Celebrate Mary - and Pass Forward A Simple Gift

For several months, we've been participating in a monthly Adoration-and-Craft time with homeschool friends.  This month, our focus was on the Lady of Fatima.

Adoration and Prayer

Once our group gathered together, a wonderful local priest offered our children teaching about Our Lady of Fatima and Pentecost with through short chat.  Then, we processed into an Adoration chapel where he exposed the Blessed Sacrament and led us in further teaching as well as praying the Divine Mercy.

After Benediction and Reposition of the Blessed Sacrament, the priest led us up to the main part of the church where he offered another brief chat before a beautiful statue of Our Lady of Fatima which was placed in the sanctuary of the church.  At the conclusion of the chat, we prayed a decade of the rosary together before the children were allowed, by special permission, to enter the sanctuary, placing flowers in front of the statue of Our Lady.

Once everyone had placed their flowers in front of Our Lady, the priest went on to do other things, and we all went back to a meeting room to continue honoring Our Lady of Fatima day.

We started off our time in the room by participating in a brief crowning of Mary ceremony, using a small statue of Mary.

After that, the children were quite ready for craft time! 

(And, after craft time, my children were ready for more prayer time.  In fact, they were excited to visit the United Nations International Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of Fatima and to offer prayers at the church that was hosting it on Our Lady of Fatima's feast day.  The statue continues to travel around, so be sure to check if it may be near you soon or even schedule a visit for your school, parish, hospital, or other location.)

A Simple Gift for Children to Make

In honor of Mary's month of May, at our Adoration-and-Craft time,  we made paper Marian May Baskets inspired by the ones at Cottage Blessings. 

Basically, while some moms helped children cut, fold, and hot glue scrapbook paper together to make baskets, others of us set up a "buffet" of items that the children could choose from as they continued on to decorate and fill their baskets.

Once children's baskets were glued together, one mom hole punched them and another mom helped cut ribbons for them.  Then, the children passed through the "buffet" to find decorations for their baskets - such as stickers, foam pieces, ribbon, markers to draw with, etc. When their baskets were decorated, the children, then, returned to the buffer to select fillers for their baskets - such as holy cards, rosaries, fake flowers, note cards, notes of encouragement, and small trinkets.

Many of the children chose to make multiple baskets.

The room was a hubbub of focused prayer, creativity, and service crafting.

Some children chose to take their finished baskets home to gift to those close to them while the majority of children left their baskets to be distributed to homebound parishioners from the parish at which we met or nursing home residents in care facilities where my priest offer Mass.

Simple Delights

My Nina set aside one of the baskets that she made in order to gift it to a dear elderly neighbor of ours.  Just today, we were able to visit that neighbor to deliver the basket.   As Nina and I spent time with that neighbor and her husband, I thought, It is the simple things in life that can bring such joy and connection - a small gift, a bit of time spent together... Indeed!  Simple choices can lead to meaningful moments.  

We hope to enjoy more precious moments soon while visiting local nursing homes to deliver Marian May Baskets that the children made. Nina has already helped me organize and box the ones that we were given for nursing home residents in our area, and, if we are able, we will visit care facilities to deliver them when our priest offers Mass.  If not, we will simply bring the baskets to our parish office, so our priest can bring them to Mass at the nursing homes on his own.  Either way, we pray that the children's baskets may bring joy to those who receive them.

What crafts have you found enjoyable for children to make and meaningful for them to pass forward?  We'd love to be inspired by them as we plan future Adoration and Craft times, as well as a Works of Mercy Craft table we hope to have at a fall co-op we'll be participating in.  Thanks in advance for taking time to share your experiences and ideas!

Make D.I.Y. Stations of the Cross Prayer and Sequencing Sticks

We've added a new tool to our Stations of the Cross prayer and learning times:

Stations of the Cross Prayer and Sequencing Sticks

The inspiration for our sticks came from a post I found on Hands-On Bible Teacher, and the prep work for them was done by my friend Charisma, who kindly prepares and leads a monthly Children's Adoration meet up for our local homeschool group.  Another friend, Marijanna, took many of the pictures I am sharing in this how-to.  She is a fellow blogger who writes at Because Two People Fell in Love periodically when her hands are not holding one of her four beautiful young ones.

