(A Speech given on Saturday 5^th November at St. Ambrose Church, Concord West)

Good afternoon, my name is Grace. Today, I’ve come to talk about the Children Cenacle. These two boys behind me are Abraham and Benjamin, who have been members of our Children Cencale since the beginning of this year. Our group is currently comprised of three mothers and five boys.

I’d like spend the next few minutes to highlight to you, as parents, grandparents, godparents, uncles and aunties sitting among us, how easy it is to teach your children, grandchildren, godchildren, nephews and nieces the Rosary prayer. I decide to teach my children to pray the Rosary because I want to give them the best. I want them to have the best start in life.

I’d like to talk about the three common concerns about teaching children to pray. I’ll address these concerns as a mother of two boys.

The First Concern – We have no time to pray.

The answer is: find time. If we can find time to watch TV, to go to movies, to attend parties; then we can find time to teach our children the Rosary.

Another way is to utilise our idle time more effectively. We do this by praying in the car. Every morning during our five minutes drive to school, we pray one decade of the Rosary. On our way to music or swimming lessons, which take between 20-40 minutes, we pray the full five decades. I put on this Rosary tape and it automatically counts the beads for us. It’s that simple.

The Second Concern – Our children are too young to pray.

I started teaching my two children to pray when they were toddlers. I taught them very slowly, phrase by phrase. It’s like we feed our children, we feed them on breastmilk first, then formula and then solids. Similarly, with prayer, we give them a bit at a time. When they’re ready for more, I give them more. I teach them to pray the Hail Mary, then the Our Father, then Glory Be. We do one decade, then two, three, up to five decades.

Please do not underestimate our children’s ability to pray. If we expect them to learn the nursery rhymes, to recite the times table, then they will have the ability to recite some simple prayers.

I’ve been a Scripture Teacher teaching a Year 3 Class this year. The Class has about 20 students and at the beginning of the year, none of them would sit still. I understand that it’s up to me to make my class interesting.

During the month of May, I told them that since this is the Month of Our Lady, I’ll teach them to pray the Rosary. I told them that Prayer is powerful. I told them that they can pray for themselves, their families, their teachers and anyone they wish to. These children became interested in prayer because they feel empowered - they feel they can do something for others in need. They can pray for them.

Many wonderful things have happened since we prayed the Family Cenacle, then the Children Cenacle. The change won’t happen overnight, but it will happen. When we, as parents, grandparents, godparents, uncles and aunties, when we do our best, I’m sure Our Lady will do the rest.