As the Month of the Rosary, October is an excellent month to catechize teenagers with the Rosary. Do not forget that teens do pray and many of them will welcome the power of the Rosary in their own personal prayer lives.
Consider these tips:
Tip #1: Dispel any misconceptions about what the Rosary is all about. No, Catholics do not worship Mary. No, she is not answering our prayers. She is interceding on our behalf.
Tip #2: Focus on the mysteries. The power of the Rosary is certainly in the meditation on the mysteries of the Rosary. Each set of mysteries (Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious, Luminous) offers an invitation to meditation on the important events in the life of Christ and Mary. Help students meditation up on these mysteries. Consider the following:
- Create Rosary Journals to help students dig deeply into the mysteries.
- Listen to music about the mysteries of the Rosary as a part of meditation.
- Break up the mysteries of the Rosary for each day of the week. This shortens the prayer and helps students stay focused in short increments. The fifteen minutes it takes to pray the Rosary can take too long for their attention spans.
- Appeal to many different learning styles according to multiple intelligences: writing, drawing, painting, discussing, singing, etc.
- Pray a living rosary.
Tip #3: Make rosaries or find someone to donate rosaries for each student. It is very likely that many students do not have their own personal rosaries. Try to give them one to use and pray with in class and at home.
Consider the following activities for teaching teenagers the Rosary:
- Read this excerpt from The Catholic Spirit that includes a Stream of Consciousness Prayer to Mary, then use the discussion questions to analyze the story.
- Read this Hail Mary Reflection
(Photo by Eddie Callaway)
