New Children's Rosary in Newtown, Connecticut

Today we received this picture of our new Children's Rosary group at St. Rose of Lima Parish in Newtown, Connecticut USA.  They held their first meeting on March 24th which was Holy Thursday.  The children came together in prayer at 4:30PM. 

One of  the group leaders shared, "we had 12 children and 5 adults (12 apostles/5 wounds of Christ). We thought this was just amazing!"

Receiving word that a new group held their first meeting on Holy Thursday was wonderful news!  Indeed to give Our Lord a new group as He was going into his Passion is particularly special.  

St. Rose of Lima Parish has also known considerable suffering.  On December 14, 2012 twenty children between the ages of 6 and 7 were fatally shot at their elementary school in Newtown, CT.  Many of the funerals were held at St. Rose of Lima Parish.  It seemed no one was spared from heartache especially not the children.  

To see these little ones now with smiles on their faces coming together in prayer at St Rose of Lima Church is such a welcome sight.  There is such hope present in our children especially when we see them close to Our Blessed Mother and her Son in prayer.

Other Posts You May Enjoy:
How to Start a Children's Rosary
With these beads we are building a world of peace and love
Theme song for the Children's Rosary

"With These Beads We are Building a World of Peace and Love"

This is one of the phrases in our Children's Rosary theme song: Rosary Children.  Indeed it so beautifully describes how members of the Children's Rosary around the world are helping to build a new world- one full of peace and love.  They are not doing it forcefully but rather gently through the prayer of the Rosary.  Yet to use the word gentle does not mean that their efforts are any less affective.

To see pictures of children from around the world praying one begins to see the beauty that lays before us.  The following line in the song Rosary Children goes on to say: 
"In the heart of Mary joy is all we carry".  

Indeed children bring joy. From the tiniest little one looking up at you to your own child kneeling in prayer.  A joy comes from seeing children.  They are authentic.  Even Pope Francis describes in his general audience on March 18th 2015, "children smile spontaneously and cry spontaneously. It always depends on the heart."
As we approach Pentecost news seems to be coming from all around the world.  New Children's Rosary groups sprouting  in all corners of the globe.  Children's Rosary materials are being translated into more and more languages so no child is excluded.  Last night news comes that work is underway to complete a braille translation of our Children's Rosary book and already there is a blind women in need of these materials.  She would like to begin a Children's Rosary prayer group in her parish.

Whether we have physical sight or not there is an appreciation for the beauty that bringing our children together in prayer creates.  To speak last night with this lovely women who felt so strongly of the importance of bringing our children together in prayer in this way.  She has never seen the pictures of the children kneeling in prayer as she is blind but in her heart she speaks of the beauty.  She did not see her inability to see as a barrier to beginning a group, instead she spoke of all she could do and the excitement to reach out to her pastor and share news of the Children's Rosary.   

More and more people are reaching out from towns and cities in distant places.  
Universally there is a thirst for the joy of children. Their is an appreciation of how important these prayer groups are in the lives of the children and the Church Universal.    To have children kneeling in prayer draws down a river of grace that flows not only into the hearts of the children but also continues on into their families, parishes, and towns.  As more children are finding this support in their prayer lives and growing in the love of Our Lord more and more rivers are created.  They continue until they find other rivers and the current becomes stronger.  This river that is now moving swiftly carries the voices of children praying and is creating a ripple of hope and joy moving outward.  To see our future, the children, coming together in prayer in all these sometimes tiny little Children's Rosary prayer groups one begins to see the springtime ahead of us.  
Thank you all and God Bless.

Other Posts You May Enjoy:
How to Begin a Children's Rosary
Children's Rosary CD with theme song Rosary Children
Children's Rosary Book

Saint Claude de la Colombière

In preparing for the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and in my readings about St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, a French Visitation nun, I stumbled upon a saint to whom I knew very little.  He was a Jesuit priest to whom Jesus directed St. Margaret Mary for help and direction.   

His name is Saint Claude de la Colombière.  Twenty one years ago today he was canonized by Bl. Pope John Paul II on the Feast of the Visitation.  As today is the Feast of the Visitation and St. Margaret Mary Alacoque was from the order dedicated to the Visitation  there seemed a wonderful connection between these two saints and todays Feast Day.  In reading more about St Claude I found a treasure of beautiful writing by this saint in the book The Spiritual Direction of Saint Claude de la Colombière1.  

Saint Claude’s writings regarding: 

Prayer 

In prayer always follow the attraction of your heart, whether God draws you to consider Our Lord’s Passion or the joys of heaven; you cannot do wrong in that....Continue to pray as you feel drawn, but do not worry about it, for worry comes from self-love. You must abandon yourself to the leading of God with no other intention than that of pleasing him, and when you know that you have this intention deep in your heart, you must not waste time in reflecting about yourself and about the degree of virtue you have attained; occupy yourself with him whom you love and bother very little about yourself.

