Reflections from the First Meeting of the Children's Rosary at Sacred Heart Church in East Berlin, CT USA

The first meeting of the Children's Rosary at Sacred Heart Parish was held on August 3rd 2013.  This group has chosen to hold their monthly Children's Rosary on the first Saturday of the month.  Several of the Children's Rosary groups have chosen the first Saturday as their meeting time in honor of Our Blessed Mother and the First Saturday devotion.  The first meeting of the Children's Rosary at Sacred Heart Church in East Berlin, CT USA was small with 3 children attending.  A beautiful picture of the children was taken after the Rosary.  One can see the Roses at Our Lady's feet a beautiful tradition which started with the first Children's Rosary group and has been continued through all the groups. At the end of each decade of the rosary a child is asked to place a rose at the feet of Our Lady if a statue is present or before the children as they are kneeling.  An adult is then saying, Mary we humbly place this rose at your feet and ask for the grace of humility if it were the first joyful mystery.  The graces asked for correspond to the fruits of each mystery.  

As I looked at this picture of the three children standing before Our Lady I was reminded of another picture one you may also recognize: the three children of Fatima.  Maybe it was the folded hands that reminded me of little Jacinta standing with her hand on her hip but there was something so realistic about these three children.  One realizes that the children of Fatima were unique in that they were able to see Our Lady as they prayed the Rosary but they were in many ways just like our children.  We are told that Francisco who was 9 at the time of the apparitions could be a bit mischievous.  Yet he had a soft heart and love of animals and compassion for the sick.  Jacinta the youngest of the visionaries was just 7 when Our Lady appeared to them. She loved to dance and sing but could be stubborn and definitely had a mind of her own. Lucia was the oldest being 10 when Our Lady appeared.  She was the youngest of 7 children and came from a family which prayed the Rosary together.  She was the only visionary who could speak to Our Lady.

As today is the anniversary of the Sept 13th apparitions in Fatima I thought it a perfect day to share these reflections.  On the Sept 13th apparition Lucia asked Our Lady as she had done in the past "What do you want of me?" Our Lady responded "Continue to pray the Rosary in order to obtain the end of the war."

As these apparitions were taking place during World War I this was an important message for their time.  Yet with the many conflicts which exist today in our world the message is timeless.  The Children's Rosary at Sacred Heart met this past weekend and these three children again returned to pray and we are happy to report that three new children joined them.  How beautiful it must be for Our Lady to look down from Heaven and see her little children kneeling in prayer of the Holy Rosary.  

May I humbly encourage anyone who is considering starting a Children's Rosary to see this little group and realize that whether 2 children or twenty children come together Our Lady is smiling. The time commitment is small but the blessings are immeasurable not only for your family and parish but for the whole world.  After all, Our Lady told the children that through prayer of the Rosary one can obtain an end to war.