Father Brown Mysteries for the Young

Are you familiar with the superbly written Father Brown mysteries penned by the late, classical author G. K. Chesterton? They are very deep, very thought-provoking, and very entertaining.

Now, Nancy Brown has taken four non-murder mysteries from these stories and simplified them into a chapter book for children ages 8-10. Look for the book, hopefully, in time for Christmas.

You can see the cover here at Mrs. Brown's blog. Makes me wish I still had young kids! Maybe I'll get it anyway.

Praying the Rosary from Your Computer

(Update added October 2011: Here is a great newer Rosary website I found recently. Come, Pray the Rosary.)

Have you ever gotten up in the night, worrying about someone or something?

Have you ever wanted to say some prayers when you were alone, perhaps in the early morning before everyone gets up, but thought you could keep your attention on your prayers better if you were sitting at your computer?

Enter online Rosary websites. Here are two that I thought you'd especially like, from among the many that I looked at.

If you would like someone to pray along with, Catholic Radio Dramas has a CD, which you can either buy or listen to for free online. (The link in the previous sentence will take you to the home page. From there, near the top, you can click on Online Rosary.) A male voice announces the Mystery and reads a Scripture meditation, and then leads the prayers, while a group of people respond. You can see masterpiece pictures depicting the mysteries. You'll need Real Player to listen on your computer. If you desire, you can also watch a video of Rosary pictures while hearing the prayers recited. For that, you need Windows Media Player, and a link is available to download it.

If you prefer to pray quietly at your own pace, but would enjoy visual aids, the other Rosary website provides traditional pictures, brief Scripture meditations, and little boxes to check off each Our Father, Hail Mary and other prayer that you recite. You can even print out the page, if you wish. This site is good for both those who've been praying the Rosary for decades but just want a little help keeping on track and those who've never said a Rosary before.

When I said, "Praying the Rosary for decades..." I wasn't trying to write a pun, but I had to smile when I re-read it. For my non-Catholic friends who might not know what I mean by a pun here, of course I meant that I've been saying the Rosary for 36 years, since becoming a Catholic...more than three decades of my life. But the Rosary is also divided into sections of one Our Father, ten Hail Marys and one Glory be (to the Blessed Trinity), while meditating on a Mystery in the Life of Our Lord. Each of these parts of ten is called a "decade". So I guess you could say I've prayed many decades of the Rosary for many decades. And that, by the way, is because it's such a beautiful, comforting prayer.

Free Catholic Printables

What a network of friends we have here! This afternoon I was preparing lesson plans for the upcoming one-afternoon-a-week preschool class at our homeschool co-op. I decided to write to my blogging friend Alexandra at Happy Hearts at Home to ask her where I could go to print out free Catholic coloring pages.

Her answer is here at her blog! If you have children, or work with children, or know someone who does, here is a wonderful list of resources!

Thank you, Alexandra!

Feast Day of Our Lady of Ransom

Many years ago, a great apostolic work was begun, at the request of Mary the Mother of Jesus, who appeared to St. Raymond of Pennafort. It was the work of ransoming captives. Many Christians were being captured by the Moors in Spain and on the seas. In order to ransom these captives from slavery, one of the heroic methods that some of these generous people used was to offer themselves in the place of the person they were ransoming. Can you imagine giving up your freedom? Knowing you may be severely persecuted, as well as made to work hard for someone else's benefit? Yet, they did it all for God.

A special order was begun within the Church and these heroic people, by various means, rescued hundreds of thousands of captives over the years. You can read more about this at the Catholic Culture website.

Dear Mother Mary, please help those who are even today in slavery in various parts of the world, and please help us to remember to offer our prayers for them. Please help all our loved ones, and all we've been asked to pray for, who are slaves to addiction of one kind or another. Please help us not to be slaves to sin but to serve your Divine Son, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, with our whole heart and our whole mind and our whole soul. Amen.