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aussieannie
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| Posted: Aug 23 2012 at 3:17pm | IP Logged
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Our parish has just started Perpetual Adoration and I'm looking at creating some tote bags with books and soft toys suitable for Adoration. I would really love to hear what others have used when taking their children to Adoration or any suggestions I could follow up, as to what might be a suitable addition.
So far I have collected:
The Weight of a Mass
Fr Antoine's book: Praying in the Presence of Our Lord
Their hearts are His garden
I have also bought some little felt saint dolls for the tote bag as well, I have a St Tarcisius doll, a St Julian Eymard doll (complete with him wearing his Benediction robe and holding the monstrance), St Therese of Lisieux doll and with St Therese I have some lovely crocheted roses.
Where we previously adored, the doll idea has worked very well with my little 4 year old, she sits quietly next to me and uses the roses and originally before I acquired these felt dolls, I would bring along a little plastic statue of St Therese. This would keep her very happy.
I'm thinking that it can be a long time for a very small child in Adoration, they need to be respectful but I'm not expecting them to behave as adults or teenage children. More importantly I want to help create beautiful memory associations, I don't want to hear a child say, "do we have to go?" and connect Adoration to something unpleasant in the mind of a child who is still developing a full understanding of Adoration.
Does anyone have some good ideas of what might also be suitable things to add to this bag? Does anyone have any good experiences to share with their own children at Adoration?
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aussieannie
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| Posted: Aug 23 2012 at 3:22pm | IP Logged
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I should have added, that I want things to be visually pleasing and I'm thinking of teaching my older girls how to lino print and hand stamp the bags. I want to draw and print a monstrance and maybe some other images to go on the tote bags...if I get this done AND if it works out, I'll share some photos here.
I have done this before with my rosary bags, carving an Ave Maria Crown and stamping the image onto my cotton, drawstring bags.
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aussieannie
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| Posted: Aug 23 2012 at 3:32pm | IP Logged
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I wanted to make this a separate post.
I have linked to my blog the Real Presence Eucharistic Education and Adoration Association's children's pdf files, the one that is most suitable for Adoration is A Eucharistic Book for Children ~ Eucharistic Miracles and Saints
What I'm thinking also is to have these available for the children to read, maybe printing each story onto page sized cardboard paper and laminating them...would that be the best way of presenting them for reading in a Chapel, any ideas on that?
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margarita
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I have taken my younger kids to adoration a couple of times and they have brought rosary beads, looked at the pamphlets from the back of the church, eaten a quiet snack.
But I only stay for 15 minutes max.
Actually I wondered about that - I always hear people talking about making an hour for adoration; is it wrong to stay for a shorter time? I can't imagine there are hard-and-fast rules about prayer, and I think... gosh, I am taking my kids to spend time in front of Jesus, even a very short time must be a good thing! And I know it has been wonderful for me, the few times I have been able to do it.
Your ideas all sound excellent to me. 
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aussieannie
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| Posted: Aug 23 2012 at 8:41pm | IP Logged
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margarita wrote:
But I only stay for 15 minutes max.
Actually I wondered about that - I always hear people talking about making an hour for adoration; is it wrong to stay for a shorter time? I can't imagine there are hard-and-fast rules about prayer, and I think... gosh, I am taking my kids to spend time in front of Jesus, even a very short time must be a good thing! And I know it has been wonderful for me, the few times I have been able to do it. |
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I think that shorter stays are great, any time in front of Our Lord is a blessing.
The new Church we have just started Adoration with, has a side room with big glass windows looking out to a gated children's playground, only 10 metres away. So I'm staying for 2 hours but rotating the children's time with me, we are doing it in 20min time lots, one older child going out with a couple of the younger children, I keep 1 or 2 older children and a younger child with me, I think this will work well.
