The contentious election is behind us, COVID vaccines are coming, and we've had an unusual stretch of beautifully warm weather here in the east. Could it be that things are looking up as 2020 winds down? Well, for moms of college-aged young adults, there's at least one more hurdle left. Our kids are coming home for Thanksgiving and staying until late January...weeks longer than they have in the past!
Winter break is often complicated since college students return home to a household under their parent's rule after so much time on their own. (And So We Pray, Chapter 13) This year, however, schools mandated because of COVID that students not return to school after Thanksgiving, which makes the winter break weeks longer, with little prospect of internships, part-time work or travel as a distraction.
"There won't be many job prospects, even though we're home for a longer stretch," one college sophomore predicted. "I love the holidays and usually catch up on sleep and see my friends, but 8 weeks or so is a long time and I'll be anxious to get back to school, even with COVID restrictions there. I'll really miss my friends and roommates," she added.
In addition to suitcases of laundry, college-aged young adults often bring home with them unbridled late-night energy, idealism, hungry appetites, and a zeal for living that can be hard to keep up with, especially when we're working full-time and/or have younger siblings to care for. We all want a peaceful home, joyful kids, and memorable family time, right? What's the best way to equip ourselves to make it happen?
We can welcome them with home-baked cookies, but we know what really affects change... Prayer! There are many ways to pray, but Our Lady's rosary is known to be a powerful weapon that protects the family from all kinds of strife! Praying College Moms pray the rosary monthly, saying the names of more than 500 college kids aloud. Why Pray the rosary? Let’s listen to some of what Mary said to Saint Dominic and Blessed Alan when she gave them this prayer:
To all those who shall pray my Rosary devoutly, I promise my special protection and great graces.
The rosary will make virtue and good works flourish, and will obtain for souls the most abundant divine mercies. It will draw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire of eternal things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means.
What you shall ask through my Rosary you shall obtain.
To those who propagate my Rosary I promise aid in all their necessities.
The Blessed Mother actually made 15 promises associated with the Rosary. You can read them all here.
One of the issues people have with saying the rosary is finding the time. It takes only 10-15 minutes. As incentive, listen to Sister Lucia dos Santos, the Fatima seer:
“The Most Holy Virgin in these last times in which we live has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary to such an extent that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, whether temporal or above all spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families…that cannot be solved by the Rosary. There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary.”
This Thanksgiving, why not serve up the turkey and stuffing just the way the kids like it, but top the evening off with a family rosary? If you're battling over curfews, say a rosary and then discuss it. Does your student need a part-time job? Saying the rosary can help find the perfect one. As Sister Lucia said, "There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary." Every family needs this kind of reinforcement from Heaven's armament.
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