Mother Mary, Pray for Us

We have a new addition to our upstairs hallway - a prayer table. We pray our nightly Rosary decade with the boys here.

I used my old nightstand as the base and covered it with a white table cloth. Since I have about a million candles languishing around this house, I decided to put them to good use on the table. I made the prayer box with a picture of Our Lady of Lourdes out of a shoe box and paper and ribbon from my Stampin' Up! supplies. I had the boys place the red roses at Our Lady's feet the first night we used the table. The rosaries are hanging on a key rack that I picked up at Target. Brian is very good about putting the rosaries away (in a certain order, mind you) every night after prayers. The wooden cross is hand carved from olive wood from Jerusalem. Chris and I purchased it along with a rosary for our first baby (Brian) before he was born. The holy water font was a gift to Colin on his baptism from our good friends the Foss family.

I wasn't sure at first if the boys would sit still and pray a decade of the Rosary, but I was really hopeful. They have truly exceeded my expectations of little ones. Brian, from the start, has been very attentive. He mouths the words to the prayers right along with Chris and I. Sean was a little more difficult and headstrong at first (typical), and wanted to say the prayer his way. After just a few days of showing him how to pray the rosary, he sits right on my lap and hardy makes a sound. Just a couple of nights ago Chris was at his Knights of Columbus meeting, so it was just the boys and I getting ready for bed. Both Brian and Sean actually said all of the prayers out loud with me. It was a thrilling moment to hear their little voices joined in prayer. They also love to hold their rosary beads, and make sure to tell me which color they want to pray on each night.

I also bought a beautiful statue of Our Lady of Grace. Her beauty really called to me.
As you can see, she has a pretty strong affect on Brian and Sean as well!