Rosary Project Offers Solace To MRI Patients

By Nancy K. Crevier

For Michelle Babyak, a cancer survivor who understands intimately the unnerving experience of the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) experience, the Kennedy Rosary Project that she introduced to friends and fellow parishioners at St Rose of Lima Catholic Church last fall is way to spread happiness, and spread the word of the Rosary.

The Rosary is a Catholic devotion that refers to a sequence of prayers and meditations, as well as to the actual prayer beads on which the prayers are counted. Each set of ten beads is called a “decade,” with five decades in the necklace-like rosary. A cross is connected to the rest of the rosary by a single strand strung with three more prayer beads.

The Kennedy Rosary Project was inspired by 9-year-old Kennedy Snyder of Wilton, the daughter of Kristy and Jeff Snyder, who was diagnosed at age 2 with a spinal cord tumor.

“I met Kennedy and her family the year after I was diagnosed with breast cancer. We were ‘malades,’ the French word for ‘the sick ones,’ and the Order of Malta, a Catholic organization that helps the poor and the sick, had sponsored both of us to go to Lourdes in the South of France,” recalled Ms Babyak.

Kennedy’s tumor is inoperable, and requires frequent MRIs. “She always wanted to pray the Rosary in the MRI, as it can be very scary and stressful to patients,” said Ms Babyak, “but she couldn’t because traditional rosaries contain metal. Even the ones made of plastic may contain metal fragments and are not allowed. But then her family found a pattern online for a knotted, twine rosary and made one.”

Kennedy was comforted by it and was very excited by the thought that they could share this with others. “Her family decided to make it happen and the project was sponsored by the Order of Malta,” Ms Babyak said.

“I got involved about a year and a half ago and started making full rosaries with a group of women from the order, and with three friends from town, Lynda Russo, Helen Benson, and Julie Obre,” Ms Babyak said. The group realized quickly that the full rosaries were too cumbersome for patients to handle in the MRI machine, and began producing chaplets, which consist of only one decade of the rosary, on which the faithful count ten Hail Mary prayers and one Our Father prayer.

Each chaplet is made from a 70-inch length of colorful fisherman’s twine and a 24-inch length of twine, with the beads made up of barrel knots tied into the longer length of twine. The cross is formed from five barrel knots bound together on the shorter length of twine and then knotted to the chaplet. Although the primary motive behind making the smaller chaplets was to make them more usable during the MRI when very little movement is allowed, the other advantage over a full rosary, consisting of five decades, is that they take less time to make.

“I can make a chaplet in about ten minutes now,” said Ms Babyak, “while a full rosary takes an hour.” The shorter chaplet also means that the group is able to keep up with the demand.

The individually packaged chaplets, each bagged with directions for saying the Rosary, are placed in MRI centers where those who wish can select one at no cost. They have proved very popular, she said. “We have them at Fairfield County Imaging in Trumbull, St Vincent’s in Bridgeport, and St Raphael’s in New Haven right now,” said Ms Babyak, “and we hope to get them into Danbury Hospital, as well.”

“Kennedy had to be in the MRI machine for an hour and a half at a time then, and she still has to go every three months. She would have me say the Rosary for her and she would say it, too,” said Kennedy’s mother, Kristy Snyder. “She became very interested in the Rosary when she was just 4 years old, in 2005, when we went on the Lourdes pilgrimage and they would have the candlelight procession,” Ms Snyder said.

Until a friend found an online project for making a rosary completely out of twine, Ms Snyder and Kennedy had been using their fingers to count the decades of the Rosary while in the MRI room. “But even the movement of the fingers in the machine was sometimes too much, and Kennedy would get in trouble for moving,” said Ms Snyder. “The chaplet does not require much movement at all, and some patients find it comforting just to hold it, even,” she said.

The Snyders are not part of the St Rose project, but create chaplets at other rosary project groups in Fairfield County, an activity to which Kennedy enjoys contributing, said her mother. Due to nerve damage during an early surgery, Kennedy has the use of only her left hand. “She does a great job knotting the decade with only one hand, but I do the crosses for her, because it really takes two hands to make them,” Ms Snyder said. “She has really adapted.”

On Wednesday evening, May 19, Kennedy and her mother did join the St Rose Kennedy Rosary Project group for a session of chaplet making.

Like any little girl, Kennedy loves the brightly colored twines used to make the chaplets, particularly purple, which is the color of her personal chaplet that accompanies her during the long MRI sessions. The chaplet, she said, provides her with a feeling of love. “I feel the love of my mom and everybody who is doing this,” she said.

She did confess that saying the Rosary is not all that she thinks about during an MRI. “Sometimes, I think about Mickey Mouse. He’s cool, and he makes me happy, too.”

She deftly twisted a strand of purple twine about a clothespin that stands in for the fingers on her weaker hand, knotting it into the first decade of a chaplet, as she talked.

“When I make [chaplets], I think about other people who have cancer. I feel bad for them, and I think that these make them happy,” said Kennedy.

The benefit of having a chaplet during the MRI process is twofold, said Ms Snyder. “First, you know that someone thought enough of you to make something to give you a sense of peace. It also gives the patient something to do while in the MRI, and brings the blessings of the Blessed Mother,” she said.

“We have been doing this for almost two years and we’re hoping to expand the project more,” said Ms Snyder. “We’re always looking for new knotters,” she said.

The chaplets bring comfort to the sick, said Ms Babyak, but are also beneficial to the “knotters,” as the chaplet crafters are called. “It gives many people the opportunity to help others, and there are ways that anyone can help with the chaplets, even if they don’t feel crafty enough to actually do the knotting,” she said. At each monthly meeting, usually the third Wednesday of the month, in the Msgr Conroy Room of the St Rose Gathering Hall, different stations are set up to cut the lengths of twine, knot the chaplets, knot the crosses for the chaplets, and bag the finished product. Working together, they have made thousands of chaplets since they started last fall. Some of the knotters are not even members of St Rose, said Ms Babyak, making it truly a community project.

The Kennedy Rosary Project has been funded by the Order of Malta and through fundraising by the organization, but donations toward the purchase of twine and the other items needed to produce the chaplets is appreciated, said Ms Babyak. To donate, visit kennedysrosaryproject.blogspot.com.

Ms Babyak and most of the other knotters work on chaplets outside of the monthly meetings. “I spend countless hours at my kids’ sports events and it keeps me busy. You can make them anywhere. I have even taught people on the flight over to Lourdes,” she laughed. “I enjoy making the rosaries,” Ms Babyak said. “It’s a great way to reassure people who undergo great stress during an MRI. I know how peaceful saying the Rosary can be. I like to spread the comfort that it can give.”

To join the St Rose Kennedy Rosary Project, contact Michelle Babyak at 2203-270-6265 or at michelle.babyak@charter.net.