The Family Rosary – With A LOT of Families 

Last weekend our family signed up to host our homeschool group's family rosary night. It was a bit chillier than we hoped it would be, but we were troupers and prayed outside like we had planned. Whenever we get the opportunity to pray the rosary with a big group of people, it is a special time. Even when the kids outnumber the parents!

Often over the history of our rosary gatherings, parents have said they were afraid to come because their kids wouldn't sit still or wouldn't pray. Don't ever let that stop you from participating in an event like this one! I mean, I suppose there are rosary events that you might not want to bring your kids to, but a big family event is not one of them!

I love to see parents bring their kids. The sweet voice of a young child saying a Hail Mary is so precious. What a great way for a child to grow up learning to pray. 

I often tell parents that even though my kids are older, they still don't sit still or not argue during the family rosary. Okay, let's be honest, I don't either sometimes.  

Our Family Rosary Events

Here's how our group organizes these events. We changed things up a bit this year and I think it's working better. I'll give you both options in case one way works better for you than the other.

Option 1

• The rosary event is set for the second Sunday of every month at a set time (about a 2 hour time span)
• Families sign for which month they would like to host
• Snacks are brought by the attending families
• Drinks and paper goods, as well as extra rosaries, are supplied by the hosting family
• We have a statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe that we pass from hosting family to hosting family so that she is present for the event.
• The host family leads the rosary intentions and can assign decade leaders or lead the whole thing themselves.
• Rosary first, snacks and socializing second

Option 2

• Families sign up for the month that they would like to host
• The host family gets to pick the day (usually a Friday, Saturday or Sunday) that they would like to have the event
• They also get to set the time, still about a 2 hour window
• Whether they just have snacks or decide to host a pot luck is up to them
• If there is a pot luck, they will let people know what they will be providing and then everyone else can bring a dish to pass

This second option is what we've been doing this year and it is working out much better. The host family can decide if a Friday or Saturday evening will work better than a Sunday afternoon or evening. I'm sure there are many other ways that this can be organized, so be creative.

So far we've had one pot luck and one just snacks. The pot luck was nice because the rosary event was on a Friday night at 6:00, so people didn't have to figure out how to eat and still make it on time after work. 

I will admit that we like to choose a month when we think we can be outside so the kids can run around. A lot of people have small houses, so it can get pretty cramped. So far, though, people stacked up to pray hasn't hindered anything. The rosary is still beautiful, even if your cramped.

Your Call To Action!

Don't let some non-existent standard make you shy away from hosting a family rosary event. If you're nervous, you can start small and just invite a few families over to pray, 

Reaching out to others to gather and pray this most powerful prayer is so important right now. You'll come up will all kinds of excuses as to why you can't host an evening of prayer, but I challenge you to take the plunge and do it anyhow.

If you don't feel like you can do it in your house or yard, then find another gathering space that would work. I think we need to just step out there and do things like this more often. The benefits are probably even more than we can see.