October Is the Month of the Rosary [Free Rosary Coloring Page]

In honor of the Rosary, I'm sharing my free Rosary coloring page. Use it to help teach your children to pray the Rosary and to keep track of the prayers.

Or they can color each bead ("rose") as they say a prayer, or they can make copies of the little flowers at the bottom of the page and cut them and paste them onto the bead.



Inspired by my grandmother's Spanish prayers, I also created El Rosario coloring page (a coloring page in Spanish):

My earliest memory of the Rosary is wrapped in the scent of lavender, the whisper of beads passing through wrinkled fingers, the murmured Spanish of my abuelita Blanca.

We shared a room, and the Rosary filled my every evening. For the years that she lived with us, she'd pray the Rosary nightly, the repeated "Dios te salve Maria, llena eres de gracia..." embedded into my sleep.

The set prayers, rather than dulling with repetition, formed a cadence of sweetness, a litany of love. My grandmother often told me that she loved me, and I understood that the rosary was like her repeating to Jesus that she loved him.

One cannot say that enough.

Unfortunately, when I grew older and further from the Lord, I stopped praying the rosary nightly, stopped saying "I love you" to the One Who Loves Us Best.

“Some people are so foolish that they think they can go through life without the help of the Blessed Mother. Love the Madonna and pray the rosary, for her Rosary is the weapon against the evils of the world today. All graces given by God pass through the Blessed Mother.” (St. Padre Pio)

Yet, whenever I was in trouble and needed Him, I turned to the  Rosary. Always. Sometimes, I prayed all the mysteries. Other times, just the set prayers. In great difficulties, I'd just clutch the rosary in my hand as tightly as if I were clutching Mama Mary's hand.

Thanks to the Holy Spirit's intervention, my husband's RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) program, and the piles upon piles of books I read, I returned to the Catholic Church in 1995 and have remained in the family.

Since then, the Blessed Mother has truly become my mother. And through the Rosary, she teaches us, not to worship her, not to focus on her, but to turn to the main events in the life of Jesus and our relationship with Him.

* * *

I also have the following free Rosary activity ideas:

• Rosary index-card ring (prayer helper)
• Pro-Life Novena activity page
• Roses for Mother Mary

Happy coloring and praying!
Vee

Free Paper Dolls and Printables for you, from me

Not only do I love drawing and crafting, I also love sharing my treasures.  At Paper Dali, you can download the following items for free. Just please remember that these are all for personal, non-commercial use and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Why are they free?
I'm slightly obsessed with classic literature and history, especially Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt, the American Revolution and the U.S. Civil War. When I couldn't find free online historical paper dolls and coloring pages for my children, I decided to make my own.

The inspiration for creating paper dolls came from my daughter. Her love of paper dolls proved contagious. My daughter often makes suggestions for new dolls and tests them out to make sure the clothes and accessories work with the dolls. She also has a keen eye for details and goes through the site for quality control. She may be only nine years old, but she's a taskmaster.

My children regularly print out the dolls and play with everything that I post, letting me know what works---or does not. Without their sweet encouragement and ideas, the free dolls at Paper Dali would not exist nor continue to grow.

If you have any ideas or comments about Paper Dali, feel free to drop me an email at mypaperdali[at]gmail.com or leave a comment.