I'm thinking some plastic rosary beads as your suggestion Margarita and making up some photo sized books with an old master's painting image for each mystery, with instructions on the inside of how to say the rosary and it's prayers since my children say the rosary with us and all of them might not know the Apostles Creed or Hail Holy Queen off by heart as yet as they used to being led by us in those prayers.
I have a friend who has clip boards with Eucharistic colouring pictures and coloured pencils and this works well for her with her younger ones.
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aussieannie
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Margarita, I wanted to add that recently our parish had a Eucharistic retreat leading up to the establishment of Perpetual Adoration. The priest was only newly ordained and he belongs to a French order dedicated Eucharistic Adoration. He spoke so beautifully, so powerfully...one thing I remember was when he said that Adoration is like touching the hem of Jesus' garment, the grace flows instantly to us (as it did for the woman healed of the issue of blood) and to those in our family and for whom we remember in prayer, even to those we don't know, but God uses the graces through our time with Him for others in need of grace.
That contact with Our Lord by the woman, was brief yet powerful and one that was filled with faith on behalf of the woman. I imagine it would be the same with us, that brief contact is still awesome and life changing for us and our children and we can't underestimate it.
I want to share here as well, now that I have mentioned this retreat, some of the audios that were made at some of the different places Father visited during his time in our city. His talks are meditative, they are inspiring, here is a link to them:
Eucharistic Retreat Audios
On youtube you will find a very good quality copy of his Sydney talk. This was a talk of his conversion and vocation (and his mother's part in it, not through words but through regular Eucharistic Adoration, after the death of his father when he was only a young boy).
Part 1 of talk
Part 2 of talk
Finally, and audio of Father's talk and workshop in Sydney, here.
I'm still pondering the spiritual gems from these talks, they are worth sharing with older children as well.
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margarita
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| Posted: Aug 24 2012 at 11:19am | IP Logged
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"I think that shorter stays are great, any time in front of Our Lord is a blessing. "
Phew - that's kinda what I figured.
That's great that you have a playground right there, with babysitting! And thanks for the passage about the woman touching Jesus' hem. Yes. Exactly.
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aussieannie
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I have started listening to some of Father's talks (linked above) on the nights he was on the other side of the city and I'm linking one particular talk here, acutally it was questions and answers from one of his nights.
When you open the link, you can click to 7minutes15seconds and you will here a lady ask two questions, her second question was, is it ok to bring her 6 year old son to Adoration with her if he is playing games..it's hard to hear, but I think she is saying 'as long as he is not disrespectful'..something like that.
Father has a few things to say, I'm just going to quote some of them, but it's worth listening to him in full on the audio. Father says:
Father wrote:
| It's better to be there with your 6 year old and your 6 year old occupied than not have you there |
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Father then goes on to say that bringing your children is
Father wrote:
| It's always been in the life of the Church that mother bring their children to Christ, some great saints were brought to Jesus for years, that's what made them great saints |
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Father wrote:
| So don't have any scruples over your children. |
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I can't recommend highly enough, listening to these audios, they are so mediative and profound, you are sure to take away something beautiful that will speak strongly to you now but continue to impress upon your heart as time goes by in regards to Adoration ~ I think that's an extraordinary gift when it comes to preaching.
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MarilynW
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This is a really good thread Anne. I started taking my 2 year old and 4 year old to adoration in the spring. When I first started, I told them that we were oing to sit quietly with Jesus for 15 minutes. We sat in the front row in front of the monstrance. They each had a Bible or Child's missal - but actually they would sit quietly and gaze at the monstrance for the 15 minutes. Now I can go for longer - but never stay for an hour, as our church has weekly adoration at 7pm which is quite late for the little ones.
I bought the Eucharistic Miracles coloring book but I find that coloring is too distracting during adoration - so I have them do it before we leave home.
I am hoping to find the time to make a set of cards to laminate and put on a key ring - pictures of the Blessed Sacrament, Eucharistic Saints and Miracles.
