Goal
This intergenerational faith event will foster community across generations in your parish by bringing people of all ages together to grow in their understanding of Mary and deepen their love for her.

Overview
Mary has a unique and privileged place in salvation history and in the Church. Use the materials on this Web site to create an enjoyable and meaningful learning opportunity centered on Mary. It's a great way to involve people who may not always participate in parish activities. Parishioners of all ages can make a valuable contribution to the parish catechetical mission by participating in and assisting with this event.
 

This hour-long intergenerational event has three parts. Open your parish event with a presentation on the basic teachings and traditions of the Church with regard to Mary, including Marian doctrine, devotions, and prayers. At the end of the presentation, distribute Take-Home Kits filled with resources that families can use to deepen their knowledge of Mary.
 

The presentation is followed by hands-on learning and community-building opportunities for families. In these activity centers, families will make rosaries, create a family prayer banner devoted to Mary, and learn the story of Mary's life through a story wall. The event concludes with a short prayer service.
 

The presentation is approximately 15 minutes long. Allow 40 minutes for the activities, and close with a five-minute prayer service. The Event Index at the end of this page has links that will take you to the downloads and printable instructions for each part of this event.
 

Getting Started
To make organizing your parish event easier, we have put together a preparation timeline. This printable Web page will also help you determine the number of volunteers you will need. To help you publicize the event, we have provided a suggested bulletin article and two versions of a flier: one editable Microsoft Word document and one printable PDF.

Web Resources
For more information and some free resources on Mary, go to www.ChristOurLife.org/Mary or www.FindingGod.org/Mary

Take Pictures!
Photos of the event can be included in your parish bulletin, posted in your parish hall, or uploaded to your parish Web site. Share your favorite pictures with Loyola Press by sending photos (or the URL for your parish Web site) to maryevent@loyolapress.com.

Refreshments
Be sure to provide snacks and drinks for all participants. The snacks can be a simple or as fancy as you would like: cupcakes with blue frosting, sugar cookies with a cursive M written on them in icing, or even little baggies of M&M's candies! Provide coffee or tea for adults and water or juice for the children.

Resources to Download
The Event Index below provides links to the online instructions for each part of the event. This chart also indexes all of the handouts, leader guides and other documents available to download. You can download each resource individually, or if you prefer, download all presentation and handout materials at once to create a master packet. This is a large file and may take a few minutes to download, depending on your internet connection speed.

There are a number of handouts, leader guides and other documents for this event. To make organizing them easier, we have included a printable Index of Downloads. This index tells you which resources go with which part of the event, how many pages long each one is, and how many copies you will need.