{Note:  Some links which follow are affiliate ones.  Clicking through them to make any purchase will not cost you anything extra and may result in small income for us as per our full disclosure.)

How to Make Your Own D.I.Y. Stations of the Cross Prayer and Sequencing Sticks

Making Stations of the Cross Prayer and Sequencing Sticks is not difficult.  You could easily make them start to finish on your own or with your children at home.  You could also pre-prep some steps to make them with a group of children as we did.

To prep our sticks for a group meeting, my friend Charisma:

• Requested long paint sticks at a local Lowe's.
• Painted one side of the sticks purple.
• Purchased velcro coins like these at a local store.
• Found child-friendly images of the Stations of the Cross at the Kids Bulletin, which she re-sized a bit, then, printed and laminated. 

Then, at our meet up, the children:

• Cut out each image.
• Put them the images in order above or below their sticks.
• Peeled the self sticking velcro coins off their backing and adhered them to their sticks and images.
• Wrote their names on the backs of the sticks using purple Sharpies.

 
Finally, parents finished the sticks off by writing, "We adore you, O Christ, and we praise You, because by Your holy cross You have redeemed the world," on each stick's back.

The sticks came out great!  My daughter has already been using hers all on her own to pray and "teach" imaginary students, and my youngest child has been using his to quiz me, "Mommy, what is the sixth station?" and so on.  Too cute.

A Few Tips
 
If I were to make another set of DIY Stations of the Cross Prayer and Sequencing Sticks, I might try sealing the wood on the back before writing on it as the Sharpies tended to "bleed" on the unsealed wood.

Also, I might cut off the numbers on the description above each Kids Bulletin image to make sequencing a challenge.
 

Further, I would pay more attention to where my children placed each velcro coin so that thin strips of purple between each image would "frame" them.  Without such "frames", the images we used, I found, tend to run together.

Alternately, I might choose different images altogether.  For, although the Kids Bulletin ones are colorful and child-friendly, they ended up looking a bit busy on the stick, making it necessary for children to look very closely at each to decide what exactly is being pictured in it.  Perhaps a simple black-and-white illustrations such as those found at Catholic Playground, the Florida Center for Peace (here), Teachers Pay Teachers or Library Mom might make the sticks more user-friendly. 

Or, if you like more classic, less cartoony color depictions, the ones at Commotion from the Ocean of Life, Family in Feast and Feria,  Bookworm, or Stained Glass Inc. (here) might work well.

Still another option for families and small groups might be to have each child draw and color their own images.  These images could be drawn small or scanned, shrunk, printed, and laminated.

So many options...  Whatever ones you choose, I encourage you to give this project a try if you are looking for a hands-on prayer and learning tool for the Stations of the Cross.
  
Additional Resources 

Holy Week Eggs to Inspire Stations Eggs

After we made our D.I.Y. Stations of the Cross Prayer and Sequencing Sticks, we hid Stations of the Cross eggs that Charisma had made akin to the Holy Week ones I have previously made, but with objects related to the stations inside.  

The children ran to each find one and, then, came together in a circle where I chatted with them about the Stations and about how we are lucky to be an "Easter people" that knows "the end of the story" told through the Stations:  Jesus rose!

We then began to read and pray along with my favorite children's Stations book, Story of the Cross. 

We read about each station...

Then, we paused to pray about each station as we read about it by having the children repeat the prayers contained in the book.

After concluding the prayer, we guessed what symbol might be contained in a corresponding egg, and whichever child had the egg opened it.

It proved a wonderfully hands-on way for a multi-age group to learn and pray the Stations of the Cross.

What About Adoration?

Of course, the reason we got together to make our Stations of the Cross Prayer and Sequencing Sticks in the first place was because we sought an engaging idea to enjoy at the conclusion of our second monthly Children's Adoration hour.  I am happy to report that, just as it did last month, the Adoration portion of our meet up went beautifully, too.

