Unfurling the Rosary, bloom by bloom: A Devotion with Children
by: The Rosary Hour Podcast moms (a collaborative presentation)
“THE WHY” of the ROSARY: MEDITATIONS FOR FIRST SATURDAYS”
First Saturdays & Learning the Rosary: Reflections after 2-years of asking the “Why” Behind Our Prayers by the Moms of the Rosary Hour Podcast
“Unfurling the Rosary, bloom by bloom:
A Devotion with Children”
[First Edition]
BEGINNING NOTES ON THE ROSARY FOR BEGINNERS
Some Collaborative Starting Notes
[Reviewed by Izzy, etal January 28, 2024]
PROLOGUE / REFLECTIONS
Dr. Tina Bailey: As we create the touchpoint of Rosary Prayer in our children’s spiritual journey, we may get off-track from time to time. But Mary calls us to our destination.
Our Rosary Apostolate: The Rosary Hour Podcast began with the intention of teaching the Rosary to our children, all children, and their parents who also wanted/needed to learn!
If it feels unfamiliar, even mysterious, and we are worried about praying or teaching it ‘wrong’, we may never begin.
We developed our Rosary Toolkit with this in mind: parents leading children, and children also taking the lead to guide parents, or others.
This is the pattern that unfolded in our home, so I can share our example of learning to offer special prayers to Our Lady, as she asked us to do. Even being raised Catholic, and knowing the Rosary in concept and occasional practice, my true experience of this prayerful meditation began with my kids. And with it I recognized a peaceful absorption wholly concerned with offering our love and trust, and concerns, to Mary’s intercession.
Christine: The Rosary Guides for The Rosary Hour Podcast have evolved over time with our Spiritual Directors as we have recorded them, and they are each set up to have a “Leader & Respondent(s)”. Why?
Dr. Bailey: So that each prayer is shared. Over time, we can ‘refresh’ our familiarity with the prayers by taking turns leading a decade. And often we will still pray only one decade.
Christine: How did First Saturdays change that?
Dr. Bailey: On First Saturdays, however, we endeavored two years ago in 2022 to offer a full Rosary, remembering that each prayer is like a flower for Our Lady.
As our family moved from praying the individual prayers of the Rosary to a decade or full Rosary, we began to think of offering each prayer of the Rosary to Mary like a perfect rose – creating a garden, or rosarium. This was a good reminder for our children to slow down and reflect on the words of the prayers each time they are repeated.
Christine: How can we persevere at the prayer of the Rosary with First Saturdays?
Dr. Bailey: Good question! Let’s start with explaining what First Saturdays are all about.
The Five First Saturdays Devotion is a request made by Our Lady of Fátima. In her apparitions, the Blessed Mother promised to assist at the hour of death with the graces necessary for salvation all who, as an act of reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, on the first five Saturdays of consecutive months.
Devotees of this message from Our Lady of Fátima believe that the First Saturdays help to console the sorrows of God, Jesus, and the Virgin Mary for the sins against her Immaculate Heart.
Christine: Our Lady came and asked for specific things at Fatima.
Dr. Bailey: Yes! If we listened to her and did what she asked, she says there would be peace in the world.
Christine: This is not an easy to believe future! Can you explain?
Dr. Bailey: Well, first of all, we have to look at her requests —
pray the Rosary every day for peace in the world;
consecration of Russia (and each of us individually) to Mary’s Immaculate Heart in union with all the Bishops of the Church with the Holy Father (accomplished March 25, 2022)
do our daily duties out of love, dedicating everything we do to God (Listen to Cardinal Collins’s excellent sermon on the Daily TV Mass, Jan 23, 2024 here); and
make reparation for sins against the Immaculate Heart of Mary by observing the “Five First Saturdays of Reparation.”
CHRISTINE: What are the Five First Saturdays?
DR. BAILEY: Our Lady explained those Five First Saturdays to Sr. Lucia dos Santos, one of the Fatima visionaries, on Dec. 10, 1925. First Saturdays in reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary include the following elements, performed with the intention of reparation for blasphemies against the Immaculate Heart, for at least five consecutive months:
Confession (shortly before or after the First Saturday — so long as the person receives Holy Communion in a state of grace);
Holy Communion received on the First Saturday of each month;
the Holy Rosary, five decades recited sometime during the day; and
meditating for 15 minutes on the Mysteries of the Rosary (one or more).
You can and should make the Five First Saturdays more than once.
In fact, our podcast team highly recommends it as a great spiritual practice 12 months a year! Why not get a monthly tune-up with Confession, Mass, Communion, and immersing yourself in the Mysteries of the Rosary, all offered in reparation for the many serious offenses committed against Our Lady.
Why not make the First Saturdays throughout your life for love of Our Lady and reap huge spiritual rewards?
I wasn’t very familiar with First Saturdays, and really don’t recall mention of this in my years of attending Catholic mass.
Some parishes/priests, and especially in the Marian order [explain] have a special attachment and devotion to Mary, like Fr. Elias Mills, who joined us in on the Rosary Hour Podcast, or Fr. Anthony, a Marian of the Immaculate Conception.
