Praying the Rosary

The blog post of a Catholic mother of seven is making the email rounds. I don't know this woman, but she has the most creative idea for how to help little children pray the rosary, since keeping track on the beads is rather advanced and requires finger dexterity. Read all about her fantastic idea here!

I don't know how to crochet, so I went to the craft store and bought faux flowers. I had to hunt around for sale prices, but found the white roses at two bunches for $5 and the red rose for 99 cents. The baskets were 40% off because it is near Easter. I printed the rosary meditation cards from here (and hope to get them in color in the future).

Despite the fact that the lovely mother Kimberlee has a two-year-old who sits through the rosary and keeps the flowers straight, John isn't quite there yet.

I've been trying to teach him to wait through one Hail Mary and when I say "Amen," he gets to move one white rose to the next basket. My prayer goes something like this: "Hail Mary, full of grace . . . wait! The Lord--no, wait, John!--is with thee. Blessed art thou among women--John, not yet! [I put the rose back in the first basket] And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. AMEN! Okay, now you can move the rose!" Well, someday we'll get it and it was a fun craft project.