Sacrificial Hospitality: Week 4 RESULTS

Last week, I announced my latest challenge: making rosaries for a private juvenile detention center.

Unfortunately, I don't have too much to report this week...

My son and I did, indeed, MAKE eight rosaries together. Here he is with one of his favorites:



But I haven't been in contact with my sister-in-law's sister-in-law who is my "contact" at the center. And so, alas, the rosaries are currently packaged up, ready to go, sitting on my pantry counter. Not much hospitality going on there...

Here's what I can report...

A. and I had an absolutely delightful time making these together. It became a daily tradition, a ritual he would ask for. I am so proud to have a child who would choose to string a rosary over watching a cartoon! This beading time gave us lots of opportunities to pray together too, to review the Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be together. Now, my son prefers to SING the Our Father (he is his mother's son after all!), but he enjoyed learning the sequence of prayers for the first time. My daughter, too, who is less verbal at this point, wanted in on the action and was starting to speak along with us... the repetition of the Hail Mary's made it easier for her to learn.

In short, while I would deem this past week's challenge as a failure, thus-far, in terms of delivery, it was still an incredibly fulfilling process. I also know that, eventually, these rosaries will make their way into hands that can benefit from them. Was it worth the time and effort? Oh, absolutely! I can easily see our family starting a tradition of making bunches of rosaries around Easter-time every year. Anyone care to join us? :)

To read more about these challenges and what sacrificial hospitality means to me, you can follow the series here.

Be sure to stop by later today to find out what my Week 5 Challenge will be!