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| The Royal Psalmist |
The Rosary was in disuse when Sister Margaret arrived in England. Even her closest companions secretly admitted they thought it was a childish sort of devotion but Margaret was able to win people over. The regular prayer meetings she held for scholars in the night school became so popular that even many Protestants came to hear her prayer, singing, and spiritual reading. She ended these meetings with the Rosary. "One afternoon, having assisted her in preparing the schoolroom for the evening Rosary, her friend, Miss G., was astonished to see her, after surveying the altar with simple glee, take hold of her dress in both hands, and execute a little dance before Our Lady."
"Sister Margaret often expressed her love of Our Lady by saying she should like to dance before her ; words which reminded her hearers of the act recorded of the Royal Psalmist, to the character of whose devotion her own bore so remarkable a resemblance. The schoolroom Rosary evenings had many important results, and the devotion begun at Coventry was taken up at other missions. The Protestants, who came at first out of curiosity, were often induced by their Catholic friends to stay and talk with Sister Margaret, and these interviews led in many cases to conversions."
Drane, Augusta Theodosia (Mother Francis Raphael), Life of Mother Margaret Mary Hallahan: Foundress of the English Congregation of St. Catherine of Siena of the Third Order of St. Dominic, Longmans, Green and Co., New York, New York, 1929, 73-74.
