My Son and the Rosary

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ShaneCoombsBud

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I have a darling son. He is the sweetest, cutest little boy that you will ever meet! Ever since he was little, he loved saying the rosary, now his fire blew out. He is eleven and now thinks of the rosary as boring. I really want to teach him to be on fire for the rosary again… but I dont know what to tell him. Is there an inspirational, fiery homily or sermon that i can say to my son so that he will further understand the rosary and its strength and benefits and purpose? What are inspirational things I can say about the rosary that will make him want to pray it again?
 
Try focusing on the mysteries of the rosary.

And tell him lots of stories of saints doing cool things. 😛

And try and let him see that he is not just loving God but fighting a fearsome battle against the evil one.

My little brother is ten and although there is a nine year age gap between us, I still just sometimes get him to say some prayers with me.

Unfortunately they just don’t see it as “cool”.

I don’t really know what to do to remedy it.

Peace and God Bless
 
Augustine said:
Do you pray the Rosary too? Did you pray it with him?

:blessyou:
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yes, i do pray the rosary and i did pray the rosary with him, until he chose not to do it anymore.

again, can anyone tell me some inspirational things i may say to him to spark his fire for the rosary again? are there any homilies or “introduction” sermon on the rosary that you guys can show me that i can preach to him about?

Also, i would like to deepen his understanding on how the blessed virgin can bring us closer to Jesus Christ
 
Don’t worry. My parents prayed the Rosary with my sisters and me as children. Though I did stop saying it for short periods after leaving home, I never did give it up completely, and now I’m back to five decades a day, more or less.

You’ve instilled a connection in your son that can never be severed permanently. Just trust the Blessed Mother that she will guide him back to her in her own good time.

In the meantime perhaps help him to find some other devotions that you can do together, prayers or chaplets to a saint he admires or some such? Perhaps he just needs a little variety.
 
Would he be interested in reading St. Louis DeMontford’s The secrets of the Rosary?
 
is there any children’s books on rosary? if not apparition of Blessed Virgin Mary, some can be quite interesting, such as Fatima apparition. Well, he must know who’s he praying to, or else he won’t understand the purpose. Don’t force him as he might end up hating rosary. 🙂

Sometimes, I’m also get frustrated teaching my sister to pray. She’s 7 yo and seldom pray (bad, right?) Whenever she’s asked to pray, she’d answer “If no one else loves me, God still loves me.” Somehow, she overuses it.
 
ShaneCoombsBud said:
yes, i do pray the rosary and i did pray the rosary with him, until he chose not to do it anymore.
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May God bestow on you His wisdom to guide your son’s little soul to Him throughout his life.

I am in no position to give you any advice that I myself used, but if I were in your shoes, perhaps y’all could watch as family the movie The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima. It came to my mind not only because it’s about Our Lady and the Rosary, but also because the seers were children, who he might identify with.

:blessyou:
 
Thank you for all of your wonderful help. I tried to persuade him to say the rosary, but to my suprise, my eleven year old son asked me some pretty basic questions, which i did not know how to answer him. my eleven year old son asked me, “Catholics dont worship mary, right? then what is our relationship to her? how are we suppose to think of mary. What is Mary’s purpose and what is the purpose of the rosary?”

I was so embarrassed, as a dad, because i did not understand how to answer him. Will someone please show me if there is on the internet, some kind of website that is like an “introduction” to the blessed virgin and her role in our christinity? After explaining to my son Mary’s purpose, i would really want tell him how he can start a personal relationship with her.

Thank You All
God Bless
 
That’s OK - it’s something a lot of Catholics both new and old have problems putting into words.

Firstly there are some great resources about Mary’s role in Catholicism in the Library right here on this website (just click on ‘Library’ at the top of the page)

Secondly - very simply she’s Jesus’ mother and our own as well. From the cross Jesus entrusted her both to St John to be his mother and to us to be our spiritual mother.

Just as people may sometimes ask your wife or another family member to pass on a message to you, so we can ask Mary to pass on our messages to Jesus. Being his mother, she has a way of persuading him to listen, as she did at the Wedding at Cana 😉

No, we don’t put her on the same level as Jesus or worship her as God. She was and is a human being, and no more. She is, however, the best and greatest of all human beings, after Jesus himself. He couldn’t have come to us without her ‘Yes’ to the angel, which she freely gave. And so she is a great role model for us and is especially beloved and favoured by him and the Father. We pray to her both to thank her and to ask for her help, just like we do to all the Saints and to Jesus and God the Father himself.
 
Your son is having a dry patch, everyone does, so don’t panic.

