This was the Gospel reading that was read yesterday on the Feast of the Guardian Angels. At least three times this past week the gospel has mentioned children. I began to feel like Our Lord was trying to emphasize this point. This also came at a time of deep reflection about the children's rosary.
The children's rosary began in one Parish in April 2011 in response to a call for help from our Pastor. We were facing many struggles one of which was financial. I approached the Pastor and said, Our Lord has told us many times how precious are the prayers of children let us bring our innocent and dear children together to pray for our sick parish. And in that moment the children's rosary was born. The children's rosary has brought wonderful blessings to our parish since its beginnings. The weekend of the first children's rosary was the Sunday before Palm Sunday and nothing out of the ordinary was planned for that weekend yet it had the second highest collection only surpassed by Easter that Spring and Summer.
The children's rosary brought the beginning of many parish-wide prayer services on Special Marian Feasts. It brought an effort within the Parish to renew family prayer. Many people joined together to contribute to the purchase of many read-aloud Children's Bibles for families. Hundreds of people began saying novenas to different saints asking them to lead a family in prayer. Those saints were then put on the Bibles and given to children and families. In total close to 400 children's Bibles have been given out.
As these beautiful events continued to unfold there was an increasing feeling that Our Lady had not inspired the creation of the children's rosary for one parish. Rather she was bringing forth something for her whole Church: a Church in crisis. She was taking the hands of the simplest and smallest ones as she has done in the past in Fatima and Lourdes and guiding them. In leading the smallest children she would lead all of us on the straightest path to her Son. Our children are at the heart of the church they are at the heart of the family.
As the Feast of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary approached something wonderful began to happen. Our Lady began to move pieces into place that revealed she was planning more children's rosaries to form and this movement was to begin on her Feast day. While the St. Thomas Children's Rosary was planning to have their rosary and celebration for her Feast another group began to form on a small Island off of Washington State USA. The women organizing the children's rosary there told me they would have their first meeting after their 9AM Mass. This would mean that they would be meeting at 10AM PST. The children's rosary in CT had planned to meet at 1PM EST. Taking into account the 3 hour difference in time zones we realized our rosaries are planned for the exact same time. Our Lady had not only created another children's rosary but managed to have us praying at the same time. A friend said to me yesterday when I told her about this beautiful coincidence, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God." (Romans 8:28)
Today another person contacted us interested in joining her new group of young people who pray the rosary with our children's rosary prayer movement. She even suggested that they might be able to travel from out of state to come to Our Rosary and Event planned for this Sunday. Another original member of the children's rosary who had moved to Boston is trying to begin a Children's Rosary in her new Parish.
Truly Our Lady is calling us to bring our children to her. She is bringing these pieces together on her Feast of the Holy Rosary as a beautiful sign that Her Rosary is the safety net we all have been looking for. With her Rosary she will protect our young people from the harshness of the world and in so doing bring us all to safety and love in her Son.
No comments:
Post a Comment