RENTON – Marching single-file into St. Anthony Church after school, a small group of students from St. Anthony School stop in the vestibule to collect plastic rosaries in little baggies marked with their names.
In silence, the grade-schoolers walk to the altar during eucharistic adoration, taking seats in the first two rows of pews. After offering special intentions, the children lead and recite the rosary. About 30 children join in the prayer at St. Anthony’s in Renton three Thursdays a month, from October through June.
“I just want to be closer to God,” third-grader Dina Equbazgi said on a recent Thursday. “I come here to see Jesus through the Eucharist,” added third-grader Elizabeth Adams. “I understand him through the rosary.”
The devotion began 12 years ago, after Pope John Paul II declared the Year of the Rosary in 2002. A group of St. Anthony mothers, along with their young children, gathered to pray the rosary every morning, said Silvia Adams, one of the original moms in the group.
When the children began attending the parish school, they decided to pray the rosary themselves, Adams said. Each week, the children pray for special intentions: a little boy dying of cancer, a child’s mother fighting cancer. They pray for their teachers, for world peace.
“This is so low-key, so organic, I don’t think the staff knows the kids are praying for them,” Adams said. “I don’t think the teachers even know we exist. This is something very humble, a quiet ministry.”
As the children lead the rosary, they gain confidence in speaking before a large group, said Barb Schreiber, another of the original moms. “The younger kids see the older kids praying and they think it’s cool. We even have kids that started the group coming back and praying with the group,” she said.
On the first Friday of each month, the St. Anthony’s students join the children’s rosary at neighboring St. Stephen the Martyr Parish in Renton. “The rosary is good for anyone, including our children,” said Father Ed White, pastor at St. Stephen’s and spiritual advisor for the children’s rosary group. “Learning more about prayer and the rosary is so effective in giving personal peace, building community with one another,” he said.
The children are learning the importance of Mary in the church, as “an instrument who has her own dignity with God,” Father White said. “God is not diminished when we honor her. Parents who care enough to support their children in this realize the value of the rosary.”
Mike Tran, father of two St. Anthony students, volunteers at the Thursday rosaries because “it’s part of our faith,” he said. “It gives us quiet time to reflect.”
When the weekly rosary ends, Adams exhorts the children for a moment of peace: “Let’s close our eyes and hear Jesus, what is in our hearts. Thank him for anything special in our lives and pray for someone special.”
The mission of the group, Adams said later, “is to pray the way Mary is, quiet and humble. We believe there’s no way we can make little children pray the rosary, only she can do it.”