Last Sunday my church held a family gathering day in honor of the saints and Mother Mary. All the children dressed up as their favorite saints and took part in a procession as they entered the church for Mass. Michaela was dressed up as Our Lady. The kids were adorable! After Mass, we all went over to the center and took part in activities to help the kids learn about Our Lady. It started off with a talk, followed by a story wall activity center, and then the kids made family banners. The morning ended with all the families gathering in the gym to pray the Rosary. A few years back the older kids had made a HUGE paper mache rosary that spans almost the entire gym. Each family stood behind a giant bead and took part in praying the Glorious Mysteries. It was awesome!
On Wednesdays and Fridays a group meets before Mass at my church to pray the Rosary together. This Friday we prayed for our country, state by state. Before each Hail Mary, the leader would pray, "We plead the Blood of Christ upon the state of Alabama and upon each and every soul in that state. " And then it would go on to the next state, with prayers for our government leaders in between decades along with a song such as "God Bless America". I have a great devotion to the Precious Blood and always cover those I am praying for with the Blood of the Lamb so this Rosary really touched me. Powerful! I am going to do this at home, too!
The pictures aren't very clear but I'm sharing them anyway!
Two great experiences this week. The kids are darling.
ReplyDeleteThe rosary idea is great - I hope your group continues it because our work towards restoring the Judeo-Christian values in our country is just beginning and we need our Mother Mary very badly. I so wish the people of our country would confess Christ as King in their daily lives.
Awww Mary. Pictures are fine. So glad you are sharing them and the time that was had. Blessings.
ReplyDeleteBarb,
ReplyDeleteKids are funny. Our pastor addressed his homily to the children and asked them questions about saints. When he asked them what they would have to do to become a saint one little boy piped up, "You gotta die!" Smart kid!
If enough people pray I'm sure things would change here. For our kids' sake I hope this happens soon.
Thank you, JBR :) My husband took these pics. Mine tend to come out even worse (lol).
ReplyDelete((((Mary))))
ReplyDeleteHow lovely that your church has so many activities, especially for children. That's what they'll remember when they grow up and hopefully it will keep them in the Faith.
ReplyDeleteI remember as a child serving as an Altar boy ... sometimes at Christmas, Easter and other Feast Days we'd have as many as 12 "junior" Altar boys at Mass and several seniors. The Altar was crowded with angels.
God bless you and your family Mary.
Victor,
ReplyDeleteReally? I wonder why they stopped doing that? Maybe because people don't take part in things like they used to and they can't find as many people to serve at Mass.
Oh, and if you read the comment that I left for Karin on my last post I was just joking around :) You might like the taste of foot (over roast beef) for all I know ;)
Bill,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the link! Yes, I am very interested in reading it and will pop over there right now :)
Great idea for the rosary! Bringing people together to do it in such a creative way, and using it as an opportunity to pray for our country--wonderful!
ReplyDeleteThe pictures are just fine. Our parish had a similar thing for All Saints Day (though I didn't attend it), and our pastor shared some cute stories about the students in our parish's school dressing up as saints and having to do presentations on them. One of them tried to instruct our bishop about Paul of the Cross (founder of the Passionists)! Kids can be so adorable in their innocence and naivete. :-)
Evan
Evan,
ReplyDeleteFunny! The bishop must have smiled at that! We had a great time though my daughter started getting antsy towards the end of the rosary. I guess 3 hours is a lot for a kid :) I'm glad that parishes are doing things like this for the kids because children learn more if they can actively participate rather than just listen.
Hi Mary,
ReplyDeleteI really don't know what's going on here ... perhaps in the UK we don't pray enough for our country in general; never mind shire by shire or borough by borough. It's as if Christianity is in retreat.
I remember years ago in my town all the churches (various denominations) got together at Easter (Holy Week) and on a Saturday they re-enacted the Stations of the Cross throughout the town. Hundreds of Christians from various churches in full period costumes gathered at various locations throughout town - starting with Christ's appearance before Pilate all the way to the Crucifixion at the other end of town. It was lovely seeing Roman soldiers, Sadducees and Pharisees, the Disciples and other early Christians following Jesus in my town. The procession with various stops on route to re-enact various events e.g. Jesus meets Mary, Jesus falls etc ... was over two miles long and lasted a couple of hours. Hundreds of on-lookers and shoppers followed the procession. The police sealed the center of town to all traffic. I covered the event with various other reporters for a Christian radio programme.
These days ... sadly, no more processions, no more Christianity (?)
Sorry to moan ...
God bless.
What a great event. I think its wonderful you prayed for each state - we really need it here in the US.
ReplyDelete(Really laughing at the child's response about having to die to be a Saint ... )
God Bless
Victor,
ReplyDeleteChristianity won't be in retreat for long because truth always prevails :) Things will change, the question is just - when?
I enjoyed reading about the re-enactment of the Stations in your town. This is what ecumenism is all about. It must have been a sight to behold! We don't see too much of that these days.
Moan away, Victor - we should be moaning about the loss of faith on this earth. Surely the Holy Spirit is grieving with us.
Michael,
ReplyDeleteYes, it was really powerful! I'm going to do it at home, too.
Kids are funny, aren't they? The little boy made a good point and the whole church laughed :)
What lovely Sabbath Moments and what LOVELY photos!! Thank you for sharing your beautiful children-Saints with us! If I might offer a word of comfort to your visitor, "Victor"...you'll be happy to know that our parish still takes part in an ecumenical procession with neighboring churches on Good Friday! Just thought you'd like to hear that.
ReplyDeleteJudy,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear that people still unite under the banner of Christ in some places. Churches should do more of this since we all work for Jesus :) Thanks for commenting, Judy!