The kindly Father Murphy began our activities with Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, praying the Sorrowful Mysteries, and a brief talk on the Prodigal Son.  Then, after Father Murphy reposed the Blessed Sacrament and went to attend to other parish business, my friend Charisma led us in Adoration in front of the Blessed Sacrament reposed in the tabernacle using a sample format for children's adoration as described at Children of Hope.  

This format, we find, works well for our children as it provides a balance of spoken words and silence as well as opportunities to move.  The children appreciate the chance to move to the floor in front of the altar and to alternately kneel, bow, pray aloud, pray silently, share prayer intentions, etc.  We are grateful to have found this children's Adoration model.

Other Ways We Pray, Play and Learn with the Stations

For years now during this Lenten season, my children have spontaneously dramatized the Stations of the Cross.  Sometimes they get a bit crazy when they begin to do so and I have to reel them in!

Sometimes we get a little silly with Youtube even when we are trying to get more prayerful.
 
We also tap into a variety of resources that I shared in a Resource Round Up and take into our account our children's sensory needs.

Our other ideas for faith-based fun and learning with young children during Lent and throughout the while year can be found on our Training Happy Hearts in Young Children pinterest board.

Follow Martianne @'s board Training Happy Hearts: A Call to Faith Formation for Young Children on Pinterest.

 

I find "freshening" the children's interest in and meditation on the Stations of the Cross through new images, reflections, and crafts works well.  Thus, I'd welcome words and links to YOUR favorite Stations resources and crafts. 

Begin a Children's Adoration Hour (More than Once if Need Be!)

Several years ago, a Catholic homeschool group I was in approached a local priest about leading a monthly series of formal Holy Hours for children.  He kindly agreed and the initiative kicked off. 

Although I am a "cradle Catholic", I was new to such experiences and was grateful to the organizing mom and agreeable priest for introducing my children and I to children's Adoration.  Unfortunately, though, the introduction was short-lived.
 
You Never Know if You Don't Try...
 If I recall correctly, the format used for the first Holy Hours my children and I experienced was that of the World Apostolate of Fatima.  This format offered a beautiful, formal, and traditional Holy Hour approach, which worked best for families with older (or more sedate!) children.

During the Holy Hours, the presiding priest stayed on the altar, leading the service and offering a thoughtful homily.  The children sat in pews with their families, ideally, listening, praying, adoring, and taking turns leading decades of the rosary.  In reality, though, some children (like mine!) tried to escape the pews, got super wiggly, and, at times, even needed to be taken to the back of the church.

Luckily for we moms with "busy children", the mom who organized the Holy Hours also invited everyone to enjoy a snack, a meaningful, hands-on activity and some fellowship after the prayer time each month.  It was the snack and the engaging additional activities that helped me keep my children coming back each month.  For, in all honesty, at my children's young ages and with their wiggly ways, they just did not get much out of the Holy Hour portion of the monthly initiative.

I dare say, the same was true for some other children, because, unfortunately, attendance at the monthly Holy Hours began to dwindle, and, before too many months passed, the initiative ceased.

Although managing my children at the Holy Hours was often a challenge, I was sad to see the program peter out.  I had hoped that in experiencing it on a regular basis, and in witnessing the example of older children, my children would come to love Adoration.

Going It Alone

With no group option for children's adoration, I began making time for my husband or me to take our children to adoration on our own.  Our efforts to do so were not always met with welcome by our children, but, eventually, were met with a genuine plea of, "I want to go to Adoration." 

Unfortunately, due to changes in work schedules, my husband and I allowed something not-so-great to happen:  new work hours did not match well with Adoration chapel hours in the next town over, so, as much as I hate to admit it, we stopped prioritizing getting ourselves to adoration regularly.

Granted, we did get to the chapel occasionally, and I was able to participate in occasional Holy Hours at our parish, but as our own weekly commitments to Adoration weakened, so did our children's experience of frequent, fruitful quiet time with Jesus.

