Sunday, June 10, 2018

Sunflowers for Our Lady

One of the optional components of a Children's Rosary meeting is the addition of flowers. The children take turns placing a flower at the foot of Our Lady at the end of each decade of the Rosary. While the child is placing the flower the group leader asks Our Lady for the fruit of that mystery. Usually we have roses for Our Lady. But in anticipation of our two Children's Rosary meetings this weekend in West Hartford, Connecticut we decided to do something special for Our Lady. We chose sunflowers.  

We were excited to bring something new for Our Lady as a surprise. We held our monthly Children's Rosary at St. Peter Claver on Saturday which was the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. We also met this morning June 10th at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish. Our meeting on Saturday was small with four of us in attendance. The meeting today was a bit larger with 5 young people and 6 adults. Little Casey again joined us today. She had come for the first time last month. She is almost three and was the child to crown Our Lady in May. Today she fell right into the routine kneeling next to the other children. We had another child Mia join us. Little Casey held her rosary outstretched in her hands often moving her hands to the next bead as she watched Mia praying next to her. It was beautiful to see how comfortable Casey was with the children this month. She never left the other children to go back to her mother. She placed two of our sunflowers at the feet of Our Lady. The second flower she placed she did unassisted. It is special to see a child so young participating in the Children's Rosary. Her presence was particularly meaningful for Mia as she could see that she was a model for Casey during the prayers. This mentorship is rewarding for the older children and helps to keep them engaged.

We had some other exciting additions this weekend. We brought a first class relic of St. Gemma Galgani to the meeting. Before we began praying, I read some facts about St. Gemma to those in attendance and also a quote of hers. For those unfamiliar with this saint, St. Gemma received the Stigmata on the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on June 8th 1899. She is the patron of students, those suffering from back injury or pain and headaches, those struggling with temptations to impurity and those seeking purity of heart. She died at the young age of 25 of tuberculosis. Given St. Gemma's particular patronage regarding purity, we prayed in a special way today during the Rosary for protection of purity for the members of the Children's Rosary. There is a great promise in the Gospels for those who are pure of heart. We are told "they will see God".(Matthew 5:8)

Another addition to the meetings this weekend were some homemade baked goods. My daughter Alina made homemade chocolate chip cookies which she brought to both meetings. Today many were happy to take a little bag at the end of our meeting each with two homemade cookies inside. Our Lady helps to make our time in prayer sweet so we felt happy to have little treats for the kids. This is something we began doing last month and we hope to continue this little tradition of a snack. More and more I am seeing within our group and within other groups how such little additions mean a great deal to children.

The final picture shown below was taken at the end of our Children's Rosary at St. Peter Claver Parish on Saturday. We close with this image of Our Lady surrounded by sunflowers. 

Other Posts You May Enjoy:


How to Start a Children's Rosary
Crowns for Our Lady
Don't forget to unify prayers with the children during their meetings. A schedule of meetings is present on our website. By clicking "Join in Prayer" you can add your gold flashing light to our View from Heaven map.
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