The Children's Rosary® is a prayer group movement that was begun out of love for Our Lady and Her Son. Jesus tells us "Truly, I say to you unless you turn and become like children you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven" (Matthew 18:3). The Children's Rosary is an effort to begin in parishes rosary prayer groups composed of children and led by children. Through prayer of the Rosary Our Lady will guide our young people while at the same time sanctify families and Parishes.
The Children's Rosary at Suoi Sao orphanage in Vietnam has been meeting daily in their Children's Rosary prayer group since September 11th 2016. They meet each evening at 7PM local time to lead a Rosary. On Saturday February 25th, the children had a special Children's Rosary. Tran, Nguyen and another friend came to pray with them. There were special Religious pictures and a statue that were brought for the day.
A statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe was placed in front of the children. A large picture of Divine Mercy was hung by the window. With the sun shining through the image, Our Lord and His rays of blood and water almost seemed to be illuminated. The children also decorated the space with a poster of Servant of God Alfredo Maria Aranda Obviar of the Philippines and little cards with the names and pictures of saints. The children wrote out intentions on little pieces of paper which they clipped to the picture of Divine Mercy. The children are now used to bringing Our Lord and Our Bless Mother their worries and concerns in prayer. After months of prayer the children were very attentive and eager to hear about Our Lady and the saints.
Tran (age 16) was able to tell them about Our Lady of Guadalupe. They were very excited to hear about St. Juan Diego. Tran also told the children about St. Michael the Archangel and St. Jeanne d'Arc. You can see from the pictures that the children sat leaning in to hear every detail. The day was very special with prayer and singing. The children sang "Hosanna". When asked about the children, Tran shares, "their love for God is great." We do share a humble invitation. Please consider joining the children in prayer each day. The children have been asked to pray for all those unifying prayers with them. There is a schedule of meetings present on our website www.childrensrosary.org
When the children are meeting in prayer a blue light flashes on our View from Heaven map. By hitting the "join in prayer" button you can add a gold flashing light to the View from Heaven map.
We received a beautiful gift today. Nguyen, one of the members of the Children's Rosary in Vietnam, requested a Mass to be celebrated on February 27th at 18PM local time. The intention of the Mass is for all the members of the Children's Rosary worldwide.
We are so grateful for this precious gift. Nguyen and her parents visited the Center of Our Lady of Tapao today. They arranged that the Mass which will be celebrated tomorrow at 18PM local time will be offered for the members of the Children's Rosary. Although we may never have the grace to visit these beautiful places, through such generosity of prayer and the celebration of the Mass we are all receiving graces. It is wonderful to be connected in prayer. Thank you very much Nguyen!
A Mass was offered today for the members of the Children's Rosary and all who help the Children's Rosary. This is something we do on the 25th of each month. We hope this spiritual gift continues to help each of us grow in holiness. There are over 25 Children's Rosary groups meeting over the next 24 hours. Please consider joining them in prayer. The children are asked to pray for those unifying prayers with them. There is a schedule of meetings on our site: www.childrensrosary.org When a group is meeting a blue light flashes on the View from Heaven map. You can click "join in prayer" and add your gold light to the map. Other Posts You May Enjoy How to Start a Children's Rosary How to Pray the Rosary Little Furnaces of love
We are happy to share some good news. There is a lovely family that has been part of the Children's Rosary in West Hartford, Connecticut USA. Several of their children have attended Children's Rosary meetings. Their father, Dut Tong is from South Sudan. In March he will be returning to his village of Akoch Atong. He expressed an interest in introducing the Children's Rosary to the children of his village.
There are many children there so we prepared several large boxes of materials for him to bring. They include 675 Rosaries, 75 Children's Rosary books, 2 Children's Rosary CDs, and 50 Children's Rosary bookmarks.
Dut has asked for our prayers for his trip. I humbly ask that we pray for him that he may have a safe and fruitful trip. Please pray that his efforts to begin a Children's Rosary in his village will be realized. Thank you all. The pictures included in this post are from Dut's village of Akoch Atong in South Sudan.
