At the school I attended from kindergarten through 8th grade, the entire school met to say the rosary twice a week. Because of the frequency, it was a bare bones affair- students stood in the gym and 5 randomly selected students would lead the five decades. We would pray the mysteries assigned to that day- on Tuesdays the sorrowful and on Thursdays the Joyful. (I’m dating myself- I went to school in the preluminous mysteries years. I think we transitioned to using the luminous sometime while I was in high school.) Most weeks a teacher would give a short reflection or meditation to go along with the mysteries. It was simple and pretty quick.
At the school where I teach, each month different classes take turns leading the school in the rosary. Because these full school rosaries only happen once a month, teachers and students really take the time to plan and prayerfully consider ways to make the rosary really meaningful for students. Sometimes students act out the mysteries or read scripture passages to go with each decade. Every now and then a class comes up with something really cool and creative that wows the crowd, but sometimes it’s just meaningful reflections. I posted a while ago about our attempts at a balloon rosary in What I learned from the prayer service that failed.
But to go along with the Mary infographic project , the rosary can be a great place and time to introduce students to the stories of Marian apparitions. Because this last year was the 100th anniversary of the apparitions at Fatima, when my class led the rosary in the beginning of the school year, we told the story of our Lady of Fatima in connection with the Joyful Mysteries. This script would work for any time of year, but might be especially nice on May 13th, the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, or October 13th, the day of the miracle of the sun.
For this prayer service you need: student readers, 5 decade leaders, 3 students to play Jacinta, Lucia and Francisco, a student to play and read Our Lady of Fatima and there are other non speaking acting rules students could play, like the crowd, police etc. We had students use umbrellas for the 5th mystery, which they really enjoyed.
Here is the script: Enjoy!
