Wednesday, October 29, 2003

By Maria Carpico, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Jim Paras and Thomas Rutkoski have collaborated on a project designed to encourage prayer and fund local charities while satisfying sweet tooths.

Paras, president of the West View-based Betsy Ann Chocolates, and Thomas Rutkoski, founder of Gospa Missions in Evans City pooled resources to create The Chocolate Rosary.

The concept came to Paras as he developed new products for the holidays. Rutkoski had a similar notion while brainstorming for fund-raising projects during a retreat in Texas.

A chance meeting five years ago began a journey neither man could have predicted. Paras was searching for rosary beads when an employee suggested he try the Gospa religious goods store in Evans City because it was convenient to his home in Cranberry. While he was in the store, Rutkoski came in.

The volunteer introduced Paras as a candy maker, and Rutkoski said, "You're just the guy to make me a chocolate rosary," Paras recalled.

The men teamed up to create the first chocolate rosary. The initial product sold 5,000 units after two seasons, before they reworked the rosary's design and packaging.

The revamped product was set to go into production when Pope John Paul II made an announcement. Last October, the Luminous Mysteries, a new group of prayers, were added to those already associated with the rosary.

The rosary is a string of five sets of beads on which prayers are recited. It is used to encourage devotion to the Virgin Mary.

The Joyful Mysteries are composed of the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Nativity, the Presentation and the Finding of Jesus in the Temple.

"I think the rosary is slipping from the grasp of most people," said Rutkoski, who created a guide titled "My Scriptural Rosary to simplify praying it. He outlines all 20 mysteries and includes verses and the fruit of each mystery.

The final product includes a rosary, scripture book and 20 pieces of chocolate imprinted with the Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious and Luminous mysteries of the rosary. "It encourages people to learn how to pray traditionally one of the most powerful prayers," Paras said.

The product's packaging is adorned with "La Virgen del Rosario," a painting by Bartolome Murillo of the mother and child, that hangs in the Museo Nacional Del Prado in Spain. It depicts Mary cheek to cheek with a cherubic Jesus holding onto her with one arm and clutching a wooden rosary in the other.

The set also includes an imported Italian rosary crafted in wood or pearl. Each comes with a copy of Mary's Blessing.

"It was a difficult project to undertake," Paras said, describing it as an intensive labor of love. Problems ranged from misspellings on the chocolate molds to an unexplained enlargement of Murillo's work.

"I see it as God cheering us on and Satan trying to slow us down, but we never quit," Rutkoski said.

The two regrouped and sought a quote from Mary to include on the back cover of the reader and the packaging. They found their answer in the second luminous mystery; the Wedding at Cana.

It is one of the few times Mary is quoted in the Bible. She instructs the waiters at the wedding to "do whatever He tells you."

In the tradition of the chocolate rosary, the presenter prays a rosary for the recipient, and in turn the recipient prays a rosary for the presenter. Rosary chocolate bars are in the development stages, but Paras sees them as a way to foster tradition in younger generations. "It's a new type of tradition that is more suited for today's lifestyles."

The chocolate rosary retails for $18 at all of Betsy Ann's 12 locations. All profits are donated to religious charities. Betsy Ann also offers the rosary as a fund-raiser for church and school groups.

Gospa is a nonprofit Catholic humanitarian foundation whose name comes from the Eastern European term for "Our Lady." Betsy Ann has been owned and operated by the Paras family since 1968.

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