Lent is only a week away and we wanted to share our plans with you. Over the past year I have read to the children the life of St. John Vianney and also the life of St. Therese of Lisieux. Both gave many sacrifices to Our Lord. St. John Vianney gave heroic fasting and mortification. St. Therese gave daily sacrifices also dear to Our Lord but they were of a different nature. They were tiny sacrifices but ones that also led to the heights of sanctity. While the life of St. John Vianney resonated deeply in my soul it seemed Our Lord was showing my children and I that there are many ways to please Him. Such was what we learned in reading about St. Therese and the little sacrifices she would give Our Lord with love each day. She spoke of little sacrifice beads she would carry in her dress. When she found something particularly hard such as being kind to someone she did not like, she moved a bead with her finger and did that which was difficult but out of love for God. In reading her story, I loved the idea of these sacrifice beads. I knew they would be different then Rosary beads as they would have to stay where you put them (see picture below). There is a time in everyone's life for different things to help them on their journey. It seemed my heart was earning for something to help me with these daily struggles. Something beautiful happened after we finished the book of St. Therese's life. A package arrived with some sacrifice beads! We had not asked anyone to send us these beads they just arrived in a box along with some Rosaries. It was clear they were handmade and had a little card explained how to use the St. Therese beads.
To receive these beads was as if a dear friend had read your heart and gotten you the gift you had been hoping for but had told no one. We were excited to put them to use. A few days after the sacrifice beads arrived at our home a friend stopped by our house to drop off some handmade Rosaries. Our friend had recently suffered a terrible loss with the sudden death of her daughter. As we were talking I mentioned the unexpected arrival of the Sacrifice beads and gave her a string. She took the beads and felt they might help her. Later I would find that she began making some for friends. People at her work seeing her beads asked if she could help make a string for them. As she runs the little Rosary making group at our parish which my daughter attends, my daughter was able to make a few of these sacrifice beads. This week we went to the post office and the lovely women who took our package at the counter mentioned she had one of the handmade sacrifice beads from our common friend. This it seemed was only further confirmation that the time was right for these little beads. Not only were our hearts open to them but it seemed other hearts were looking for something to help them, too. Requests were coming in for more beads. So we are now in the process of trying to make them. Well this is a rather long story to bring us to the place where we can share these beads and our plans to use them. Why are the beads helpful? Well for me I find the beads are concrete. When something difficult comes and I have a split second to decide how I will act my mind goes to the opportunity to do something for God. A chance to move a bead for Him. To look at the beads at the end of the day and see none moved is sad and there is the opportunity to reflect at what could have been done differently...opportunities lost. But then there is the next day and one is more ready to take each chance to make an act of love. In reading with my daughter tonight I found something that made a lot of sense. This is a portion from the book of Mother Mary Loyola (The Soldier for Christ): "We cannot, then, afford to get into bad habits, the way to which is doing bad things once, twice, three times. It is much easier, I think to get bad habits then good. It may be. Yet we have this thought to encourage us - that by every good act we do, whether it is prompt rising in the morning, or forgiveness, or overcoming human respect, or checking impatience, we are helping to form a good habit. The effort will be less each time, and what was hard in the beginning will come to be not easy only, but pleasant." The passage went on the share how very important it is to create these good habits young. "So Holy Scripture tells us if we train ourselves well whilst we are young, we shall keep in the right way when we get older, just as a well-trained horse goes,through habit along the right road without need of spur or bridle." So this Lent we want to begin small. We want to take our day and search in it moments to choose God. To choose to do that which is often the most difficult...being kind to those we live with and see each day. For myself it is always easier to be kind to a stranger. The thought of being kind to the person that drives me crazy, well this is much harder. But having begun using the beads I can see the beginnings of new good habits. They are new so Lent is a perfect time to make them more routine. The kids are also excited about the beads. For each person I have seen Our Lord will ask something a little different. My daughter's first thought was to pick up some trash on the ground on our walk home each day from Church. I told her if she picks up the trash and says in her heart I am doing this out of love for you God, it is a beautiful sacrifice. Tonight she and I sat together talking about Lent and a few places she could try to target. There was a beautiful set of questions we came across in our reading together. Maybe they will help in searching for ways to move a bead. We hope in the coming week or two to post a description of how to make your own sacrifice beads. We also are a bit new at making these sacrifice beads but are happy to share what we will make. Donations for postage are always helpful to keep us able to help more folks. If you would like a string you can email a request to blythe@childrensrosary.org There are a few other things we will be doing this Lent including adding more saints to our list through 9 day novenas (see Saints invited to Join the Children's Rosary). But our major effort will be with the small things each day. Other Posts You May Enjoy: How to Start a Children's Rosary
Today a new Children's Rosary prayer group formed at St. Francis Shelter in Bien Hoa, Vietnam. This Shelter is home to 80 severely disabled children. A small number of the children are ambulatory and these children came together to hold the first meeting of the Children's Rosary today. The meeting began with Consecrating the group to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary. Much care was taken to set up a prayer area where the children could gather. The children chose to have a large picture of Divine Mercy before them. The area was further decorated with prayer cards of saints hung before the image of Divine Mercy. Before the children was the baby Jesus. A gift we had sent to the children in Bien Hoa orphanage. They in turn gave this statue to the children at St. Francis Shelter. An incredibly generous gift from their hearts to other children in many ways more needy then they. The children at St. Francis Shelter were very excited to receive the gift of the baby Jesus statue. They also had an opportunity to give a gift of their own. Roses were present and each child was able to place a rose before the baby Jesus. The children led a Rosary and also sang Marian hymns. It was a very special first meeting. The children look forward to their next meeting of the Children's Rosary. We welcome these dear little ones to the Children's Rosary and extend our love and prayers to them. We received word that there was cleaning going on in the rooms of many of the children confined to their beds. They were not able to be visited today for that reason. In the future when the children hold their meetings every effort will be made to visit the children and involve them as much as possible.
