Six couples of St. Boniface Church and their 14 children, with friends and visitors, gather one Saturday night each month for prayer, meditation, sharing and service. The results are enhanced prayer life at home and warm social bonds in the parish.FORT SMITH — Potluck and prayer brings families together.
When Linda and Kenny Kaelin, parishioners from St. Boniface Church in Fort Smith, visited their friends, Norm and Amy Frische, who moved to Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish in Bethalto, Ill., they attended a Family Rosary Night at the Frische home.
Norm Frische told them, “I think this is a good ministry for you to bring back to St. Boniface. It brings you closer to the people you go to church with and brings families closer.”
When the Kaelins returned home to Fort Smith, they suggested it to five other couples — John and Denise Smith, Mike and Janice Locknar, Art and Pam Gramlich, Ken and Lisa Bobel, and David and Cindy Foss. When the group learned the Frisches had started a Family Rosary Night in Bethalto, they knew that they wanted to participate in the Kaelin’s group.
“The Frisches are unbelievable people. Whatever they start gets imitated,” Lisa Bobel said. “And when they come back to St. Boniface Church to visit, hundreds of people want to see them.”
The six couples and their 14 children began meeting one Saturday night a month in 2000. They are still praying together monthly and have realized many blessings in their lives through the power of prayer.
All of the children participate in their own way. Katherine Kaelin, the youngest at three, sits by her dollhouse holding the child-sized wooden rosary she’d received as an infant, eventually lending it to Art Gramlich for a grownup one.
Katie Gramlich, 10, and Eric Locknar, 13, take turns reading the meditation before each mystery and leading the group in the Our Father.
High school senior Jordan Smith and his girlfriend Rebecca Velez sing a duet, “On Eagle’s Wings,” when the rosary is finished. Everyone participates in listing intentions.
“Sometimes that’s the first clue we get about our children’s concerns,” Pam Gramlich said.
Several children have made rosaries as gifts for their parents. Eric Locknar made his mother a rosary from Job’s Tears, a pearly gray teardrop-shaped seed that grew in his grandma’s garden.
“None of our kids ever say, ’Do we have to go to Rosary Night?’ Denise Smith said. “They invite their friends and don’t mind at all.”
“All 14 kids treat each other like brothers and sisters,” Pam Gramlich added. “They watch out for each other and help one another adjust when they move up to new schools.”
Sometimes the group finds opportunities for community service while they are at prayer.
“After one Rosary Night several members decided to begin serving a special meal to teenagers in the Sebastian County Juvenile Detention Center on the first Friday of every month,” Lisa Bobel said. “And at our last meeting, our older children decided to stuff eggs for St. Boniface Church’s Easter Egg Hunt.”
The monthly meeting has influenced their prayer life at home.
“And it’s affected the way I feel about praying the rosary, ” Pam Gramlich said.
In between shooting hoops, playing on the computer or watching sports on TV, the children shared what Family Rosary Night meant to them.
Twelve-year-old Zach Gramlich, said, “It’s a good time. It’s fun. It’s a big social event and we get to pray the rosary, so it’s serious at some point.”
Eric Locknar said he likes “seeing all my friends, eating and praying for one another.”
Katie Gramlich said, “I like to pray the rosary and to pray for our troops overseas.”
The Family Rosary Night frequently has visitors.
“Everyone is welcome to visit,” Linda Kaelin said. “This is an open group. And we think it would be great if other groups of families gathered together for Rosary Nights in Fort Smith and the rest of the diocese.”
