After a lot of prayer, Philip and I decided we wanted to celebrate our baby Thérèse’s life formally with our family.  Thérèse will be buried at a Catholic cemetery, but there will be no formal burial ceremony.  (I’ll go into the logistics and hoops I had to go through to set all of that up another time.)  Instead of a memorial Mass, we decided to gather our family and my Bible study girlfriends together to pray the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary and have a dessert reception afterward.  

We met on Sunday at our parish Our Lady Chapel.  Isn’t it beautiful?

The space was perfect for our intimate prayer time together.  Philip and I wanted to make sure that everyone there felt that they were active participants, so we made a few preparations.  

First, we typed up a program.  On the front were our family’s intentions for each of the five Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary and a small note of thanks:

 

Please Join Us In

Praying the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary

To Celebrate the Life of
Thérèse Patricia Boucher
                   

The First Glorious Mystery – The ResurrectionWe pray for the gift of strong faith–both in times of sorrow and joy.  May we always find hope in the Resurrection of Christ.  Let us ask Mary for the gift of an unshakeable faith.

The Second Glorious Mystery – The AscensionWe pray that our lives are a sign of hope for others.  In times of sorrow, grant us the grace to remain hopeful, trust in God’s will, and remember the promise of salvation.

The Third Glorious Mystery – The Descent of the Holy SpiritWe pray for a deepening in awareness of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  May we use them to show our love of God and each other.  Help each of us to be a faithful disciple and steward of Your gifts. 

The Fourth Glorious Mystery – The AssumptionWe pray that each of us will model our lives after the faithfulness of Mary and rejoice in God’s faithfulness to us.  We pray for the grace to obediently answer God’s call in our lives and joyfully accept His will for us.

The Fifth Glorious Mystery – The Coronation

We pray for a deeper devotion to Mary, our spiritual mother and intercessor in heaven.   Mary, draw us close to your Immaculate Heart, where we may take refuge in times of trouble.  

On the back, we wanted to provide a typed-up guide with the various prayers of the Rosary as well as their order.  Rosary Army is an apostolate dedicated to spreading devotion to the Rosary throughout the world.  They have a fantastic PDF that we downloaded and printed on the backside of the program.  I think this was a beautiful guide for those unfamiliar with the Rosary to follow along.  

PDF from Rosary Army

Since we have so many young nephews and nieces, we wanted to be sure and include them in this special Rosary for their cousin.  Ahead of time, we asked them if they would be willing to lead our family in a decade of the Rosary.  We decided to “spice things up” a bit by using the Rosary Army Scriptural Rosary for the Glorious Mysteries.  The Scriptural Rosary brings the Mysteries of the Rosary to life by incorporating verses of Scripture that pertain to each Mystery before each Hail Mary.  (Rosary Army has a version of the Scriptural Rosary for each of the Mysteries of the Rosary.)  We printed off “scripts” for our nephews and niece to practice ahead of time.

When it was time, we gathered in the chapel, handed out the programs, distributed Rosaries (some belonged to great-great-grandmothers), and Philip started our prayer time together.  He welcomed everyone, thanked them for coming, and explained that we would be praying the special intentions on the front of the program.  To help keep everyone’s focus, we purchased 8″x10″ images of the Mysteries of the Rosary from our local Catholic bookstore.  To make them last longer, I laminated them.  We brought a stand to prop them up on the altar in the middle of the chapel for everyone to focus on as we prayed. 

The Resurrection image laminated and propped up on the stand we used

I hope our family will develop a devotion to the Rosary and other special prayers, so I decided to put together a little prayer binder to store our prayer materials.  I stored the laminated images of the Mysteries of the Rosary in the divider pockets and printed off the Scriptural Rosary that accompanies the various mysteries.  I separated them by category and left room with future dividers to add other novenas or special prayers for our family prayer time together.

I am so thankful that my dear girlfriends from my Bible study were able to join us.  One of my friends, Annie, gave me a beautiful present to remember Thérèse and the day we prayed the Rosary for her.  It’s the most precious itty bitty little Rosary I’ve ever seen!  The delicate little pink beads are for our little girl, she said, and she hopes it will be a treasured Rosary for Thérèse’s siblings as they get older.  I know I’ll treasure it forever! 

My oldest brother and sister-in-law also gave me an incredible keepsake and present.  They said it was a “belated” birthday present, but I think they gave it to me at just the right time.  It’s a beautiful locket necklace from Origami Owl with little charms inside.  From left to right, there is: a cross, an angel baby, a baby’s footprint, and a “T” for Thérèse.  I wore it the night of the Rosary, and I’ve been wearing it all day today, too.  It’s such a special, thoughtful gift and reminder of our precious baby.

Aside from the very thoughtful presents, Philip and I were so overwhelmed by the response we received from our family members and friends.  Over and over again, individual family members or friends took each of us aside throughout the afternoon to tell us how beautiful and special the Rosary and reception were.  They said that they were “so glad we did this.”  Several teared up as they thanked me for including them and gave me big hugs.   

Thérèse deserved to be celebrated and prayed for.  We are so glad we shared that day with others because they needed it, too.  Philip and I went to bed last night saying how to-the-core happy and at peace we feel knowing that our prayer warrior, Thérèse, is in heaven, and that we have so many wonderful people on earth lifting us up in prayer.

When we found out Thérèse died and that I would be miscarrying, Philip said we were lucky to have the extra motivation to get our entire family to heaven since we knew one of our babies was already there.  Now that more than a month has passed, nothing gives my life more purpose and truth than those words.  My life’s mission is to get Philip and the rest of our children to heaven.  Having hope in my vocation brings me strength, joy, and peace.