Renewing Regularity through a Group Children's Adoration Hour

About a year and a half ago, after a new local Catholic homeschooling group began, another mom and I began chatting about our desire for a regular group adoration hour.  I told her about a website I had found, Children of Hope, and she agreed that the format it described seemed like an appropriate one for our children, formal, yet interactive and with opportunities for children to move, also something we could lead on our own, or that could be led by a priest if we were blessed enough to find one who could offer our group his time. 

Thus, my friend and I began praying over beginning a children's adoration hour and, sensing it was meant to happen, began making inquiries.  I reached out to some priests I know, but their churches did not have regular Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and their schedules were unable to accommodate exposing the Holy Eucharist for our group.  My friend reached out to some she knows and got permission for us to bring a group of children to an existing adoration time.  However, she was told that it must be a completely silent adoration.  We did not feel our children were ready for that.

So, another mom got permission for our group to gather for a private hour of Adoration, where we could speak some and guide the children, at a church near her.  Unfortunately, the hour was quite an early one and the location a bit far for many in our group. 

With so many roadblocks, my friend and began to wonder if our idea of a group children's adoration hour was really "meant" to happen.  Unsure, we stopped pursuing it actively and just left it to prayer and the Spirit's work.

Well, the Spirit did work!  About a month ago, a priest that my friend had contacted some time back got in touch with her, told her a new Adoration chapel had been built at his parish, and that he would welcome our group.

Wow!  We were thrilled!

My friend immediately got word out and a surprisingly amount of families from our group signed up for the first children's hour.  Then... snow!  Inches and inches of snow. A blizzard buried our plans.

Doubt crept in, but did not last. We decided to have my friend ask the priest if we could simply reschedule for another day this month.  He said, "of course."  She got word out, and four families ended up joining in for our group's first children's Adoration hour.

It went beautifully!

The wonderful parish priest met us in the chapel and led our group in praying the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary.  Before praying each decade, he led the children in a discussion which engaged all but the youngest of our children.  (And, as moms of crawling children tried to corral their wee ones, the priest simply smiled and said, "Let them be."  It was so beautiful witness the mix of formal prayer, yet the encouragement of free movement for those young children that truly needed it!)

Then, when the priest had to leave us to attend to parish business, we invited all the children to move from pews to the space in front of the altar.  There, we began a modified version of the sample format for children's adoration as described at Children of Hope.  My favorite parts of that experience was witnessing the children earnestly praying in silence for a few moments, as well as hearing them share prayer intentions with one another.  Children praying, in silence and aloud, while visiting Jesus is simply precious.

After our Adoration time concluded, we moved to a meeting room to enjoy some liturgical year activities.

Because our initial meet up day fell close to Candlemas, two of our activities were making candles and prayer cards based on the Presentation of Jesus.   

Because our rescheduled meet up day fell close to Our Lady of Lourdes feast day, we also had children make candles and paper mosaic grottoes of Our Lady of Lourdes.

The children were also given an opportunity to revisit a game we played at our last All Saints day party and to bless themselves with Holy Water from Lourdes.

As our meeting time concluded, the priest was able to come back to see us and kindly blessed our candles.
 

Then, we concluded with a group prayer.

Start Your Own Children's Adoration HourWhat a wonderful experience our recent children's adoration hour and liturgical year celebration was!  I look forward to meeting again next month and encourage others to start similar initiatives.

You can find many resources for children's adoration hours at:

• Children of Hope
• Children of the Eucharist
• Guided Children's Adoration

I am sure there are more sites and sources out there for children's adoration, too.  If you know of a great one, please do share about in a comment.

"I Want to Go to Adoration"

Luke's Drawing of the Sanctuary Lamp

Siblings bicker.

It's a fact of life.

And their bickering can test Mom and Dad's patience.

Or, occasionally, it can be the start of something beautiful.

So, it was in our home recently.

At bedtime one night, as Daddy left for Adoration, the kids began to squabble:  "Can I go with you, Daddy?"  "No, I want to go."  "What about me?  I want to!" 

Although any Catholic parent should delight in their children eagerly requesting to visit Jesus at Adoration, my husband Mike and I were not altogether thrilled with our children's raucous requests.  For, truth be told, we were not sure their requests were genuine.

