CHILDREN’S DAILY PRAYER UNDER THE SOUTHERN CROSS takes its inspiration from an annual publication from the United States which many teachers discovered in the 1990’s. This book was entitled Children’s Daily Prayer (Chicago: Liturgy Training Publications).

In the attempts to use this book, difficulties emerged:

• The book was set up on a northern hemisphere school year and so there was a long gap in the middle of the year
• Some saints, ‘prophets and peacemakers’ were unknown to Australians
• The natural seasons occur at different times in the northern hemisphere and some of the language and artwork reflected that.

Emerging from this experience were many expressions of interest for a similar book for the southern hemisphere. In 1999, permission was generously granted by Liturgy Training Publications in Chicago to prepare an adaptation for this purpose and to insert days and feasts that were applicable to the southern hemisphere.

Much of the work remains the copyright of Liturgy Training Publications. Material that is specifically for Australia and New Zealand is copyrighted by the Sisters of the Good Samaritan.