Christine: Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle has mentioned to our team that it is important to note that we don’t worship Mary as the Divine
Dr. Bailey: … but as one so Blessed, she draws us straight to the Divine, and holds us within her protective embrace because she is filled with the Holy Spirit.
If only we are aware and willing to go to her!
CLASSROOM
ROSARY QUOTES
(As chosen by FR. CALLOWAY, MIC)
It is mainly to expand the kingdom of Christ that we look to
the rosary for the most effective help. ~ Pope Leo XIII
Experience has shown that to inculcate love for the Mother of God deeply in souls there is nothing more efficacious than the practice of the rosary. ~ Pope Leo XIII
In Mary, God has given us the most zealous guardian of Christian unity. There are, of course, more ways than one to win her protection by prayer, but as for us, we think that the best and most effective way to her favor lies in the rosary.
~ Pope Leo XIII
The rosary is the most excellent form of prayer and the most efficacious means of attaining eternal life. It is the remedy for all our evils, the root of all our blessings.
There is no more excellent way of praying.
~ Pope Leo XIII
For in the rosary all the part that Mary took as our co-Redemptress comes to us.
~ Pope Leo XIII
The rosary, if rightly considered, will be found to have in itself special virtues, whether for producing and continuing a state of recollection, or for touching the conscience for its healing, or for lifting up the soul.
~ Pope Leo XIII1
VIDEOS ON FIRST SATURDAY DEVOTION
We invited podcaster and author of “How They Love Mary”, Fr. Edward Looney to explain this devotion, as well as the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. See his explanation here:
WHERE CAN I FIND A FIRST SATURDAY DEVOTION:
https://thedivinemercy.org
Fr. Chris Alar / The Marians of the Immaculate Conception lead First Saturday Devotion on Livestream via https://thedivinemercy.org.
The upcoming First Saturdays of 2024 take place:
February 3, 2024
March 2, 2024
April 6, 2024
May 4, 2024
June 1, 2024
July 6, 2024
August 3, 2024
September 7, 2024
October 5, 2024
November 2, 2024
December 7, 2024
January 4, 2025
As a new year’s resolution, why not block off these times in your schedule to pray the Rosary that morning and participate in a First Saturday Devotion. If you don’t have that devotion option, try starting one by talking to the Archbishop about where in your Diocese this might be led by one central parish, perhaps the Cathedral or a parish that is close to public transit or easy to walk to for the community etc.
“HOW TO PRAY THE HOLY ROSARY” and METHODS using TECHNOLOGY © COPYRIGHT - TRAVESSA DA SENRA HOUSE PRESS. REFERENCES FOR EDUCATIONAL USE PURPOSES to USCCB. VIDEOS CREATED BY THE ROSARY HOUR PODCAST (PORTO, PORTUGAL). THE ROSARY A MINI SERIES of MICROTALKS are introduced by FR. CHRIS ALAR and FR. ANTHONY GRAMLICH, MIC from the NATIONAL SHRINE OF THE DIVINE MERCY (Stockbridge, MA, USA). VIDEOS on the ROSARY co-CREATED by CHILDREN’S ROSARY ® USA with MEMBER OF CHILDRENSROSARY.ORG (AMELIA) & PASTOR OF HOLY ROSARY CHURCH, FR. PETER TURRONE.
MEMORIAS - BEATA LÚCIA
In 1917 the Blessed Mother selected for herself the name "Our Lady of the Rosary" at Fatima when she appeared to three children in Fatima saying,
"I want you to continue to say your rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary to obtain the end of the war and peace in the world".
See her memoir here:
Read her diary in ENGLISH here: CLICK ON THIS LINK FOR PDF
Read her diary in PORTUGUESE here: CLIQUE NESTE LINK PARA PDF https://pastorinhos.com/storage/default/edicoes/memorias-1.pdf
FULL ARTICLE BELOW:
FOOTNOTES
The origin of this form of prayer [the rosary] is divine rather than human.
~ Pope Leo XIII
They [Confraternities of the Rosary] are, so to speak, the battalions who fight the battle of Christ, armed with his sacred mysteries, and under the banner and guidance of the heavenly Queen.
~ Pope Leo XIII
We may well believe that the Queen of Heaven herself has granted an especial efficacy to this mode of supplication [the rosary], for it was by her command and counsel that the devotion was begun and spread abroad by the holy Patriarch Dominic as a most potent weapon against the enemies of the faith at an epoch not, indeed, unlike our own, of great danger to our holy religion.
~ Pope Leo XIII
Let all the children of Saint Dominic rise up for the fight and let them, like mighty warriors, be prepared to use in the battle the weapons with which their blessed Father, with so much foresight, armed them. This is what they have to do: Let them plant everywhere the rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary; let them propagate and cultivate it with fervor; through their assiduous care may the nations be enrolled in these holy militias where the ensigns of the rosary shine; may the faithful learn to avail themselves of this weapon, to use it frequently; may they be instructed in the benefits, graces, and privileges of this devotion.
~ Pope Leo XIII