Prayers for Home: W/C: 29th June 2020
During these unprecedented times, we know how important it is for families to find opportunities to come together and pray and reflect upon the day, the present time and times ahead.
Prayer is so beneficial to us all in different ways but we know that it strengthens the family ties and communication; helping us to heal and find peace. The children at St Vincent’s are always so considerate of others when composing their own prayers. We are always deeply proud of their spirituality and thoughtfulness. During this time, we encourage your child and family to pray, thinking about who may need their prayers and reminding them that prayer brings us closer to God. We are pleased to inform you that Ten:Ten, providers of our Collective Worship resources, are kindly making available a set of daily prayers for you to use at home. St Vincent’s will share the Weekly Prayers with you every Monday, in the hope that we can pray together.
This week, our daily prayers are produced in partnership with Mission Together, which is the children’s branch of Missio, the Pope’s charity for world mission. Designed to coincide with the Feast of St Peter and St Paul, the Day of Many Colours is Mission Together’s annual day of celebration. It is a time to remind children that we belong to God’s worldwide family and is based on the five ‘continent’ colours of the Mission Rosary.
You may be aware of the ‘rosary’: the traditional prayer which uses beads as a guide to meditate on the life of Jesus whilst praying the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be. ‘The Mission Rosary’ follows the same tradition, but each section of the rosary (known as a ‘decade’ because it has ten beads in each section) is a different colour representing a different continent: green for Africa, red for the Americas, blue for Oceania, yellow for Asia and white for Europe.
Each day, the children will focus on a different continent and pray the rosary. Decide for yourself how many times to say the prayers each day. The options are:
– Option 1: 1 x Our Father, 1 x Hail Mary, 1 x Glory Be
– Option 2: 1 x Our Father, 3 x Hail Mary’s, 1 x Glory Be
– Option 3: 1 x Our Father, 10 x Hail Mary’s, 1 x Glory Be
If the children are saying 10 Hail Mary’s, they can use their fingers to count.
You can find the daily prayers for this week here:
How to Lead:
A child or an adult can be the prayer leader.
Slide 1:
The Prayer Leader explains the continent’s colour, then shares the story of a child from there.
Slide 2:
This shows the Prayer for the Continent (different each day). It is not designated to be said by either the Prayer Leader or everyone, so you can choose how this is read.
Slide 3 – 5:
Click through the slides of the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be. The Prayer Leader says the first half of the prayer and the rest of the children say the second half. Please note that there is only one Hail Mary slide each day so stay on this slide depending on the number of times you will say this prayer.
NB. Monday has an additional two introductory slides.
If younger children find it difficult to pray the rosary, you may like to explain to the children that we are going to think about children in different continents. After Slide 2 each day, instead of the formal prayers, invite children to join in singing the song ‘He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands’. Change the lyrics of the verses to ‘He’s got children in Africa…’ with each verse focusing on a different continent.
Whilst some of us are apart it will be wonderful to know that we are sharing this special prayer resource together. You can let us know what you think of the resource in the comments section, or even share some pictures of your special worship space using the file uploader for the attention of Mrs Avdiu.
You can also search for Live Catholic Masses online here: Live Catholic Masses. This directory aims to provide links to Live Catholic Masses online in different languages. Just enter your postcode!
God bless you all.
