What is my mantra for feast day celebrations? "Simple but special"
So we cast out our regular routine for the day of the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. No morning time or school! (I still keep storytime so we can read books) .
Why?
First, for Bill and I, a love for praying the Rosary daily is something we want to pass on to our children. We are convicted about just how necessary a love for our Lady is in pursuing holiness and union with Christ. You could say that devotion to our Lady is one of the "pillars" of our family.
Honestly, we do not pray the Rosary every day as a family...yet. When I hear of families who do pray the Rosary every day together, it is something I admire and deeply respect. Both Bill and I aspire to do this. Baby steps for us here!
But devotion to the daily Rosary is something we are both very committed to personally as well as praying it consistently enough with our little children that they know it is something very important to do as Christians. Often, right now, when we invite them to pray it out loud with us, it's just one decade for John-Paul and one decade for Joseph (they lead the decade). Then when we do the rest, it's just Bill and I and the kids are around quietly listening (usually they look through a prayer book, sacred art prints, or "write" letters and pictures to Jesus and Mary).
I find praying the Rosary whenever we are in the car to work very well because...well, there's no where else for them to wander off to! So doing this in the car helps build the habit of praying the Rosary.
Something I read in the book We and Our Children by Mary Reed Newland was to ask our Lady to "help us love the Rosary and pray it well." What a beautiful grace to ask for, daily!
But in regards to praying the Rosary, I love this quote said by Padre Pio. You can sense his urgency in devoting ourselves to the Rosary, our Lady and prayer:
“Go to the Madonna. Love her! Always say the Rosary. Say it well. Say it as often as you can! Be souls of prayer. Never tire of praying, it is what is essential. Prayer shakes the Heart of God, it obtains necessary graces!”
Yes, just as Christ came to us through our Lady, so He desires us to come to Him through her help and intercession. It is the surest way to Christ and to attain sanctity, St. Louis Marie de Montfort said. I am re-reading parts of St. Louis de Montfort's book True Devotion to Mary and some things really stuck with me:
"God the Son wishes to form Himself, and, so to speak, Incarnate Himself in His people every day, by His dear Mother."
"The Holy Spirit gives no heavenly gift to men which He does not have pass through her virginal hands. Such has been the will of God, who has willed that we should have everything through Mary."
Finally, I must ask, who did the Holy Spirit come to in order to bring Christ into the world? Mary. St. Louis Marie de Montfort says this: "This is the reason why He, the Holy Spirit, the more He finds Mary, His dear and inseparable spouse, in any soul, the more active and mighty He becomes in producing Jesus Christ in that soul and that soul in Jesus Christ."
Beautiful! We must take strides to pattern our souls after the Blessed Mother because the more we do, the more we truly become transformed into Christ because our Lady was perfect, "full of grace," without spot or sin. Her soul was so perfectly in union with God and so therefore she is the perfect means to come to Christ, better than our own weak and feeble efforts. Much better!
The Rosary is an intricate part of devotion and love of our Blessed Mother.
How we made the day special for Our Lady's feast
Well, first, we made a change of routine. We read a few Catholic books. The boys love (especially Joseph) the Stations of the Cross by Father Lovasik. What I love about this book is that it doesn't dumb down the faith. It expresses simply but beautifully for children things such as "Lord, help us to suffer for love of you and carry our own crosses..."
We also read Be Saints! An Invitation by Pope Benedict XVI by Amy Welbourne.
We read a couple others and ended with one of the boys' favorites: The Biggest Bear by Lynd Ward. (Random book we threw in in the mix) I would highly doubt you'd see any type of children's books written today that have a gun in it. This is an old classic. It touches upon duty towards parents and responsibility. Little Johnny Orchard heads out with his father's shotgun to shoot the bear he had temporarily adopted. I love this book and it's a great one for boys; ours always enjoy it. I'm glad I snagged it at a yard sale nearly brand new for fifty cents!
After we read some books, I put on The Day the Sun Danced: The True Story of Fatima. Our kids really enjoy the movies from the CCC. This movie did an excellent job portraying the story and again, it doesn't dumb down the faith to happy clappy stuff, yet it is delightful and enjoyable. The film wasn't afraid to leave out anything about the true story of Fatima like the persecution of the children by the Portguese government or our Lady's strong concern about the many souls falling into hell and the coming persecutions of the Church and the faithful if Russia is not consecrated to her Immaculate Heart. She reassures us though, that, in the end, Her Immaculate Heart will reign. It is a very gracefully-done cartoon for children, yet again, doesn't water down the faith but presents it in an age-appropriate way. Here's a good synopse of the entire apparition of Our Lady of Fatima if you want to know more. Ok, so why this DVD of Our Lady of Fatima on this day? Because praying the Rosary is a critical part of our Lady's messages. And in case anyone wonder's what the point of the Rosary is, I'll just reference St. John Paul II here who said in his encyclical on the Rosary: "To pray the Rosary is nothing other than to contemplate with Mary the face of Christ."
After our movie, we made a one-decade grape Rosary, compliments of a sister in Christ, Rachel, who came up with the idea on her blog.
Then we headed to a church that has a lovely outdoor grotto of our Lady. We prayed the Rosary together and then ate lunch (well, I did. The kids just ran around and nibbled here and there).
Then, we met my sister and my mom at Rowan's Newman house for Mass. We offered our intentions in thanksgiving to our Lord for the Holy Mother of God! After, they got to spend some time with grandma and Aunt Nina and ate some snackies.
With their Aunt Nina. As good as these pictures get with these little guys.
Ronan with grandma
And then Joey and John-Paul had to vacuum the mess that they all made...
Later that day, Bill brought just Joseph to see the relic of St. Maria Goretti's body at St. Peter's in Merchantville. This was part of what was deemed the "Pilgrimage of Mercy" in honor of this upcoming Year of Mercy in the Church. It was truly a blessing for our family, with them going on behalf of all of us. This was the church Bill and I were married in actually! Always brings back memories.
Photo from Saint Peter Roman Catholic Church Merchantville Facebook page
So that was it! That was our simple feast day celebration of Our Lady of the Rosary.
Now go pray your Rosary! ;)