Thank you all for those who were able to unify prayers with the children. This means a great deal to them.
We are excited to share that St. Francis Shelter in Bien Hoa Vietnam will now have a Children's Rosary prayer group. This Shelter is home to 80 children most of whom have severe disabilities. Over a month ago a Children's Rosary was held at the Shelter. There was interest to form a Children's Rosary prayer group at the Shelter where the children could pray on a regular basis. The first meeting will be Sunday February 19th at 9:30 AM local time. This will be 9:30 PM ET on Saturday here in the Northeast part of the United States. I hope you will join the children in prayer. The children always pray for those unifying prayers with them. You will find a list of upcoming meetings in your local time zone, including this meeting in Vietnam, on our website: www.childrensrosary.org While the children are meeting in prayer they can be seen as a blue flashing light on our View from Heaven map. If you click "join in prayer" you can add a gold flashing light to the map. The children will begin the meeting in a few hours by Consecrating the group to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary. In this way the group is under the protection and guidance of Christ and His Mother. We hope to have pictures from the first meeting to share with you soon. The picture above of Our Lady of Fatima was taken at the end of the Children's Rosary that was held last month at St. Francis Shelter. She had been carried to many bedsides of the children and now was set down for some final prayers before she left the Shelter. Thank you all and may Our Lord bless you. Other Posts You May Enjoy: How to Start a Children's Rosary St. Francis Shelter
Today is the Feast of St. Bernadette. The picture above my daughter drew of St Bernadette with the Rosary surrounding her. Indeed the Rosary was something that she carried with her always. Today we received a note from Tran (age 16) who lives in Vietnam. He has a first class relic of St. Bernadette and offered to pray for all the members of the Children's Rosary before the relic. With the Feast of St. Bernadette today and the Feast of Jacinta and Fancisco of Fatima on Monday February 20th, it is beautiful to contemplate how Our Lady chooses to speak to the world through children. Their role is crucial it would seem in bringing hearts back to God. With rosaries in hand they will lead. We continue to see this unfolding throughout the world with the Children's Rosary. Regions where prayer has weakened or fallen away the children are bringing it back. Through their tender voices and innocent hearts they are re-kindling it. The children wanted to share someone else in our home that is a Champion of the Rosary. His name is Baby and he is our 14 year old cat. While he is seen below taking a particular interest in a statue of St. Bernadette and Our Lady of Lourdes he also makes a routine of joining the children for their prayers. It may be that the prayer room where we say our prayers is also where his bed is located but still we feel his presence during prayers is special.
This past year was full of blessings for the Children's Rosary. As many may just be discovering the Children's Rosary we would like to share some of the journey this past year. We have seen new Children's Rosary groups forming in different parts of the United States and also other countries such as Belgium, India, Kenya, Pakistan, Philippines, Tanzania, Uganda, Uruguay, and Vietnam.
We also had our official release of our new Children's Rosary website: www.childrensrosary.org also available in Spanish (www.rosariodeninos.org) and French (www.rosairedesenfants.org). The site is full of newly developed resources such as instructional videos on How to Start a Children's Rosary and also How to Run Your First Meeting. One of the most exciting features of the new site is that View From Heaven map that allows one to see prayer groups meeting as blue flashing lights on the map and allows visitors to join in prayer and become a gold flashing light on the map. Prayer group meetings are also listed on the home page in one's local time zone so many can join the children in prayer from their home. This past December we released the French version of the Children's Rosary book. Many people helped with this translation project and we are very grateful to each one of them.
