Form a Children's Rosary
If there isn’t a Children’s Rosary near you consider starting one. Our Lady has continued to show us through the apparitions in Lourdes and Fatima that she is calling our children to prayer and in a special way, the Rosary.
Steps to Begin a Children’s Rosary in Your Parish
1. Obtain permission from your Pastor to begin a Children’s Rosary group.
2. Choose a location (usually in a church or parish center but does not have to be limited to those locations).
3. Choose a regular meeting time (monthly or if interest exists weekly or daily).
4. Invite a group of families and children to your first Children’s Rosary and consider putting a notice in your Church bulletin (usually these groups begin small and with time they will increase in size)*
5. Register your Children’s Rosary by mail at P.O. Box 271743, West Hartford, CT USA or email blythe@childrensrosary.org (In this way we will have a central list of all Children’s Rosary groups formed).
Guidelines for Your First Children’s Rosary
1. Begin by Consecrating your new group to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary.
2. Bring the children together in front of those gathered and have them kneel (pillows are a welcome addition for them to kneel on).
3. In turns have a child stand and lead a decade of the Rosary (if a microphone is present this is a nice way for their soft voices to be heard).
4. The child should say the first part of each prayer:
Hail Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
The entire group then responds together:
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
5. An optional addition is the use of flowers (roses or any other flower). This is particularly nice for smaller children not able to lead or children with disabilities preventing them from leading. At the end of each decade a child is asked to place a flower at the foot of a statue of Mary if available (otherwise just place the roses in a small pile on the ground in front of where the children are praying). While the child is placing the flower an adult is saying, “Mary we humbly place this flower at your feet and ask for the gift of… Faith” if one were saying the first glorious mystery. The gifts asked for correspond to the fruits of the mysteries.
6. Consider having a prayer book with illustrations of the mysteries of the Rosary for the children to use during prayer. The Children’s Rosary book was designed for this purpose but any visual aid can be used.
7. Consider having a petition box.The children can decorate the box if desired and it can be placed in front of the children while they are saying their monthly Rosary. If the group desires and is given permission from the pastor the box can be left out for members of the parish to place petitions in all month.
* We have found that those people invited individually tend to be more responsive to attending a newly formed Children’s Rosary. Additional publicity such as notices in bulletins and announcements after Mass have been helpful as well.
Any questions please contact Blythe Kaufman at:
Email: blythe@childrensrosary.org
Address: PO Box 271743
West Hartford, CT 06127 USA
Phone: (860) 785-3340