Jesus!!

Since joining a Rosary of Moms a few years ago, praying at least "my decade" of the Rosary (and usually more) has become a habit for me and my family. When I was growing up, the parish we belonged to ALWAYS recited the Rosary before mass each Sunday (at All Saints this happens before weekday masses!) and if we were early enough, we might get in a decade or two. Other than that, we didn't usually pray the Rosary growing up. I became convinced in my early 20s that this powerful devotion needed to be part of my family's life.

I've tried a million times to get my little kids involved in praying a family rosary somehow. I tried lots of tricks.

• When my oldest was little, I tried counting out the right amount of blocks and give her one block at a time (one for each prayer we said) as we prayed together and she'd build a church or something out of it.
• I would get pictures for them to look at while we were praying the mysteries. I found videos online that scrolled through pictures relating to the mysteries that we were praying that day.
• We'd sing a related song at the beginning of each decade after announcing the mystery. (Now I know that Pope St. John Paul II suggests singing the "Glory Be" at the end of each mystery, too!)

With little David, 2, we haven't used any of those "tricks" we used to get our other children involved. In typical toddler fashion, he has taught us what is the most essential thing about the Rosary. David has taken his own part, and he loves it so much that he regularly reminds me (in the car, of course) to pray.  David taught us the most important and central focus of the Rosary. Jesus!

We will pray: "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb..."

And David will call out: "JESUS!"

Of course! Jesus is the center of the Hail Mary. He is the center of the Mysteries of the Rosary. He was the center of Mary's life. David proclaims this with so much joy each time we recite a Hail Mary. Just a warning, though: don't get into a rhythm and forget to leave him his very important word. He will interrupt your "Holy Mary" with a very strong reminder that it is "MY Jesus!"

This is my final Faith Formation Begins at Home article in the bulletin. Many have asked if I will continue to write. Yes! You can find my future posts at faithformationbeginsathome.blogspot.com.

Rocking with Momma

"Mom, do we have to pray the rosary? It's just the same thing over and over. It's so boooorrring."

I know you will all be disappointed to know that the same child who "figured out life" when she was five and realized that Jesus is the Good Shepherd and we are the sheep, asked me this question this week at ten years old. I find it consoling that she is able to be honest with her momma and call it as she sees it. Prayer is boring sometimes. Why should we pray the rosary?

We were driving down Keo Way in Des Moines and had just finished the fourth decade of the sorrowful mysteries. I was having a somewhat difficult day emotionally and was totally melting into this prayer, so her question brought me up short. Suddenly I had an image that I thought might help.

"Do you remember when you were young and would climb up on my lap?"

"Yes," she replied.

"Well," I began, "what if I put you up on my lap, held you close, and rocked you back and forth and set you back down? Would that have been enough? Or would you rather have rocked with me for longer? What would you have done if I just set you right back down?"

"Longer. If you just set me down, I would want you to pick me up again."

"It wouldn't be too repetitive to just rock back and forth for 20 minutes with your mamma?"

"Of course not," she chuckles.

"I think for me, the rosary is like sitting on Mary's lap and rocking back and forth and back and forth. She tells me soft stories about Jesus, maybe what happened the day he died. Maybe she tells about the great day he rose and of how he honored her with a crown in heaven. She holds me in her arms as we rock back and forth and think about Jesus together. She tells me how much she loves him, and I love him, too."

We didn't finish our fifth decade before I dropped her off for school that morning, but I could see the wheels spinning in her head. Maybe on her own she'll climb up and rock on her Mamma Mary's lap before the day is through.

Joy Jar and Trouble Tree

During a lovely visit to the home of my sister-in-law, Sarah, last weekend, I was struck yet again by what the words "domestic church" really mean.

She shared with me an idea she had for praying each night with her very visual 6 year old daughter. One night when they came to prayer, Sarah brought a pencil, a long sheet of paper, a jar, lots of little sheets of paper and a wooden cross. She introduced them to her daughter as something they were going to do each night.

"This is our Joy Jar and our Trouble Tree. As we close our day each night, let's write down all of the things we are thankful for today. What was great that happened?"

They brainstormed for a while, and wrote down some lovely events of the day, and people they love, and other joys that came to mind. Then Sarah rolled up the paper and set it slightly aside.