The child who began the "I want to go Adoration" plea struggles nightly with getting to sleep and weekly with Mass.  So, we knew his request to go to Adoration might have stemmed more from not wanting to be in bed than it did from any heartfelt desire for quiet time with Jesus.  Likewise, we suspected his siblings only chimed in with whining pleas of, "No, me!" because, well, they are siblings-- and, on that evening, were quite overtired siblings at that.

Thus, we truncated the children's heated parley by telling them they could each pray by themselves at Adoration with Daddy -- or Mommy -- just not that night.

Honoring our family motto that "Mommy always keeps her word," early in the week, Mike and I sat down with our family calendar and scheduled Adoration times on the weeknights that we did not have an early evening commitment -- one for Daddy and Luke, one for Mommy and Nina and one for Daddy and Jack.

To our pleasant surprise, Luke did wonderfully at Adoration with Daddy.  Mike said Luke was focused and relatively still in the chapel.  Luke drew, read and prayed the Act of Contrition from the prayer card that he had received at Mass last Sunday as part of his first Reconciliation preparation.

Nina's Drawing of the Monstrance.  (To me, the hearts she drew in the middle of it say it all!)

Likewise, Nina was an absolute gem at Adoration with me.  Witnessing her self-directed and heartfelt prayer time with Jesus magnified for me the blessings of being at Adoration with Jesus myself.  As Nina drew, searched her prayer book for the Hail Mary to copy, sat gazing at Jesus with her lips moving in prayer, prostrated herself on the floor to pray, and, finally, cuddled into me on the pew, resting her head on my lap as she whispered to me that she was tired, but wanted to stay and pray a little more, I thought, Wow!  Thank you, Lord.  Thank you for this beautiful child of mine and this opportunity to be with her here with you.  Thank you for speaking to her heart and to mine... 

Then, my conscious mental dialogue with Jesus faded.  Feelings -- good feelings, wonderful feelings, grateful, joy-filled feelings -- supplanted words.

And Jack?  Well, our littlest man will have to wait until next week for Adoration since, late this week, a fever and belly bug hit Nina.  (We didn't want to chance getting anyone at the chapel sick if Daddy or Jack happened to be carrying the virus that had struck our girl.  Luckily, that seems not to be the case, as Nina's symptoms have subsided and no one else has had similar ones.)

So it is that a children's "me"- "no, me" squabble turned into a blessing for our family.

Yes, the children have been to Adoration before this -- occasionally even with just one child and one parent.  However, it was not until recently that all three wanted to go.

We are not sure if their desire was taught, caught, circumstantial, or a bit of all of these things.

Perhaps it was taught as our family has talked about the significance of Adoration in the past, and taken the children to pray at Adoration chapels, even when they protested.

Maybe it was caught as the children have witnessed Daddy and me set aside weekly time for one of us -- and many weeks, both of us -- to spend alone time with Jesus at Adoration late on weekday evenings since the new calendar year began, with one of us parenting the kids to bed while the other heads out for Adoration as the kids call out, "Don't forget to pray for me."

Or, possibly, it was circumstantial: a boy not wanting to go to sleep, his siblings being siblings, his parents striking while the proverbial iron was hot, and, through it all, God doing His thing.

Nina's Inspired Drawing  (I love the halo and the hands of Jesus; the hearts and the sentence she wrote.)

Whatever the reason behind our young children's current desire to spend one-on-one time at Adoration, I am glad.  In fact, I am more than glad.  I am grateful, humbled, amazed, and joy-filled.

I had no idea what Adoration was when I was a young child.  In fact, I did not really know much about it at all until my fourth decade of life, and only began visiting the local Adoration chapel regularly this past year (with the encouragement of my friend Allison from Reconciled to You.)  Then, admittedly, when I first began going, I did so more out of obedience than true desire or understanding.  Now, I "get it" more.  And -- praises be to God -- my children do, too.

Our God truly is an awesome God!

What have your experiences with Adoration -- with or without young children -- been like?
 

 

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