The power of the rosary!

* image not mine *

The past few days have been so hectic! Work has been crazy but my evenings have been beautiful- full of prayer with friends and family. Praying the rosary in our home with a group of our closest people has been a wonderful experience. My in laws, my godmother, a few friends, and even my priest have been joining us for dinner and prayer. It is beautiful praying in a group and sharing our home with them. Since we have been married I have enjoyed hosting dinner parties, but this makes it even better! Everyone sitting around my living room with a rosary in hand...I love it! We are actually having our youth group over this week to learn the story of Our Lady of Fatima and then pray the rosary. 30 teens in my living room praying the rosary-what a blessing!

On Sunday before my husband and I left for mass and to teach our religious education class we prayed the rosary...that day in my class I know Our Lady was present. I had prepared a lesson on the value of life. My confirmation class, comprised of teens, has been focusing on morality and how as Catholics they need to live by example and lead a virtuous life following the Faith. I had prepared to talk about respecting all life in the different stages of life...unborn, babies, adolescents, adults, seniors... I had planned to talk about abortions as well as respecting our bodies, however, that was not my main focus. However, Our Lady had different plans for me. We started the class with prayer and then we dove into the topic. When I started talking about abortion and respecting the body, I started talking about contraception, premarital sex and much more than I had planned to talk about! For some reason I just kept going deeper and my teens sat there listening to every word. After class I told my husband that I knew there was a reason why the Holy Spirit had inspired me to veer off my lesson plan.

Yesterday evening I got a text from one of my teens and she said that the lesson had really spoken to her...she has been struggling with respecting her body and our lesson gave her the wake up call that she needed to reevaluate how she has been living her life. That text not only confirmed what I love to do with the youth  but it confirmed how important prayer is, especially when you are working in ministry! I can't do it without Him guiding me and I know that if I had not been praying my rosary then I would not have been open to anything the Holy Spirit had  for me to share with the youth.

Clare