The Pilgrim Queen

The Pilgrim Queen was an idea that the Family Ministry group at St. Timothy School had to help families become more familiar with the devotion to Mary and the beauty of the rosary.  It was an idea that started because we wanted our school to be united in our Catholic faith as well as share this faith with each other thorough a common and simple devotion that our kids would enjoy. The Pilgrim Queen is a beautiful, yet simple, shrine of Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe.  She is portable and made to travel from home to home bringing Christ’s presence and love to all those she encounters.  She is meant to encourage families to pray together, to come together to celebrate their faith and all they love about God.  They create a place for her in their home while she visits for a week, decorating and personalizing her space with handmade art, candles, flowers, rosaries, etc.  She comes to each family with a special kit complete with children’s books, a Saint Juan Diego CD, coloring pages, rosaries, prayer cards, rosary pamplets, and more.  She helps families to bring their focus to Our Lord each day and celebrate their many blessings, including each other. She is a vehicle of Christ’s love.

Many parishioners worked together to collect special items to make the idea exciting and fun for the kids.  They made rosaries, photo albums of an actual pilgrimage to Guadalupe, as well as provided books and prayer cards.  The love they put forth to make this dream a reality has produced much fruit.  The kids are all talking about the Pilgrim Queen.  They excitedly collect the special bag to bring home to their families on their week.  They share photos and stories as well as post her visit on Facebook, making their love for Christ and Mary known to all.

The response has been overwhelming…so tremendous in fact that we had to begin a second Pilgrim Queen to be sure each family would have their requested time with her!  What a blessing she is to our school family.  St. Timothy Catholic School has been one exciting adventure.  We have been so thrilled to be able to develop the school of our dreams.  Starting from scratch means we can do amazing things and carry them out how we envision.  With God all things are possible!  This is what happened with the Pilgrim Queen.  She started as an amazing idea and now the reality is she is bringing Christ’s love to our school families and helping them to get comfortable praying together. They are sharing their faith with friends and family, bringing apostles to Christ and setting hearts on fire with His love.  The school families are actively ‘Stirring into Flame the Gift of God’!  This is what our school is all about, bringing Christ to others and sharing the beauty of our Catholic faith with all we encounter. Our school is feeding the fire of our children’s faith and the Pilgrim Queen is fanning the flames!