I so agree with you about the children having lovely memories of Adoration. I felt quite emotional when the last time we left Adoration my little girl started crying and saying that she was not ready to leave Jesus.
I love all the Latin music for Adoration (and Matt Maher's Adoration) and I am teaching these to all the little ones - and they really like the hymns.
One last thing - they are not many who take kids to adoration, but each time I go, I get stopped by some tearful older person who tells me that they love to see families coming to Adoration together.
Sorry one more thing - Adoration must be very powerful and beneficial, because EVERY SINGLE time we are getting ready to go, it seems we have everything conspiring against us so that it is really difficult!
Thank you for all the links and ideas in these posts.
Maybe for mamas, 15 minutes can be our "power hour"
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aussieannie
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That sounds really beautiful Marilyn..a great blessing for yourself and your little ones.
15 minutes sounds good, the length of a rosary and usually a lot of children are use to that length of concentration. Now that I am at my new Adoration chapel, I will be rotating the 3 younger children so that they are with Our Lord 15 - 20mins in each hour, so I think you are right it's a 'power hour'..and really so...when you think that an innocent child in the presence of Our Lord, their prayers, their time would be of such great value, I'm sure their time is gold.
MarilynW wrote:
| I so agree with you about the children having lovely memories of Adoration. I felt quite emotional when the last time we left Adoration my little girl started crying and saying that she was not ready to leave Jesus. |
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 good tears now
MarilynW wrote:
| Sorry one more thing - Adoration must be very powerful and beneficial, because EVERY SINGLE time we are getting ready to go, it seems we have everything conspiring against us so that it is really difficult! |
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I think that is a good point to bring up. It does happen and I can relate to that too. Rosary time can also be like that for us as well. Mass time too. To 'know' what's really going on in those moments can be half the battle over, the other half for me is making sure I'm prepared way beforehand with everything we need to step outside the door on time and NOT to take phone calls in the last 30mins before leaving. 
Another thing I say to a child that is getting fidgety and has exhausted all their resources, I just ask them to sit and LOOK at Jesus, and to just say, "Jesus I love, help me to love you better." Father during his retreats spoke of this silent exchange of gazing at each other and that we are slowly transformed by Him over time, even just sitting in His presence and nothing else. Sort of like being warmed by the sun. When I heard that I thought of the famous story of the Cure of Ars talking to an elderly parishioner who came daily to Church and sat in Christ's Presence. "What do you pray before Our Lord each day in His Presence?" the Cure asked. The peasant replied, "I look at Him and He looks at me."
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I have recently started taking a few of the younger girls with me. One is aged 9, and the others are twins, aged 7. I take them individually, not as a group and it is considered a special treat to go! I usually just take one book with pics, Bible stories or something like that, and then I say the Rosary and then hand the Rosary to them and they say it to themselves...they read the book for awhile...then just sit there and stare awhile, and then, sweetly, they often fall asleep. Now I just think that is the cutest thing, because is there anywhere else in the world that would have a more sweet and peaceful sleep than in front of Our Lord? So, I allow that, and often, wish I could curl up beside them and do the same!  I think the Lord doesn't mind them just sitting there quietly too. I have noticed a change in the one twin I had been taking, so now I plan on taking the other twin more as well!
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amarytbc
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It's wonderful to hear that you are doing this with your children.
I never took anything for the children, even when they were preschoolers. We talked about it before we went. I told them to look at Jesus for a little bit and tell him that they loved him and then close their eyes and think about Him. God is awesome, he doesn't need props. In the beginning we only stayed until one of them started to really fidget (about 5 minutes) and slowly worked up to about 15 minutes even for the preschoolers. The books you mentioned are perfect for that "before adoration" time at home!
Our children are older now, but all of them still go to adoration or linger for 10 or 15 minutes after Mass. Two loved it so much they moved into His house, and the ones who can drive go to adoration by themselves.
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4Real Forums : Domestic Church
Topic: Ideas for Children at Adoration