Talk to him about Jesus being his best friend and Mary being his Mother. Ask him how he thinks you would feel if he didn’t talk to you, his mother on earth? Ask him how he thinks Jesus might feel if your son stopped thinking of and talking to Jesus? Ask him how he would feel if his best friend and his mother didn’t speak to him.

Let him think about that and let him start to pray by himself and/or with you in any way he feels comfortable with. Put the Rosary aside for a little while because the most important thing is that your son prays, not what or how he prays.

Encourage your son to tell Jesus and Mary all that is on his mind. Even to tell Jesus that he finds the Rosary boring, explain Jesus understands that and Jesus loves him. Explain that Jesus’ knows His struggles in every part of his life and is always there to help him. Explain everyone struggles with prayer and that it is only ever important to just make time to say a little prayer everyday. If you feel able explain in terms he will understand the struggles that you have experienced in prayer so that he realises there is nothing ‘bad’ about him. It would be wrong for your son to feel a failure.

You must be very gentle and not force your son, you must respect his soul and how Jesus may be leading his soul towards union with Him.

The Rosary is a prayer of the Church, granted, but it is also a devotion and as such is a personal devotion. You obviously love the Rosary and you can be sure that in later years your love of the Rosary will have an influence on your son for the rest of his life, but for the moment you must allow your son to explore his own spirituality, you must simply encourage him to pray, even if it is just once a day and is only a few words.

Gently explain to your son that Jesus loves him always and is with him always. Tell your son you are proud of him and how much you love him too.

You pray the Rosary for your son and do it by yourself and pray to your son’s Guardian Angel.

Everything will be alright, have faith in that, your son and Jesus:)

’No-one can take My children out of My hands’

In my prayers.
 
mommyof4 said:
Yea, you’re right. I guess my brain was a bit too tired after midnight!
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That book however is next on my list. I’ve just started reading True Devotion to Mary also by St Louis de Montford.
 
ShaneCoombsBud said:
Thank you for all of your wonderful help. I tried to persuade him to say the rosary, but to my suprise, my eleven year old son asked me some pretty basic questions, which i did not know how to answer him. my eleven year old son asked me, “Catholics dont worship mary, right? then what is our relationship to her? how are we suppose to think of mary. What is Mary’s purpose and what is the purpose of the rosary?”

I was so embarrassed, as a dad, because i did not understand how to answer him. Will someone please show me if there is on the internet, some kind of website that is like an “introduction” to the blessed virgin and her role in our christinity? After explaining to my son Mary’s purpose, i would really want tell him how he can start a personal relationship with her.

Thank You All
God Bless
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I’m running really late this morning but I had to post. Buy the Friendly Defender cards from CA go over them and let your son have them. Then check out CA and other Catholic book stores, there should be a couple of Rosary books aimed at kids questioning. I think for older kids the Amy Welborn books are fantastic. Maybe you could get them now and have them around.
 
ShaneCoombsBud said:
Thank you for all of your wonderful help. I tried to persuade him to say the rosary, but to my suprise, my eleven year old son asked me some pretty basic questions, which i did not know how to answer him. my eleven year old son asked me, “Catholics dont worship mary, right? then what is our relationship to her? how are we suppose to think of mary. What is Mary’s purpose and what is the purpose of the rosary?”

I was so embarrassed, as a dad, because i did not understand how to answer him. Will someone please show me if there is on the internet, some kind of website that is like an “introduction” to the blessed virgin and her role in our christinity? After explaining to my son Mary’s purpose, i would really want tell him how he can start a personal relationship with her.

Thank You All
God Bless
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Okay - I teach CCD to 11 year olds, so, I’ve a bit of experience with this age group…

Go on line to www.getfed.com, they have Friendly Defenders cards and Apologetics flash cards - PERFECT for this age group. Teach em apologetics now, and you are building a firm faith foundation.

For an interesting rosary meditation (I heard this from the Rosary Army folks on EWTN…) watch “The Passion of the Christ”, and as the scenes of the sorrowful mysteries come on, pray your decade. Now, maybe your 11 year old is too young for The Passion, that is a parental decision (there is a PG version available I believe).

Last, get a good Bible study for kids. That way, the mysteries make more sense - and it teaches Catholic kids to know the Bible!
 
I work at Pauline Books & Media and we have a Rosary Comic Book that might work wonders!
Here’s our little description from our catalog: “The Rosary comic book tells the stories of the joyful, luminous, sorrowful, and glorious mysteries. Features colorful, glossy pictures. Young Catholics can read it as they would any comic book or—and here’s the clever part—pray with it! Ages 9 to 12.”
Hope this helps or someone else’s suggestion entices his interest again!
-Sally
 
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