ENCOUNTER WITH SMALL CHILDREN

(It is advised to gather pre-school children into small groups)

Little children, good morning to all of you! I am… (*say your name), do you know who this Lady is? (*pointing to the statue of Mary) Who is it?
-“Mary!” – And who is Mary?
- “The Mother of Jesus!” – That’s true. But whose mother is it also?
- “Ours!” – Only you children’s or even grown ups’?
- “Even grown ups!”
- Is She also the Mother of those who do bad things, who steal, who kill….?
- “Yes!... “No!...” (*let the children answer).
- I see that we don’t all agree…; now I will explain something important to you: all people, big and small, good and bad, we all belong to one big family of which God is the Father, Mother Mary is the Mother, Jesus is the big brother and all of us are brothers and sisters.
As in all big families, in the big human family there is a child who misbehaves, who does bad things. The mommy and daddy always love him, even if he’s bad. But when you misbehave, are your mommy and daddy happy? – “Nooooo!”
- Of course not, because mommies and daddies always want their children to be… “…Good!” (*Let the children answer).

- Well, now I will tell you a very important story, I will tell it to you like a fairy tale, but it’s a true story which began in Heaven. What is Heaven like? (*Let the children answer) – “It’s blue!... It’s white!...”
- It’s true, the sky is blue, when there are clouds it is white or grey, but behind the colour blue or white there is a wonderful world which is called… (*Let the children answer) – “Heaven!”. It’s a very beautiful world, in some ways it’s like earth: there are a lot of flowers, there’s always a marvellous sun… But most of all it is beautiful because in Heaven everyone is good and everyone loves each other: nobody yells, nobody does bad things, nobody is lonely. They always play and they always smile…

The story I’m about to tell you took place there in Heaven… Where does Mother Mary live? (*Let the children answer) – “In Heaven!”
- And who else lives in Heaven? (*Let the children answer) – “Jesus…, God the Father…, the Angels…, the Saints….”
- And where do our relatives who die go? (*Let the children answer) – “To Heaven!”.

One day Mother Mary was walking in the marvellous garden of Heaven and she met God… Who is God? (*Let the children answer, if no one says it, suggest… “God is our…”) – “Father!”
-… and Mary saw that our Father in Heaven was very sad, and said to Him: - Dearest father, why are you so sad? We all love you…And the Father in Heaven answered: -Yes, it’s true, here in Heaven you are all good and you love me so much; but I have so many other children who live on… (*Let the children answer) – “earth!”.

-Among these children, some are good, especially children; but amongst the grown ups there are many who don’t love me, who insult me, do bad things, steal, hurt their brothers and kill each other with lots of violence and wars…. How can I be happy with so many bad children, who risk going to hell?

Mother Mary started to cry and said to her Daddy in Heaven: - Father, I don’t want to see you suffer… If you allow me, I will go down to earth and I will make all men become good; I promise. Our Father in Heaven smiled to little Mary and said to her: - Alright, go down to earth, but it won’t be easy, because many people won’t welcome you and won’t listen to you… thank you for what you’ll be able to do.

Mary came down to earth, but nobody recognized her, she looked like a normal mother. She went where her most naughty children were and tried to convince them to become good.

She approached some boys who were hitting each other, saying bad words and disobeying their parents and told them: - My children, why do you do these bad things? Why don’t you behave? – And they answered Her: - We aren’t little, we’re big and we can do whatever we like. We don’t want to listen to you.

She came to a town where there was a terrible war. There were so many soldiers who were shooting each other with guns – with real guns! – and they were killing each other… And Mother Mary said to them: - My children, why are you killing each other? Why don’t you make peace and love each other, play together and help each other… But they answered: - We’re big, now we have weapons and we want to kill each other. We don’t want to listen to you!

Poor Mother Mary! Poor Mother of ours in Heaven! She was so tired that she stopped a bit to rest; she cried and said: - These children of mine don’t want to listen to me. I can’t take it anymore! I promised my Father in Heaven to make them become good, but I can’t do it by myself. I must find someone who can help me… And who could it be?


(*At this point the children start saying: - “Jesus!” And you answer them: - But Jesus was up in Heaven…; “God…”. – But He was in Heaven too – “The Angels…”. But the Angels were in Heaven too…). The Virgin Mary needed someone who could help her here on earth… Who could it be?... Who could she ask for help?

She started walking and walking, and one day she saw three children who were looking after their sheep. They were three children a bit older than you, their names were Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta… Mother Mary saw these three children and thought: - Children! Grown ups don’t want to listen to me and don’t want to help me, but I wonder…maybe children will help me!

Suddenly the children saw a big light and, in the middle of this light, a beautiful Lady, brighter than the sun. They were a big afraid…, but the Lady reassured them with these words: - Children, don’t be… (*Let the children continue) “…afraid!”, I don’t want to…. (*Let the children continue) “hurt you”.

The children gained confidence and started to ask this beautiful Lady many questions: - Who are you? What’s your name? Where do you come from? What do you want from us?. And the Lady answered: - I come from Heaven…I am the Mother of Jesus and of all men.. I have come because I want to make all people good, but by myself I cannot… (*Let the children continue) “…do it!”. I have come to ask for your help!... Do you want to help me make everyone become good?
The three children thought about it for a while, and then they said with all their heart: - Of course we will help you!

The Mother in Heaven did a lot of beautiful things with those three children, which we will tell you about when you go to elementary school. But I have to tell you something very important: Mother Mary told me this morning: - In this school there are a lot of children…let’s go and see if amongst them there is someone willing to help me, as the three children of Fatima did. I can’t go on.
And I came here. Now I ask you:

-Is anyone of you willing to help Mother Mary? Whoever wants to help her raise their hand! (*Raise your hand to give a good example…)
-“Me…, me…, me…, me…”.
-Good, now put your hands down and answer what I will ask you: “Do we want to help our Mother in Heaven to make everyone good? – “Yessss!”
-Do we want to give ourselves to our Father in Heaven to console Him for all the sufferings His bad children cause Him? – “Yessss!”.
Good, now I will teach you some short prayers. The first is to our Father in Heaven: -“Father, I give myself to you!”. Let’s repeat it all together: “FATHER, I GIVE MYSELF TO YOU!”.
The second prayer is to our Mother in Heaven: “Mother, I give myself to You!” Let’s repeat it all together: “MOTHER, I GIVE MYSELF TO YOU!”. The last prayer is to our Angel: “My brother, hold my hand and bring me to God”. Let’s repeat it toget her: “MY BROTHER, HOLD MY HAND AND BRING ME TO GOD!”

Now I invite you to give Mother Mary a kiss. Do we want to give it to her? Yes? So let’s send her this kiss… No, that’s not good… you have to blow the kiss, otherwise she won’t receive it… Do as I do, with a blow… That’s good… but we made a little mess: these kisses arrived all together, and our Mother in Heaven doesn’t know who sent them to her. Do we want to send our kisses one at a time, so that she will remember who sent them to her? “This kiss is from John…, this one is from Mary… this one is from Anthony…” Do we want to try? Yes?

Good, so let’s get into a line and one at a time give a kiss to Mother Mary, saying the little prayer we learnt: - “MOTHER, I GIVE MYSELF TO YOU!”.

(*You must be very careful because children often get confused in saying this prayer, which must be repeated until they have pronounced it correctly.
Also, it often happens that not all children are willing to give the kiss and pronounce the short Consecration formula: there’s always someone who refuses: this is a confirmation of the Consecration’s validity).

End with a song and a goodbye to Mother Mary