Do not be either astonished or discouraged at the difficulties you find in prayer. Only be constant and submissive and God will be pleased with you.

How can we help our neighbor? By prayer and good works. Preaching is useless without grace, and grace is only obtained by prayer. If conversions are few, it is because few pray. Prayer for souls is so pleasing to God, it is as though we asked a mother to forgive her son.

Presence of God

I have promised with God’s grace not to begin any action without remembering that he is witness of it—that he performs it together with me and gives me the means to do it; never to conclude any without the same thought, offering it to him as belonging to him, and in the course of the action whenever the same thought shall occur, to stop for a moment and renew the desire of pleasing him.

Trials

God is touched by our sorrows and does not allow them to last for ever. He takes pleasure in trying our love for a time because he sees that trials purify us and render us worthy to receive his greater graces; but he considers our weakness, and one would even think that he suffered with us, so anxious is he to relieve us.

Hope and Confidence in God

My God, I am so intimately convinced that thou dost watch over all those who hope in thee, and that we can want for nothing while we expect all from thee, that I am resolved to live without anxiety in the future, casting all my care on thee.

1 Selections from The Spiritual Direction of Saint Claude de la Colombière, translated and arranged by Mother M. Philip, I.B.V.M., Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 1998

If We Want To Love Then We Should Pray For Our Brothers and Sisters.

"Jesus spoke this parable to his disciples: ‘The kingdom of Heaven is like a man on his way abroad who summoned his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to a third one; each in proportion to his ability". (Matthew 25:14)

Bl. Mother Teresa of Calcutta is quoted as saying "God doesn’t give us more than we can handle".  Likewise, Our Lord not only does not give us too many burdens he also gives us  enough blessings and talents for our mission in life.  However, small we feel our gifts are they are sufficient for us.  We may never fully comprehend in this world how plentiful and great the gifts we have been given.  Our talents and gifts were hand picked by Our Lord, "each in proportion to his own ability".  Might we not spend more time focussing on the things Our Lord has given us and not on those He has not.  

Might we “focus on the things we can do instead of the things we cannot”.  Our Pastor spoke those words over a year ago and they have echoed over and over in my heart.  As a person who used to be healthy for my childhood and only in the past 5 years has lost most of the use of my hands this was an important message for me.  Due to a genetic condition that begins to cause physical deterioration in ones 20’s and 30’s, I have suffered many joint dislocations and have had to give up a practice in dentistry, the ability to drive and even to open a door myself.  Others help me with everything.  This has been a humbling experience and initially an experience that felt defeating.  With the support of Our Lord He has shown me that even when your body seemingly begins to fall apart Our Lord still has given us enough strength to not only go on but have a meaningful life.  A simple prayer I try and say daily has helped, 

Lord help me to discern what you want me to do, 

give me the strength of body and spirit to do it,

and the courage to follow it through. Amen

One of the many things Our Lord has given me is a deep Faith.  With the help of Our Lady I have come to see that our purpose in life is not just to join her and her Son in Heaven but to enter the Kingdom with as many people as we can. I once was told that the role of a spouse is to get their mate into Heaven.  I feel this is also true of parents.  A soul who seeks perfection will bring many souls with it to heaven.

Jesus tells Saint Faustina, 

Know this, My daughter: if you strive for perfection you will sanctify many souls; and if you do not strive for sanctity, by the same token, many souls will remain imperfect. Know that their perfection will depend on your perfection, and the greater part of the responsibility for these souls will fall on you. (diary 1165)

When we stand before our Lord what will He say.  Might He say that He gave us a great many talents and blessings.  If we have prayed only for ourselves and shared none of our blessings what will be His response?  Might it be the same as the man who buried his one talent.

But his master answered him, “You wicked and lazy servant! So you knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered? Well then, you should have deposited my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have recovered my capital with interest. So now, take the talent from him and give it to the man who has the five talents. For to everyone who has will be given more, and he will have more than enough; but from the man who has not, even what he has will be taken away. As for this good-for-nothing servant, throw him out into the dark, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.”’(Matthew 25: 26-30)

However if we choose to pray for others and give of our blessings will our Lord not bless us more.  Indeed He says in the gospel today:

“Well done, good and faithful servant; you have shown you can be faithful in small things, I will trust you with greater; come and join in your master’s happiness.”(Matther 25:21)

