like the first time, I didn’t even think about it. The words just came out.”
Since then, he and his wife Rachel have been providing prayer and Communion for patients at Kaiser Medical Center every week.
Patients regularly ask for rosaries, Soong said, so he and his cousin learned how to make the simple string of prayer beads to meet the constant demand.
“My cousin was giving me rosaries, but she couldn’t give me enough rosaries fast enough,” Wilfred said. “The hospital takes a lot. When we go in, we see new patients, so we give them (rosaries). And then they come back … and ask for another rosary.”
The Soongs get their simple rosary materials through the “Our Lady’s Rosary Makers” website — basic cord, plastic beads of different colors, plastic crucifixes and Marian medallions.
Wilfred and Rachel mostly make the traditional Dominican Rosary, which is used to meditate on the Joyful, Luminous, Glorious and Sorrowful Mysteries of the lives of Jesus and Mary. Recently Wilfred has been creating strings of beads for other prayers, like the Chaplet of St. Michael.
Wilfred estimates that he and Rachel made between 2,000 and 5,000 rosaries during their first years in hospital ministry. Over time, friends and parishioners joined them in the rosary-making. The Soongs provide the cord and beads and they make the rosaries at home.
Wilfred said it takes about 15 minutes to make one rosary, which requires stringing 59 beads and knotting the cords in the right places. Some of his rosary makers fashion 300-500 rosaries a month.
Reaching beyond Hawaii
In a short amount of time, the Soongs and friends were making more than enough rosaries for local needs and they began to pile up. They then looked for rosary distributors elsewhere in “Our Lady’s Messenger,” the newsletter of Our Lady’s Rosary Makers.
Wilfred connected with people on the Mainland who ship and distribute rosaries. One of them, a Pennsylvania man who has become a good friend of Wilfred’s over the past seven or eight years, sends the Soongs’ rosaries to prisoners in his region and surrounding states.
Wilfred said the rosary distributor in Pennsylvania has given out “almost a million rosaries” from the Soongs and other makers around the country.
The Soongs are glad they can play a part in spreading the Marian prayer. Each rosary is packaged in a small ziplock bag with an instruction card on how to say it. They hope many will benefit from learning this timeless devotion.
Recently during his hospital visits, Wilfred has also been passing out the book, “The Secret of the Rosary” by St. Louis de Montfort. The book highlights the rosary’s history from its revelation to St. Dominic by the Blessed Virgin Mary, to the miraculous victories and graces attributed to its recitation.
Catholics should pray the rosary regularly, Wilfred said.
“When you pray the rosary, you ask the Blessed Virgin Mary for something that you need,” he explained. “Then you start saying the rosary, and you say it slowly. It takes you a little bit longer to say the rosary because the Blessed Virgin Mary wants you to meditate on the Passions of Christ.”
“If you ask (Mary) for something, she’ll give it to you,” Wilfred added. The rosary “can change the world, and I believe it can. It impacts individuals too, in its own way.”
Rachel Soong said she has personally seen how the rosary can provide healing and aid even in dire situations.
“To me, it’s the power of prayer,” she said.
Rosary maker Marion Tong, who met the Soongs about a month ago at Kaiser Hospital, said she has felt the presence of the Blessed Mother and the Holy Spirit after praying the rosary.
Tong had needed a walker to get around. After a gathering for rosary makers hosted by the Soongs in September, Tong said she felt a warm, peaceful presence embrace her. When she got home, she put her walker aside and has since been able to stand strongly on her own.
“I’m glad I met Rachel and I’m glad I met her husband,” Tong said. Making rosaries “is what I wanted to do. I’m happy.”
Wilfred invites others to participate in their rosary-making group and to volunteer for the hospital or prison ministries. For more information, Wilfred can be contacted at ptrmakers@gmail.com.
You may also join Wilfred and other parishioners at Our Lady of the Mount Church in Kalihi Valley every Wednesday after the 6:30 a.m. Mass to pray all 20 decades of the rosary.
