World at Prayer blog

Reflections of Family and Faith

"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton

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family prayer  |  how to pray the rosary  |  pray the rosary

A Wreath of Roses

If you were to visit my parish church, you’d find a little basket on a table in the narthex filled with plastic rosary beads. I imagine the ladies who make these free rosaries have been delighted by the alacrity by which the rosaries have disappeared of late. Perhaps they speculate that the fervency of the parishioners for this Marian devotion has sky-rocketed. What they don’t realize is my children are responsible for the majority of the disappearing rosaries. My kids see a striking new color bead (“Oh, Mom! I don’t have an orange rosary! This is perfect for fall!”) and thus our collection of plastic rosaries grows yet again.

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Daily Family Prayer  |  Rosary with kids  |  how to pray the rosary

Family Prayer Routine with Small Children

Neither my husband nor I grew up Catholic, so we are sort of making up this Domestic Church thing as we go. Of course, we have great witnesses of Catholic family life that we can look to for examples, but not having lived it ourselves as children, sometimes imagining what that means just isn’t on our radar. One of these areas is family prayer. We both knew we wanted that to be an integral part of our children’s memories of growing up, an indispensable aspect of our family culture. But what does it look like? How do we start? Most importantly, how do we make it something joyful, something that draws our children’s hearts to Jesus rather than something they hem and haw about?

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Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary  |  how to pray the rosary  |  rosary

Praying the Rosary: The Sorrowful Mysteries

First, Why Family Prayer? Vatican II recognized the family as the fundamental and essential building block of society and the Church. It taught that the family is a true, small, “domestic church.” The family home is the privileged place in which to come to know and love God and the saints. The Rosary offers families a simple framework to enter into prayer—together.

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Scripture  |  how to pray the rosary  |  prayer

Praying the Scriptural Rosary

The Rosary is a rich, centuries-old prayer tradition that involves our entire beings: With our hands, we make the Sign the Cross and finger the beads. With our minds, we meditate on the mysteries. With our hearts, we contemplate how we will follow the model of Christ and His mother, Mary. With our voices, we say the prayers.

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Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary  |  The Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple  |  how to pray the rosary

Fifth Joyful Mystery— The Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple

A child raised in the time of Christ was considered an adult at the age of 12. That meant that a boy, now a young man had completed his initial education and was ready to accept responsibility for his faith. His parents and family nurtured this faith in their ordinary family life in their home.

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Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary  |  To Jesus Through Mary  |  how to pray the rosary

Fourth Joyful Mystery— The Presentation in the Temple

Forty days after His miraculous birth, Jesus was brought to the Temple by Mary and Joseph to be formally consecrated to the Lord. As I think about this event in the life of Christ, my heart and mind are drawn to Mary. What was she thinking and feeling when she walked into the Temple—a mere forty days postpartum? Was she exhausted? In pain, her body still healing from giving birth?

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