"Now, we can think of things for our Trouble Tree. Were there hard things today? Was there anything sad or painful?" Then they talked about those things, writing each one on the small slips of paper Sarah had brought.

Bringing forward the Cross, Sarah asked, "Do you know what this is? Yes, a Cross. You know, sometimes when people talk about the Cross, they talk about it as a tree. I wonder why?" Her daughter said, "Because it is made of wood?" "Do you know what happened on this Tree?" Her daughter did, indeed: "Jesus died, but He rose again!"

"He rose again. This is our Trouble Tree. We are going to take all of these troubles we've written down and take them to the Trouble Tree. Jesus then takes our troubles and look what happens..." (Then she ripped up all of the troubles). "...He takes them from us and they are gone."

Her daughter thought about this. "But what if the same ones come back tomorrow?"

"Yes," Sarah nodded. "I wonder where we could take our troubles if they come back?"

"To the Trouble Tree!"

"But our joys, we will roll up and place here in our Joy Jar. These are gifts we are given from God that never go away. They keep growing and growing and growing."

Then two finished their prayers and kissed goodnight. It is now becoming a treasured tradition in their home. I was so struck by the beauty of how simply and easily a parent can lay a foundation of prayer and trust for their children that I just had to share it with you. I will definitely put this story in my Joy Jar when I go to prayer tonight.

Spiritual Giants

Who are the spiritual giants in your family?

A parent from our CGS program mentioned to me as an aside this week: "I meant to talk to you about something that happened to my son. One day after Wednesday CGS last year, he came home and insisted we pray together. He has kept it up each night for a year now. I don't know what happened that prompted that. Do you?"

I remembered back to last year and I clearly recalled the conversation that could have led to this boy's response. We were talking about "spiritual giants" in our family trees who carry their families and friends to heaven. The young man immediately recalled his grandfather. At his grandfather's funeral, the priest had told this boy that his grandfather was the holiest man he'd ever met.

"Wow," I told him. "That so amazing. He truly was a spiritual giant, and I'm sure he's still praying for you. But I wonder who will be the next spiritual giant in your family? Who will take his place"  One of the boys in the class nudged him with his elbow and said, "Better get on it!" I could see in the young man's face that he took this very seriously.

I also received this message last week and wanted to share it with you for you to ponder with me. Who is praying for you and your family? Who is praying for our parish? Who are the spiritual giants in your life?

"I read your blog about praying the rosary and I was thinking about what you said regarding the absence of prayer. Now bear with me because this will be a typical convoluted story [of mine] but...when I was a younger person, I had this notion that I was insanely lucky or blessed or something - but things went well for me much of the time in the big picture. Illness avoided, parents with jobs and staying married, good home, want for little kinds of things. (Which isn't entirely true, but as you know your perspective on such things is maybe not as fully aware when you're younger.)

Suffice to say, I felt like I led a charmed life and while grateful, I wasn't going to buck the trend. And that perception continued in my life for a long time. Though...recently, in the last few years, things in general have been more struggle for me. Seeing positives has been a challenge and reactions to negatives have been magnified. I got to thinking about it all and why that might be and I hit on something.

(This is where you're going to roll your eyes and remember that I wasn't well chatechized.)

When I was a little girl, all the way until [my son] was about 2, I had one of the world's best pray-ers, praying for me ALL THE TIME. And I had another all-time great pray-er praying for me ALL THE TIME up until a couple of years ago. The first, my mom's mom who rarely missed mass and had scapulars, a rosary, a well worn blue prayer book tucked with mass cards and prayers to saints resting on the glass end table-lamp combo next to her rocking chair, lived across the street from the church and chapel and heard the bells ring out in the old way daily. The second, my dad's mom who was Methodist so did things differently than how I was raised but still dedicated to prayer nonetheless. These women were pray-ers and they offered their prayers for me and a whole slug of other people they were compelled to pray for daily, multiple times daily even.

So I got to thinking that perhaps there's a correlation between the loss of these faithful women and their presence in my life through prayer and this idea that the charmed life is also gone.

And (finally getting to the point) after thinking about it more, and then cemented by your blog post today, I realized that I didn't actually lose anything, because they both gave me witness to faith and if those pray-ers are not here on earth to pray for me, all I have to do is remember that I bear each of their names, thus I can pick up the slack.

So...do they still make those blue books of prayer? Because I need to get one."

Needless to say, I sent her a blue book!