Just When You Were Thinking to Give Up

As many of you may have read,  several years ago the children planted a Peace Rose as a gift to Our Lady on the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima.  We asked Our Lord as a gift to His Mother that with every pedal that forms on the bush that 1,000 families would return to family prayer.  Renewal of family prayer has been a particularly special prayer intention of the Children's Rosary.  The Rose the first summer surprised us by blooming on many beautiful Marian Feasts.  Last summer there was construction at our Church and a bulldozer was brought in which ran over the rose bed.  At first we thought all the roses were destroyed but a week later Our Lady's rose along with the other roses in the bed were found in buckets on the side of the Rectory.  They stayed in the buckets for several months and then were replanted in the garden maintained by the Knights of Columbus.  Mary's rose bush didn't seem to make the transplantation process very well and looked like it might be dying.  Through the long cold winter I wondered how the Rose was doing and when spring came all the other bushes began growing and bloomed though June.  The bush the children planted remained a small stump about 2 inches tall.  The Knights are so good about caring for the rose bed I thought for sure the rose stump would be removed at any time.  Yet the stump remained through July. Each day as I passed the stump on my walk to daily Mass I wondered if there was some reason this died, a meaning perhaps. As was read in the Gospel today,  "Anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it" (Matthew 16:25).  

It was still sad though that the children's Rose planted for Our Lady was dead.  Last Sunday morning we arrived from Chicago at 1AM and the children, my husband and I went right to sleep.  Then bright and early that morning a call came.  It was a member of the Children's Rosary calling to say something wonderful had happened.  There was a brand new shoot coming out of the ground by the Rose stump.  The rose thought to be dead might actually be alive.  The children and I were excited as we walked to Church that morning anxious to see if indeed the rose was alive.  As we bent over to look we could see two shoots.  The smaller of the two actually seemed to be pushing the ground up.  We came prepared with a camera to document such a happy find.  

I began to think of a homily I had recently heard about Saint Faustina who during her life had a vision of St. Therese.  She asked the Saint if she herself would also become a saint to which St. Therese told her, yes.  She asked if she would be raised up in the Church and St. Therese told her yes.  But St. Therese also told Sr. Faustina to have more faith. It occured to me that all those months through the spring and summer I had thought the rose was dead and nothing was happening.  It reminded me of the effort so many make to run their Children's Rosary groups.  Sometimes it is hard to gather children and there is a feeling nothing is happening.  One feels that they should give up.  But Our Lord shows us even when something looks dead there are things happening out of view.  Change is occuring,  a renewal in fact.  

In looking at the other roses which dwarf this little stump with a few tender young shoots,  one can see how such a little bush might seem insignificant but what is remarkable is that Our Lord often chooses the small and wounded to work great change.  This is so beautifully evident with  St. Therese who is the patron Saint of missionaries even though she lived in a convent.  In our efforts to bring the smallest among us, our very children, to the Rosary the Lord blesses these efforts even if by worldly standards nothing appears to be happening.  Through this beautiful story of the little rose, may we all hold on and not give up.

Other Posts you may enjoy: 
The Children Plant a Rose for Our Lady

A Special Moment with Our Lady

Yesterday was my son's First Communion.  After the Mass my husband suggested that Kostin take a picture with his mom.  So Kostin and I posed together followed by a family picture.  On the way back to the car Kostin stopped and asked if he could be in a picture with Mary.  As we were just getting to our car the first reaction was to tell him it was too late and it was time to go home.  However, there was something that made me pause and say, yes lets just wait a minute so Kostin can visit Mary.  Kostin then ran off to the outside garden planted by children of the parish for Our Blessed Mother.  When my husband and I turned the corner Kostin was kneeling in prayer.  He then stood up and gave Mary the the rose that had been given to him during his First Communion and then kissed her head.

It was such a beautiful moment to see that Kostin didn't forget his dear Mother Mary.  Daily he prays with her in his rosaries.  Over years she, as the most perfect of mothers, has been preparing him for the day when he would meet her Son present in the Holy Eucharist.  To see Kostin kissing Our Blessed Mother's head in such a tender way was such a beautiful reminder of how much our children need their heavenly Mother and how much they love her when they spend time with her in prayer. 

Other posts you may like:
Preparing for Your First Communion
How to Pray the Rosary
How to Start a Children's Rosary

God smiles on us

Today the Lord smiled upon the children's rosary.  The rose which the children planted in the rose garden outside the chapel of St. Thomas on the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima twinkled this day with a perfect blossom.  Light rain fell on the delicate petals but each one shown with beauty and elegance just as Our Lady appeared to the children of Fatima.

The children's rosary asked Jesus to give a gift to Our Blessed Mother on the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima.  The gift was that a 1,000 families would begin family prayer for each petal that forms on each blossom of the Peace rose that we planted for His mother.  Yesterday the children and I admired three buds just beginning to open.  Today 5 were visible.  The bud that I had suspected might open today still held tight together but a more interior one shown fully open.  It was a wonderful example of how Our Lord surprises us with beauty where you aren't expecting it.

The Lord would bring together many pieces which only He could have done.  Several weeks ago we had decided to offer one Mass a week for renewal of family prayer.  When we called one of the only Masses that was available this week was the 8:00AM today.  Last Wednesday a spontaneous call to the principal of the the St. Thomas elementary school would develop into the children's rosary giving the second grade class Bibles this very morning.  In addition the principal of the school had also planned a May crowning of Mary this morning.  At the end of Mass today a friend approached me.  Her daugher had recently joined the childrens rosary and received a Bible on Divine Mercy Sunday.  She said that as a result of the prayers of the children's rosary she had begun family prayer in her home.  She is mother to five children.  My heart smiled to see the work the Lord was doing.  A small prayer by St.Teresa of Avila comes to mind:

Let nothing disturb you.

Let nothing dismay you.

All things are passing.

God never changes.

Patience attains all that it strives for.

Who has God lacks nothing.

God alone suffices.