Announcing:
Saint Mary's Press winner for the week of May 1, 2009!
Congratulations to Julie Studinski!

Julie Studinski will receive a copy of Mysteries in My Hands: Young People, Life, and the Rosary, a $7.95 value.

This book is for today's older teens who want to learn how to pray the rosary. Teens will discover why this prayer is important to Catholic faith by understanding how the practice came to be. Scripture references, quotes from Pope John Paul II's Rosarium Virginis Mariae, the prayers used in the rosary, and a detailed outline of the beads are included. Reflective writings from adults and young people, introduce teens to the importance of the rosary today. As this prayer returns to a place of renewed meaning, Mysteries in My Hands will be a useful tool for young people who want to learn the basics of a well-loved tradition.

Look Inside: You can view an online sampler of the Mysteries in My Hands on the SMP Web catalog. Search for "Mysteries in My Hands," or use this link to go to the product description, http://www.smp.org/ItemDetail.cfm?ItemNum=5034.

Mysteries in My Hands: Young People, Life, and the Rosary
by Maureen P. Provencher, ISBN 978-0-88489-832-0
paper, 128 pages, $7.95
http://www.smp.org/ItemDetail.cfm?ItemNum=5034

Praying the Rosary
by Javier Bravo

Many of us know that the month of May is one of the two dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. This is a great time to promote praying of the Rosary among our students. My experience in teaching is that there are some who love the Rosary, but many who have little experience with this prayer aside from school. A good way to get students to understand the deeper spirituality of the Rosary is to present it in a different light. Music is a great enhancer to prayer. I recommend the following: Danielle Rose's Mysteries CD. She does an excellent job of putting the meaning of each mystery into song, and her songs are great lead in to meditation.

Take time to pray with your students. Change the atmosphere in the room by bringing in a lamp so you can dim the lights or take them to the chapel. Have a CD player with Danielle Rose's CD ready. Assign the mystery to one student and have the rest of the class respond. Give all of the students time to voice their intentions, and invite non-Catholics to pray along or in silence. After the mystery, play the corresponding song on the CD and then lead a group discussion on how the song affected their prayer. Ask if anything stood out or appealed to them. While this takes time, it is something that can be done in a week by taking a mystery a day.

Learn more about Danielle Rose's Mysteries CD at http://www.wlp.jspaluch.com/1469.htm.
Scroll down and click on the "listen" tab to hear samplers of the songs.

Prayer for Mother's Day
by Christine Navarro

As teachers and ministers, we want the best for each young person. I thought about what I might ask God to give our teens' moms as Mothers' Day approaches. Note that this prayer could easily apply to fathers or other guardians as well.

God of Love,
Thank you for our teens' mothers and grandmothers.
Please give them the wisdom, knowledge, and strength they need to raise our teens in the faith.
Give them faith in you, above all,
The ability to share this faith with their teens,
energy to keep up with them
time to spend with them,
inner wisdom to know when to affirm their teens and when to challenge them,
courage to talk with their children about tough issues,
inner peace to weather difficult times, and
confidence that you are always with their children.
Remind mothers that you love their teens even more than they can.
We ask all of this through Christ our Lord and through the intercession of Mary, the mother of us all.
Amen.

Bible Sale!