Overview & Demonstration on How to Use “The Comic of The Holy Rosary”

Transcript:

Hi, I’m Kevin Pawlowski of Paradise Found Studio. Today I’m going to take you through my Comic Guide to the Holy Rosary.

This is a 44 page activity book that is a fun way to learn how to pray the holy Rosary, how to pray traditional Catholic prayers, and all about the life of Mary and Jesus.

I have been a catechist for over 12 years, and during that time, I have come up with a variety of activities to keep my students engaged and hopefully build a passion for their faith. 

That can be a challenge, given the attention span of younger kids. Rote memorization and reading from the catechism text book can only take you so far. 

That’s where the Comic Guide to the Holy Rosary comes in!

When you think about it, the act of praying the Rosary, when you include all the mysteries, has it all. If you can get kids to do it, and make it fun, they will naturally gain a deeper understanding of Catholicism and memorize prayers with all of the repetition that is naturally a part of praying the Rosary.

So crayons in hand, let’s go through it together!

When you open up the guide, you’ll notice all of the pages are black and white, beautifully illustrated, on a high quality uncoated paper. That means any page can be drawn on or colored, which is perfect for presenting these as fun activities, rather than strictly educational. As a part of a lesson plan, you could go through a decade every week in 15 minutes, and by the end of the year, get through all of the mysteries. 

So when you get to the 1st page, you’ll see an introduction to the history of the Rosary. 

Then you’ll find a 2-page comic covering the life of Mary. This is when you have the opportunity to build and reinforce the story of Mary and Jesus. For example, take the Annunciation of Mary, where the archangel Gabriel appears before her. This is covered in the comic, then repeated in the Hail Mary prayer page, the Apostles Creed, and the 1st mystery. 

After Mary’s comic, you’ll find each prayer of the Rosary illustrated. You and your students can keep referring back to these prayers as they start to memorize them. What’s great about these images is they will help your students visualize the meaning of the prayers. As they go through them over-and-over, they aren’t only memorizing, but gaining a full appreciation and understanding.

So you can go through these prayers at the beginning, or wait until you start praying the first Rosary, which is right after the Apostles’ Creed. 

Here you will see a full Rosary, so having physical Rosaries on hand is optional. The idea is for students to color the beads one-by-one as they say the prayers. You can also use little stickers, if that works better for you. This first Rosary spells out each prayer. 

As you go through each set of mysteries, you’ll find a fresh Rosary to be colored. As you go, there will be less-and-less instructions, forcing the kids to try to go from memory. Of course, they can always use the 1st one as a cheat sheet.

As you  get to each decade, you are prompted to refer to a mystery. Each Rosary has 5 mysteries after them, so this book has the complete set of 20 mysteries. The joyful, luminous, sorrowful, and glorious mysteries are presented in order, so you walk through the lives of Mary and Jesus step-by-step with each decade. 

So when you get to a mystery, I suggest you pause and read the bible passage and explain what it means. Give your students time to color the picture. When they focus and color, hopefully they are also reflecting on what they see. 

You can have younger kids color with crayons, but for older kids or adults, who might have more artistic interest and skill, colored pencils can work great. For more advanced artists, the paper is high enough quality  for watercolor, which can provide really satisfying final artwork.

If you and your students get through this entire book, they will certainly have a deeper appreciation and hopefully love of their faith. 

To order the Comic Guide to the Holy Rosary, go to www.rosarycomic.com. If you have any questions, or have feedback or stories from going through these activities, I’d love to hear from you through our contact page.

Thank you and God bless!