Little Ones Becoming Leaders in Their Faith

On October 13th, our little Children's Rosary at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in West Hartford Connecticut, met. This is the home parish of the Children's Rosary. This is where the Children's Rosary began. Despite it being the home of the Children's Rosary, our group has at most had 20 children and often is much smaller with just a few children attending. We have seen repeatedly that numbers do not matter it is the faithfulness that God is asking of us. On October 13th, 4 children attended the Children's Rosary which included two of my own children. A little girl named Fiona (approximately 8 years old) and Peyton age 3 were there and pictured above.

Fiona's father shared with us that in her Spanish class they call her Fatima. Given it was October 13th, the anniversary of the miracle of the Sun in Fatima Portugal, we proceeded to call her Fatima for the remainder of the meeting.  Fatima took over the primary role of leading the prayers from the podium for our Children's Rosary. This was the first time Peyton, age 3, had come to the Children's Rosary. This appeared to be the first time she had prayed a Rosary.


Immediately we asked her to help by holding open the Children's Rosary book for Fatima so that she could look at the pictures of the mysteries as she led the prayers. It was a beautiful sight to behold. Little Peyton's eyes were the only thing seen over the book. She was so tiny yet so eager to help Fatima. She would periodically look at Fatima who was now taking a leadership role and serving as a model for Peyton. I could remember when Fatima, only a little over a year ago, was new to the Children's Rosary and was also learning from others. So quickly she had become a leader and was now guiding a younger one. Helping Peyton clearly made her happy and she was very excited to lead the adults in the pews in prayer. My older two children who were there kneeling around the altar have been guides for many children and now they too appreciated what was happening. Fatima whom they had helped was now helping a littler one and this gave us all great joy. One wonders how do we cultivate leaders in the Church. On October 13th Our Lady gave us a lesson. Start young, bring them together and put a Rosary in their hands. 

This past Sunday, November 10th, Peyton was back and she opened our Children's Rosary by doing the Sign of the Cross. She also was so proud she had learned part of our Children's Rosary theme song: Rosary Children. It hadn't taken long and already we were seeing a new leader at the tender age of 3!