The Lord in His generosity has been showing me the beauty of this gospel.  The children’s rosary is dedicating this year to renewal of family prayer.  We are saying novenas to different saints asking them to chose a family, individual or priest to lead in their spiritual journey.  The saints are then put on the inside of a read aloud children’s Bible and given to children and families.  We also initially made some handmade bookmarks too with a saint on each.  One of the members of our children’s rosary who is pursuing a vocation consecrated to Our Lord prayed a novena to St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross many months ago.  Recently a mission priest, Fr. Tucker,  came to our Parish and gave me copies of a book he had written called the “Prayer of Christ Crucified”.  I sent one of these copies to my friend.  She wrote back that she was using this prayer daily and it was extremely helpful.  She also asked me if Fr. Tucker could advise her on possible orders she might consider exploring.  As a thank you to Fr. Tucker I sent him one of the handmade bookmarks with a saint on it.  The bookmark which was randomly chosen had St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross on it.  It was the Saint that my friend who had received so many blessings from Fr. Tucker had prayed to in a nine day novena. The kindness had come full circle.  A prayer said for another person had brought blessings and direction back in far greater measure than was initially given. Our Lord does truly give you 100 fold of what we give in His name.

We are truly living in a blessed time.  May we all hold onto the hope that we may all join our Lord and His mother in Heaven.  

If we want to love then we should pray for our brothers and sisters.....

We are hope in the face of darkness

On Wednesday afternoon I was waiting for the bus at work when the dark clouds began to roll in.  The sky became light with bolts of lightning in the distance.  The hospital where I work is on a large hill almost like a small mountain.  It has views of the Hartford City skyline.  As the storm rolled in the wind began to blow the trees and more and more lightning strikes approached.  It was a strange sensation watching the storm roll in but have little control over whether it would hit before we made it home.  As we stood outside waiting on the top of this hill I began to speak with a women standing next to me.  As she was becoming more and more frightened of the lightening approaching she began to pray for protection from God. When we were able to get into the bus she sat down next to me.   The storm had been a wonderful icebreaker about faith and she mentioned that she had received a rosary when she was a child but that she had forgotten the prayers.  She had been wanting to pray the rosary for some time but did not know how to begin.  I told her I could send her a little booklet to explain how to pray the rosary and also include a children's Bible for her grandchildren.  As I got off the bus she said to me "now don't forget to send me those things".  It was as if it were Christ himself speaking.  Those words have been echoing in my head since I left her.  


It got me thinking about those movies you see where people are able to go back in time and if they change one very small thing the whole story is different.  -like that old back to the future movie.  I got to thinking that our own brief interactions with people however small acts like a bumper in a pin ball machine.  We can send the person in a whole different direction or if we miss the opportunity then they continue on the path they were on.  If we see a soul passing by, falling as a pin ball does into the hole from where the ball does not return. If we extend our hand and bump them up just for a moment might we save them from the hole that they might have fallen for good.  As I shared with you I struggle with patience with my children and pray for the gift of more love in my heart. Despite all the times when I feel like I am less than I could be I do take consolation in the moments when I did take a moment to interact positively with at least one person a day.  


The women I met on the bus had physical signs that she had a rough life.  Despite her outward scars I felt very strongly her heart was still gentle and searching for the Lord. She did tell me she misses going to Mass when she does not go. I had a feeling that this was an important moment in her life.  I thought of each day that goes by that she sees her mailbox empty.  When her heart wonders what ever happened to that person on the bus who said they would send me a letter and help me learn the rosary.  If the letter had never come would her hope in others be all the less bright and maybe one day blow out all together.  However, what would her face look like when she finds a box at her apartment.  A box with Bibles for her grandchildren, a rosary, and a prayer card explaining how to say the rosary.  Will she be surprised to also get a letter in the mail explaining that each Bible she received has a saint written inside that was prayed to by another family.  Each saint having been asked to choose a family to lead and that family that the saint has chosen is her family.  What will her heart say when she reads an invitation to her to pray the children's rosary novena for another family so another family can receive a Bible like she did with a saint inside to help her. 

Today I heard of the shootings in Colorado and the continued suffering in Syria.  One can think about this and become disheartened with the world.  Please do not lose faith or the bright light of hope.  Think about today.  Did you smile at anyone.  Did you encourage anyone?  Did you pray for someone?  How many people will have their life redirected even just a small fraction due to their interaction with you.  What does changing someones life by a small fraction mean.  It means a lot especially when there are ever growing number of others who will also redirect that person toward the Lord. Today despite all the sad news in the world I feel hope.  You all are hope to me. Each person that has written back from this blog and said something kind has lifted my spirit. Each family I see beginning family prayer brings more joy to my heart.  In a very real way you are all hope to me!!!  I pray that you all continue to bring the light of hope in this world. Amen.