Hail Mary

One of the most common prayer for us Catholics is the Hail Mary.
Hail Mary is a beautiful Prayer where we ask Mary, Our heavenly Mother who is also the mother of Jesus to pray for us.
Mary is a very loving Mother and she always prays for us and our needs to Jesus.
We show our love for Jesus's mother in this prayer.
Please remember we DO NOT WORSHIP to Mother Mary.
We worship only God.

Remember , we say Holy Mary, Mother of God - "pray for us" , 
We do not say  , " Grant us our wishes"   Prayers can be granted by God alone. 

We only respect and love the Mother of Jesus.
We ask her to pray to Jesus for us.
We can pray to Jesus directly - and we always do that.
Like little children who first ask their mommies for something they need from daddy - we too sometimes got our heavenly Mommy first.


Video downloaded from here  and here

Image Courtesy from Mary Pages



For Parents:

Please encourage the Daily Rosary at home. Encourage reverence and fear of God in your kids at a very young age.
It helps leading by example. Our kids learn from us. If they see us taking recourse to prayer, they too will do likewise when they become adults.
There are many attached blessings to family prayers and in particular the Holy Rosary.

The Rosary also offers promises attached to it. They are as follows:

1.	Whosoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary shall receive signal graces.
2.	I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary.
3.	The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin and defeat heresies.
4.	It will cause good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire for Eternal Things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means.
5.	The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish.
6.	Whosoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying himself to the consideration of its Sacred Mysteries shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise him in His justice, he shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just he shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of Eternal Life.
7.	Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the Sacraments of the Church.
8.	Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the Light of God and the plenitude of His Graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the Merits of the Saints in Paradise.
9.	I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary.
10.	The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of Glory in Heaven.
11.	You shall obtain all you ask of me by recitation of the Rosary.
12.	All those who propagate the Holy Rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities.
13.	I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire Celestial Court during their life and at the hour of death.
14.	All who recite the Rosary are my Sons, and brothers of my Only Son Jesus Christ.
15.	Devotion to my Rosary is a great sign of predestination.

Reminder: these promises mean that, by faithfully and devoutly praying the Rosary, Our Lady will obtain for us the necessary Graces to obtain said promises. It is still up to each individual soul to respond to those Graces in order to obtain salvation.

For more information on promises, click here

How to pray the Rosary, click here

About the origins of the Holy Rosary, click here

The Good Samaritan

AIM: Our whole lives will be spent in actually putting into practice this Parable. We are to love our neighbors especially those who are most in need. We need to be sensitive to the needs , requirements of others - both materially and emotionally. As kids, we teach the children to recognize situations where they can help in any way they can. We also teach children to care.

This Parable begins by a young man asking Jesus a question, "Teacher, what must I do to have Eternal Life? " , he was asking Jesus what he could do to reach heaven and be with God and the Angels.

Jesus asked the man, "What does God's law tell you to do? "

This man was very well versed with the Scriptures of Jesus's time and had a ready answer.

He said , " Love the Lord your God with all your heart , with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind and love your neighbour as yourself"

Jesus replied, " You are right!! Do this and you will live in Heaven"

This young man was not convinced. He asked Jesus, " Who is my neighbour? "

Jesus decided to answer his next question with a parable.

Once there was a  Jewish man who was travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho. The road to Jerusalem was rocky with small hills all around. It normally took about 1-2 days to walk that distance. Since he was walking that distance he must have had some clothes, food, water and some money or valuables with him.
The man was probably enjoying his solitary walk and enjoying the views. All of a sudden a group of thieves jumped from nowhere and attacked this man. They attacked him and stole all his belongings before running away.

The poor man must have not been prepared for such an ambush and was lying, abandoned on the road - helpless.They not only stole his belongings , they even tore his clothes while hurting him. They made sure he would not be able to follow them by hurting him pretty bad. He was wounded and bleeding as well. The only way he could be saved was if some kind passerby helped him out. He was too weak to move and help himself.

In a little while a priest was passing by the same way. Thank God!! at least now, this Jewish man would get to safety and out of harms way. Well atleast that is what we would expect of him. sadly, the priest just continued to walk by and pretended he did not even see this helpless man!
A little while later, another man passed by. he was a Levite. Levites are people who used to work i God's temple and would sing praises to God. So yes, you could call them good and holy people after a priest.
So maybe the priest earlier was in a big hurry to attend a very important meeting and could not help this poor man, but now a Levite has come!! Good man that he is, surely he will help this poor man stranded helpless on the road!
But he too, saw this man and continued on the other side of the road - as though he did not exist!! How terrible - to be abandoned like that by the people you would have otherwise trusted!

