The smallest child.... should, in infancy, become accustomed to her mother's hands wrapped around her rosary beads.
.... should learn from his Mother on Earth how much she and her Mother in Heaven love him.
.... should know the blend of Mommy and Daddy's voices together in prayer.
.... should grow up with the melody of the prayers of the rosary singing a tune in his head.
.... should expect the daily rythm to include the family rosary, as naturally as he expects mealtime and chores.
.... should know that games, and books, and even television can wait for twenty minutes.
.... should know the peg or basket where the rosaries are stored ~ and the crucifix and/or statues where everyone kneels to pray.
.... should learn to respect the family's conversation with Mary, by sitting quietly holding her beads or looking at her rosary book until she knows she is a big girl, and can kneel to pray like Mommy and Daddy.
.... should know that talking to God often includes smiling, and sometimes includes laughing.
.... should clap and praise with everyone else when the newest sibling gets to add his Ave to the decades for the first time.
.... should know that she is safe to repeat the prayers whenever she is ready, without correction or criticism.
.... should learn to properly pronounce the words of the prayers and correctly manipulate his beads because he wants to be like Mommy and Daddy and his big brothers and sisters ~ and practice makes perfect!
.... should look forward to rosary time every night as family time, often followed by conversation, stories and/or music.
.... should rejoice at a new rosary or rosary case (especially handmade!) as a most favored gift on birthdays and holidays.
.... should long for the sound of any family member's voice missing at rosary time.
.... should feel that something is missing if she's gone to bed and not said the rosary that day.
.... should purposefully be given the gift of the happiness, comfort, and graces of the rosary by his family, and not as an accident of his Catholic heritage.
6 comments:
Hooray for the rosary . . . it is a must in our family.
I loved this post because it really reinforces that children are never too young to start praying it.
As a family, we always recite one decade in Italian, and a few months ago our little one started reciting in Italian along with us. Our prayers were momentarily interrupted as we delighted in this surprise.
Blessings, and I enjoyed all your rosary ideas from yesterday's post.
Lisa, I just love that! Thanks for posting it! Also, have you ever written anything on big family breakfast ideas? What do you all do? Right now, I am dreading the whining voices when they awaken to find out that we are having cream of wheat for breakfast. They do ok once they start eating, but they would certainly prefer cereal, or french toast. I am almost out of bread, so that keeps until lunch time. Thanks!
I really miss the fact that we did not have those moments mentioned in your piece. My family were non religious, so we did not pray let alone pray the Rosary.
But, thank God He touched my heart and the heart of my Mother who has now received her Heavenly Reward and watches over us.
Beautiful, beautiful piece Thanks Lisa:).
Peace, JOY & Love to you:)
Marie xoxoox
.... should clap and praise with everyone else when the newest sibling gets to add his Ave to the decades for the first time.
Could you explain this please? My family never really did much with the rosary. I was given a pocket rosary last year and found that it gave me a lot of comfort. I want to pull it into my daily life and someday the life of my family.
Hi, Rachel!
Do you mean to explain the phrase you included? &:o)
The way we pray the rosary together as a family, each person says one of the Hail Marys (or Aves -- which is the first word of the latin version of the Hail Mary) of each decade. Since we have so many people in our family, one decade is pretty much taken up that way. When everyone's home, there's a Hail Mary per decade for everyone but our two youngest right now -- who haven't quite learned it yet. When Daddy is around (which is most of the time, thank God), he leads the "intro" prayers at the beginning of the rosary (the Apostles' Creed, through the introduction of the first decade), and the "middle" prayers that come in between the decades -- and he finished off the ending prayers, as well. When he's not around, the rest of us take turns "leading."
Alternatively, in many families, one person does the intro and ending prayers, then a different family member leads each decade, doing the dedication to the individual mystery, then the first part (the Ave) of each Hail Mary, then ending up with the Fatima prayer and Glory Be, before the next person takes over.
In most public praying, though, (and you've likely seen this) one person leads the whole thing, doing the intro and ending, and all the middle prayers, as well as all the Hail Marys, and the congregation (or crowd &:o) prays just the responses (the "Holy Mary" part, the end of the Glory Be, etc...)
Is this too thorough, or did I miss the whole question? &:o)
Please feel free to ask anything more! There is no greater blessing you can bring into your life than the rosary! It's true what they say: the family that prays together stays together.
Thank you for such a great response! I have only seen it the other way you mentioned. I love the idea of including everyone more. The rosary as grown more and more important to me over time, and I love reading your posts about it. Thanks again!!
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