Passing on Our Faith

Being a lifelong Catholic, I've gotten to experience a lot of things in my faith. I got to be one of the first girl altar servers at my parish. I've sung in the choir and folk group since I could open my mouth. I helped to teach younger kids in Sunday school when I was younger. I was able to take my faith with me to college. Now, I am living my faith, and my vocation, and trying to pass on the faith to our three kids. But what does that mean - passing on the faith? How do we successfully prepare our kids for the way the world views us as Catholics?

First, we need to take our children to Mass. Yes, they will make noise. Yes, they will shout things they shouldn't during the consecration. And yes, there will be those who will give you dirty looks or make comments because of all of this. Take your kids to Mass anyway. Christ said "Bring the children to me!" He doesn't want our kids in a daycare while we celebrate Mass. He wants them celebrating, learning the prayers, learning how to act, all during the Mass with us! Of course there are times we have to take our kids out of Mass to reset or to calm them down, but then we need to come back inside!

Secondly, we need to pray with them every day. We need to pray when we see something sad, we need to pray prayers of thanksgiving when something joyful occurs, we need to pray when everything is going just fine! And our kids need to see that side of us. Our kids need to see that we hold our rosary and we read our bibles. They need to know that Jesus isn't just in heaven, but He lives in us, through us, and with us in the Eucharist! Prayer is communication. Communication is how we grow in relationships. How can we have a relationship with Christ if we never communicate with Him? And without us modeling how to do the communicating, how will our children learn?

Thirdly, take the kids to holy places! Go to a local basilica or a shrine. This being the Year of Mercy, there are many parishes and basilica's participating in many different ways! There's still time to find a Holy Door and give your family the experience of that extra special grace and mercy! Many have Confession and Adoration, depending on the day you go. What a great thing to experience as a family! Of course we don't need a special reason to experience Confession as a family, but it is still a beautiful experience.

Our Catholic faith and our relationship with Jesus shouldn't start later in life. That would be like someone saying they don't want their child learning to sound out words or add and subtract until later. Without a solid foundation in learning, the learning is more difficult, harder to grasp, and overall, a frustrating experience. Without a solid start in faith, we often times don't know how to start to pray. We don't know how to start that conversation.
So please, allow your little ones to come to Jesus. Give them the gift of our beautiful faith and of our Lord and Savior.

Mary, Our Mother, Pray for Us!
Lord Jesus, have mercy on us!