A Children's Rosary group at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in West Hartford recites the rosary while holding roses recently. A description of the use of flowers appears in Blythe Kaufman's Book Children's Rosary. (Photo submitted)

WEST HARTFORD – The Children’s Rosary organization has dedicated this Year of Faith to renewing family prayer.

The group, created by Dr. Blythe Kaufman, mother of three and a member of St. Thomas the Apostle Parish, has helped establish Children’s Rosary prayer groups across the country.

"Our children have an enormous capacity for spirituality and a deep relationship with our Lord and his mother," said Dr. Kaufman. "The Children’s Rosary is a means for parents to expose their children to prayer at an early age and develop faith steeped in the tradition of the Catholic Church."

Volunteers prepare sandwiches for the homeless (CNS photo/Peggy Weber, The Catholic Observer)

NEW HAVEN – They hide in the steel-and-concrete underbellies of bridges. They hunker under stairways in tumbledown buildings. They shiver in shadowed alleyways. And for 24 years, Michael Guidone and his band of helpers have been finding them, feeding them, clothing them, helping them come back to some better kind of life.

In 1989, Mr. Guidone started what later became known as the Midnight Sandwich Run, an attempt to locate and feed homeless people in the New Haven area. The effort found traction, and it is now financed in part by donations to the Archbishop’s Annual Appeal through St. Elizabeth Parish in Branford, which uses an allotment of appeal money under the Vicariate Outreach Program.

SIMSBURY – Can it be proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the Shroud of Turin is the cloth that was wrapped around the body of Jesus when he was crucified 2,000 years ago? No.

But is there a plethora of evidence that strongly suggests that it is what believers claim it is? Yes.

That was the premise behind a two-hour presentation called "Shroud Encounter" on March 10 at St. Catherine of Siena Parish. The slide lecture was conducted by international shroud expert Russ Breault, founder of the Georgia-based Shroud of Turin Education Project Inc. He has lectured on the topic for 25 years.

Focusing on scientific, historic, liturgical, cultural and other evidence, he led an audience of 700 people through the story of the shroud. The 14-foot-long single piece of woven cloth resides behind bullet-proof glass at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Turin, Italy.

Dan Perrotto and his wife Angie with bicycles (Photo by Mary Chalupsky)

NORTH HAVEN – Dan Perrotto has given away nearly 1,900 bikes to kids over the past 17 years. And every time he thinks about stopping, he changes his mind.

"My mother had a saying, ‘You have to give back. When you get, you give,’" he said. And those words have become the driving force that has guided him throughout his life.

"I’ve been blessed with a good family … good parents, a great wife, two daughters and four grandchildren," said the retired Yale University maintenance worker.

"This is something I always wanted to do," he said. "I always had dreams of helping kids, from supporting Toys for Tots to things I did with my own kids."

It all began when he decided to buy a bike for a neighborhood boy who lost his father at Christmas time.  After buying a bike to console the boy, his passion to do the same for others ignited.