The Children's Rosary also participated in several events which have become a yearly tradition. The Children's Rosary was invited this past year to participate in the Global Rosary Relay for Priests on the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Many children unified prayers with Shrines across the globe praying for our priests. The Children's Rosary was also invited for the second year to join the Catholic Grandparents Association at the National Shrine of Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, MA for Grandparents Day. The children led all present in a Children's Rosary at their outdoor Shrine. Children's Rosary groups in Pakistan organized several events during this past year in which children from many Children's Rosary groups in the region were able to meet. In June the children had a day were they came together to celebrate Mary Mother of Mercy. Other events included meeting at a Holy Door to pass through in honor of the Year of Mercy and also leading a Palm Sunday Procession. One of the most precious gifts this year were all the groups who celebrated their 2nd, 3rd, and 4th and 5th year anniversaries. With many new groups forming, it is easy to focus on the "new" groups but one must never forget the faithfulness in prayer that so many children and group leaders carry in their hearts. The world may question why such sacrifices are needed. When obstacles present themselves and hard times come there are a thousand reasons to give up. Yet despite all this, groups continue to meet. This faithfulness creates the grace that allows this prayer group movement to continue to spread... to reach deeper and further. It is for this reason that postings continue. For it is in sharing the blessings that are coming that we see the fruits of so much sacrifice. These graces we are not owed, yet Our Lord in His goodness showers them down upon us. We must not hide our light but share it and so the posts continue. The list below of posts are my favorites. In some cases they represent events, or blessings and others struggles we have passed through. I humbly thank you all for joining us on this journey. Thank you for your prayers, Masses offered, sacrifices made with the goal of bringing our little ones to prayer and in doing so help to strengthen not only the faith of our children but also our families and parishes. Here are the top 10 posts of 2016: Important Announcement! Sacrificing for Our Lord A Journey to Bring the Baby Jesus to the Children A Christmas Wish The Children Reach Out to a Leper Community Come on a Journey With Us A Window to the World Through Prayer We Conclude Our Fast at the Foot of the Cross French Version of the Children's Rosary Book Arrives When the Impossible Become Possible Remembering Our Lady It is so hard to limit the posts as there have been so many blessings. These are honorable mentions: Marian Procession in Pakistan Under the Care of Our Bless Mother "It is More Blessed to Give Than To Receive" "12 Rosaries Left Over" Surprises For the Children "Many Things Can Wait but Children Cannot, for Them We Cannot Answer Tomorrow" Confession is the Soul's Bath Have You Ever Seen a Nativity in Pakistan?
The past 5 days the Northeast of the United States has been getting LOTS OF SNOW! This has been a delight for our kids who have spent the time making snow forts and of course a snowman. This one has a Daniel Boone hat and a love of the Rosary. Other Posts You May Enjoy: How to Start a Children's Rosary Beauty
The Holy Family Children Rosary Group in Entarara, Kenya had a surprise. The statue of Our Blessed Mother holding the baby Jesus that we sent in December finally arrived. The children usually meet on a Sunday but they came together to receive the statue on a Tuesday. Br. Cleophus brought the statue to them. The statue of Our Lady can be seen next to the teepee structure protecting some recent trees they planted from animals. The trees were planted several weeks ago at a celebration they had. The group plans to make an outdoor structure next to their little Church to house Our Lady and the baby Jesus. They were very excited to receive the statue. The group has been suffering a great deal with a severe drought. The children have been working hard to find water and carry it to the animals. Br. Cleophus reported that the children have been faithful to watering the new trees they planted. They have not died despite the lack of rain. One of the reasons the children have asked for a statue of Our Lady is that they would like to bring their intentions and those of their families to Our Lady and Jesus. We thank Br. Cleophus (pictured to the right) who traveled a day and night to pick up the statue at the post office and then bringing the statue to the children. Thank you also for those who have helped in donating funds and statues which allow this work to continue. Other Posts You May Enjoy: How to Start a Children's Rosary Epiphany Sunday in Kenya with the Children's Rosary in Entarara A Celebration in Kenya
Today the children held a Children's Rosary at St. Peter Claver Church. We brought yellow roses to place before Our Lady at the end of each decade. One of the children took this picture of the flowers we brought to give Our Lady at the end of the Rosary. These roses like our prayers we give with love to our Heavenly Mother. It brings us joy to imagine her gaze falling upon us as we pray a prayer she herself gave us: the Holy Rosary. Many Children's Rosary groups met today across the globe. Over 13 Children's Rosary groups were scheduled to meet on the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. Two of those meetings have yet to occur. You still have time to join the children in prayer. A schedule of the meetings in your local time zone can be found at www.childrensrosary.org You can click the join in prayer button and see your gold light added to the light of the children meeting in prayer on our View from Heaven map. Today also has some additional significance for the Children's Rosary. It is the two year anniversary since we released our theme song video "Rosary Children". We thought you might like to see a video we received of a new Children's Rosary group singing the theme song in the Philippines. See the video HERE. Other Posts You May Enjoy: How to Start a Children's Rosary Rosary Children song Meet a New Member of the Children's Rosary: Awesome Dog
We received a surprise today from Vietnam. The Mass that was celebrated a the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Vietnam at 17:30 PM local time today was in part offered for members of the Children's Rosary. A very special thank you to Tran (age 16) for continuing to arrange such gifts as he visits a number of beautiful Churches this week in Vietnam. Other Posts You May Enjoy: How to Start a Children's Rosary St. Apollonia (Feast Day February 9th)
The beautiful gifts continue from Vietnam. Today, Wednesday February 8th, the 4:30 PM Mass at St. Joseph Shrine in Saigon was celebrated for the members of the Children's Rosary.
