Marian family prayer resources

Pray the rosary together as a family this week. Use our short meditations on the glorious mysteries to guide your prayers and reflect together on how you can look wisely at the world and respond to God’s creation with love and care. 

You could make your own rosary together from things you can find outside in nature, like stones, sticks or flowers. Lay it out on the ground and encourage the children to follow it as you all pray together. 

You will need 53 small pebbles or flowers for the Hail Marys, 6 slightly larger or different-coloured stones or flowers for the Our Fathers. You will also need to make a cross, perhaps with twigs to go on the end of your rosary. 

Use this colouring sheet to remind you of the words of the prayers that form the rosary, as well as what a rosary looks like if you are making your own.

You could also use this sheet as your prayer focus. The children could colour in a bead each time the relevant prayer is said.

Mary praises God for all the wonderful things that he has done for her. She also praises God for lifting up the poor, scattering the proud, feeding the hungry with good things and sending the rich away empty-handed.

So often in our world we can see that the rich and powerful just get richer and more powerful, while those who are poor struggle to get the basic things they need to live, like food and clean water. But Mary is filled with joy because she realises that God's love can turn the world upside down. 

Download the illustration, and colour in the top half of the world that we can see today. Can you see people who might be hungry or need clean water or a safe place to live in the picture? And what is the rich man doing? Is he caring for his brothers and sisters?

Then turn the paper around, so that the first picture is upside down and the empty bottom half becomes the top. Draw what you think the world would look like if it was more like Mary's song of praise, the Magnificat.

When you've finished, reflect together as a family on what you can do to help make this a reality. How will you share God's love with others and help turn the world upside down?