June 1, 2007

Dedicated to Our Lady: Women help children make and pray the rosary

Standing at back, from left, rosary ladies Mary Anne Grande and Wilma Cook pose for a photo with Linnea Green’s kindergarten class at St. Michael School in Greenfield. (Submitted photo)

Standing at back, from left, rosary ladies Mary Anne Grande and Wilma Cook pose for a photo with Linnea Green’s kindergarten class at St. Michael School in Greenfield. (Submitted photo)

By John Shaughnessy

As a teacher, Richard Duncan knows the value that hands-on experiences can have for students.

He has seen how that approach can especially make a difference when students make their own rosaries from scratch.

“It’s no small feat given the basic materials of beads, crucifixes and string,” says Duncan, the middle school religion teacher at St. Michael School in Greenfield. “The whole process takes about a week. Students are taught how to use the rosary, what each mystery means and how to focus their thoughts reverently in the actual process of saying the rosary.”

For the past four years, four women who are members of St. Michael Parish have come to the school each spring to instruct the children about how to make and pray the rosary.

“We tell them that Mary has asked us to say the rosary,” says Mary Anne Grande, who leads the instruction with Joyce Allford, Wilma Cook and June Denis. “We want them to get used to saying the rosary.”

After the children make the rosaries, the rosaries are blessed by Benedictine Father Severin Messick, St. Michael’s pastor. Then for one hour a week for four straight weeks, the children gather in the church to recite the rosary.

“Prior to each session, a short story is told about the Blessed Virgin and the many miracles, conversions and influence she has had on saints and individuals throughout history,” Duncan says. “This year’s rosary was dedicated to Mrs. Deb Hill, our school secretary, for her full recovery from a brain injury, and Mrs. Susan Stillinger, a parent of several students at our school, who is seriously ill.”

Grande believes the children’s prayers become even more special when they hold the rosary they’ve made.

“They’re so devout with the rosaries after they make them,” she says. “They hold them so carefully and reverently.” †

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