In a little while a Samaritan man was passing by. You see, you must know that Samaritans and Jews were not exactly the best of friends in those days. In fact  they did not like each other at all! The Jews used to treat Samaritans quite bad - so they never ever really mingled at all. 

I do not expect the Samaritan would help a Jew!! After all, they were enemies! But the strangest thing happened. Humanity took over. The Samaritan saw not a Jew but a human being. He saw a man like him, wounded, hurt , helpless, bleeding and in need of quick help or he might die. 

He felt compassion. He stopped. He saw the extent of the hurt and began to bandage the man's wounds. He then kindly lifted this man and put him on his own donkey. He took him to an Inn (it was like what hotels are these days)In the Inn he cared for this Jewish man the whole night. 

The next day, he removed sufficient money, about 2 silver coins or 2 dinari and gave it to the Inn keeper. he asked the inn keeper to take good care of him and also promised to pay whatever extra money he might spend afterwards on this man. 

Jesus ended his parable by asking, " Which of these three men do you think was a neighbour to the man? " 

"The man who took pity on him" , answered the man. 

" Go and do the same" answered Jesus. 

Likewise, we too must care for others. We must ask Jesus to give us a kind heart and courage to help everyone, friends and others when they need our help. Only then can we be God's friends - and go to heaven.





Image Courtesy : Sermon4kids

Hello - to new friends.

AIM:   To encourage social development in young children.

Friends.

We all need friends. Children need them even more!!
Especially when they come to a new environment like a Classroom , making friends helps them break the ice and cheer up! It also makes class more interesting & fun!!

One of our first classes was

"Hello to New Friends" 

A friend is someone who accepts you just the way you are, believes in you and encourages you. Someone who is trustworthy, who never forsakes you, who forgives your mistakes, who enjoys being with you, and who makes you laugh.

We started off by introducing ourselves and teaching kids the importance of friends.

Teacher: How many of y ou have friends? 

(Lots of hands go up) 

Teacher: How many of you have Best Friends? 

(Hands go up) 

Teacher: How many of you love making New friends?   

(Hands go up) 

Teacher: So, how do we make a friend? 

(Silence) 

Then the teachers have a little activity with the help of volunteers and basically teach the kids to say "Hello" and introduce themselves. 

We then proceeded to explain to the kids who a friend really is. 

Kids were encouraged to learn the names of other kids in class. 

As an activity we gave them handouts to fill and paste it on their notebooks. 
It was more of a checklist. 

Following this we encouraged kids to think of a Friend - who has all the best qualities and more. 


With a little prodding our young geniuses came up with the Correct Answers on their own: 

JESUS!!

Yes, Jesus can be our Very Best Friends and He Loves to talk to us. 
Prayer is one of the nicest things because the second we say a small "Hello" / "what's up Jesus? " Our Best Friend Jesus is ready and around to talk to us!!!

Action Song: 

Jesus Loves me: 

Jesus Loves me this I know
For the Bible tells me so
Little ones to Him belong
He is great and we are small. 

Yes, Jesus loves me
Yes, Jesus loves me
Yes, Jesus loves me
The Bible tells me so!!!

Action Songs for little ones:)

Children are absolutely adorable!They are always so eager to please - a smile and appreciation goes a long way with these little ones.

Having said that keeping them attentive and interested is a different story.

I have noticed that most 5 year olds get fidgety really soon and we need to keep them constantly engaged.

As teachers, we constantly try and make things as interesting for them as possible. More often than not , i use small props for them to "touch" and "feel" and get the whole class involved in a little "action".
We get rewarded with their million dollar smiles at the end of our exercises.

Some of these exercises than can be universally used irrespective of the Lesson being taught are action songs.

An all time favourite is : "Lord's Army", this Song is an instant hit - with boys and girls alike- i would say the boys love it even more since at this age all of them aspire to be Pilots/ Soldiers etc.

The Lyrics go as follows:

"Lord's Army"

 I may never march in the Infantry,  

(an elaborate march - chest forward, head looking ahead, swinging arms etc.)

Ride in the cavalry,  

 (pretend you're riding a horse)

Shoot the artillery.  
 (pretend you have gun, and point all around)

I may never zoom o'er the enemy,   
(show zooming action of a jet in motion with one hand)

But I'm in the Lord's Army.  
 (point one finger up to God)

I'm in the Lord's Army, yes, sir!  
 (salute)

I'm in the Lord's Army, yes, sir!
 (salute)

I may never march in the Infantry,

Ride in the cavalry,

Shoot the artillery.

I may never zoom o'er the enemy,

But I'm in the Lord's Army, (yes, sir!) 

The "yes, sir" is almost a shout in my class. 

This Action Song fulfills its purpose wonderfully in my class room. :)