Encouraging children to pray the rosary in the Worcester Diocese

    “With the rosary, the Christian people sits at the School of Mary and is led to contemplate the beauty on the face of Christ and to experience the depths of his love. Through the Rosary, the faithful receive abundant grace, as though from the very hands of the Mother of the Redeemer.”
– St. John Paul II
Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae

 By Christina Galeone
CFP Correspondent

    Because October is the month of the holy rosary, and Oct. 7 is the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, and Advent is on the horizon, now is a wonderful time for people to visit the “School of Mary” that St. John Paul II refers to in “Rosarium Virginis Mariae.” And while it’s never too late for people to learn how to pray the rosary, it’s a blessing to children who discover it at a young age.
    Many years ago, some parishes introduced children to the rosary through a small statue of the Blessed Mother called Pilgrim Mary. Religious education students could take her on visits to their homes to pray the rosary with their families. Today, children are still being introduced to and encouraged to pray the rosary in dynamic ways that help them to see how powerful the Marian, Christ-centric devotion truly is.
    Sister Katherine Maria Mueller, MICM, superior of the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary of St. Benedict Center in Still River, has found that educating children about how the rosary can save lives and souls sparks their enthusiasm to pray it. Because the rosary is an integral part of their religious order’s spirituality of “To Jesus through Mary,” it’s prayed together every day at their Morning Star Summer Camp by more than 100 girls, who eagerly await the chance to lead the group with an intention at the beginning of each rosary decade.  
    “At the introduction to the camp on the first day, we explain how if you pray for someone, alone – for your father’s conversion, cousin who is an addict or has health problems – God will hear you. But if 100 girls join you in the rosary for that same intention, God will certainly listen,” Sister Katherine Maria said. “And when you die and the scales of judgement are being weighted and you’re biting your nails in apprehension, a saved soul may emerge from the clouds of heaven and defend you, saying ‘I am saved because of you … one of the 100 girls whose prayers said at Morning Star Camp gave me the grace of conversion.’”
    Melissa McDonald, the founder and leader of the Catholic Girls Club (which meets once a month at Sacred Heart Parish’s Emmaus Center in Webster), believes that introducing children to the lives of saints who prayed the rosary, and bringing them closer to the Blessed Mother, will inspire them to pray the rosary. She said that the stories of saints that she shares with the girls include ones of women who prayed the rosary daily or often.
    “As the girls read these stories, in addition to saying a prayer of Consecration to Mary at the beginning of each meeting, we hope they will draw closer to the Blessed Mother and want to imitate her and other female saints,” Mrs. McDonald said. “We also study a Marian feast each year. Last year, we looked at Our Lady of Guadalupe, and this year it will be Our Lady of Lourdes, which will have a direct focus on the rosary.”
    At St. Mary School in Shrewsbury, a Catholic parish school that serves children from preschool to eighth grade, Principal Jeannie MacDonough recalled how a school-wide activity to honor Mary helped unite kids in praying the rosary. She said that the school community gathered at St. Mary Parish to pray a living rosary.
    “Students from the upper grades created a life-size rosary by standing in a circle and holding a bead made from poster board,” Mrs. MacDonough said. “Each bead of the rosary was represented by one student who led a prayer of the rosary. The rest of the school community was seated in the middle … and joined in to finish each prayer. This powerful activity brought the rosary to life, united us all in prayer, and celebrated our mission as a school anchored in our Catholic faith.”
    With Catholic schools and programs continuing to introduce children to the rosary in such unique, dynamic ways, many will grow up knowing the depths of Christ’s love that St. John Paul II described. And that love can prepare them for a lifetime of beautifully, boldly living their faith.