The Shrine is located at 69, Truong Chinh Street, Ward 12, Tan Binh District, Saigon City. For those of us who may never have the blessings to visit this beautiful Shrine in honor of St. Joseph, we are grateful to Tran (age 16) for arranging a Mass to be celebrated for all the members of the Children's Rosary. We are also grateful for all the pictures that were sent that help us have a window into the beauty of this Shrine.
The Shrine of St. Joseph was built by Father Joseph Maria Pham Chau Dien in 1992. The picture above on the left is Father Joseph Maria Pham Chau Dien. Other Posts You May Enjoy: How to Start a Children's Rosary Honey for the Heart
It is with joy that I share a beautiful gift given to the Children's Rosary today. A Mass was celebrated in the Carmelite Monastery of Saigon for the members of the Children's Rosary. Tran shares that this monastery was built in 1861 and was the first Carmelite monastery in southeast Asia. Tran was able to visit the cloistered nuns and they promised to pray for all the members of the Children's Rosary.
Tran also shared that he prayed before a first class relic of St. Therese of Lisieux for all the members of the Children's Rosary
A Mass was offered today for Renewal of Family Prayer through the Capuchin Missions. In a special way the Children's Rosary has been praying for renewal of family prayer. We have said over 850 Novenasto different Saints asking for their intercession and help renewing family prayer in our families. We also have a Mass offered on the first Saturday of the month for the same intention. As more and more children come together in prayer of the Rosary in their Children's Rosary prayer groups we pray that prayer also blossoms in their homes as well and throughout the world. Pope John Paul II was fond of saying, "As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live." The picture above is from one of our Children's Rosary groups in Pakistan that we received this past week. Other Posts You May Enjoy: How to Start a Children's Rosary First Children's Rosary Meeting in Belgium The Children Reach Out to a Leper Community
We are excited to share some beautiful pictures from our Children's Rosary group at St. Peter Lemongo Catholic Church in Kenya. This group meets weekly on Sundays at 11:30 AM Local time to hold their Children's Rosary meeting. On December 2, 2016 they had a special launch of their Children's Rosary group. The Pastor was able to attend and celebrate Mass which is a very special event. With so many outposts of the Parish each village may only have Mass celebrated in their village once a year. As part of the celebration of the Launch of the Children's Rosary each child was given their own Rosary. The children come from the surrounding areas to meet in their Children's Rosary meetings. We have entered these meetings on our Children's Rosary website. Please visit the site and see when the next groups will be meeting. Each group is asked to pray for those unifying prayers with them. Thus by joining in prayer with the children, they are praying for you! The meetings are listed in on our site in your local time zone. When a Children's Rosary group is meeting a blue light will flash on our new View from Heaven map. You can click "join in prayer" and you can become a gold light on the map. We would like to ask for prayers for these groups in Kenya. They are suffering from a severe drought. The children must often walk great distances to find water for themselves their families and the animals. The children also asked for a Statue of Our Lady to pray before in their meetings. We are working hard to fulfill their wish. Donations to the Children's Rosary are always appreciated and can be made on our site HERE. We thank all those who have assisted the Children's Rosary through donations which help us continue to send packages to the many groups around the world. thank you also for the many handmade Rosaries which are donated to the Children's Rosary. The Rosaries given to the children at St. Peter Lemongo were ones we were able to send through the generosity of so many. Thank you all!
We are very encouraged by what Br. Cleophus is sharing about the Children's Rosary groups. Br. Cleophus is pictured in white in the top picture. He shares, "The Children's Rosary has brought an impact here." He explains, "Christians are very happy because they have seen a great change in children and increase of new members to the Church." Br. Cleophus also described how a spirit of peace has been brought to many tense relationships in the area. We are very grateful to Br. Cleophus and the Pastor for walking 2 and a half hours each way to reach this village for the special celebratory launch of the Children's Rosary. This was a great blessing for the children and their families to be able to attend Holy Mass. The children who had been meeting in their group for some time were very excited to have a celebration of the beginning of their prayer group.
