May begins amidst the joy of Eastertide and there is more rejoicing at the end of the month when Christians celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit and the birthday of the Church at Pentecost.
May is also known as ‘The Month of Our Lady’, a time to remember that Mary is Jesus’ mother and our mother too.
This newsletter shares some of the content children will experience in school throughout May and suggests ways for you to engage with them about it. We hope it is a useful resource for your family prayer time.
Praying the Rosary
The Rosary is a meditative prayer that helps us to reflect on the life, ministry, and death of Jesus and on His Blessed Mother, Mary. As we repeat the traditional prayers, we use the beads to help us to keep track allowing our minds to think about the lives of Jesus and Mary here on Earth.
The Rosary is made up of four parts or ‘mysteries’ each having five different events to focus on. Thinking of praying the entire rosary can seem daunting but the prayer can easily be simplified for younger children by focusing on one mystery or event within the mystery and limiting the prayer to one decade. We’ve created a Rosary resource that we hope will support families with this prayer.
With your child, why don’t you…
- Access our Rosary Resource which gives full explanations and guidance to help you pray the Rosary at home with your child(ren).
- Focus on one of the mysteries and talk to your child about the stories and events that make up each of the five elements. Perhaps a good place to start would be the Joyful Mysteries which contain stories and events that may be the most familiar to children.
Celebrating the Holy Spirit
In the Assembly for the week beginning 20th May we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (which is celebrated across the world on Sunday 19th May) and through a drama, two disciples recall the day that changed their lives forever.
Children learn that the Holy Spirit is the helper that Jesus promised His disciples and that the Holy Spirit helps us too.
With your child, you might like to…
- Read the story of Pentecost allowing space for your child/ren to discuss or ask questions.
- Discuss with your child ways the Holy Spirit can help us today e.g. helping us to be peaceful, forgive others, say sorry.
- Sing along to ‘Come Holy Spirit’ by Dan Callow and Emily Clark, by logging into the Collective Worship Parent Portal. (If you don’t have the details for the Parent Portal, ask your child’s school.)
Prayer
The daily prayers for the week beginning 13th May invite children to focus on God’s Word and consider what God is saying to them through the Scriptures. Children will be guided through a pattern of meditation based on the acronym ‘TRUTH’. You might want to try this with your children, perhaps using verses from Sunday’s readings.