How We're Piecing Together the Ideal Religious Education for Our Children

I am a pastoral minister by profession. I have a degree in Theology, and I’m enraptured with all things related to Catholic doctrine and spirituality. At heart, I’m an evangelist, and therefore, my children’s formation is exceedingly important to me. I want them to know the faith, but more importantly, I want them to be disciples of Jesus Christ. I don’t want them to become a statistic.

I’m not going to sugar coat things. For the past 40+ years, the Catholic Church in America has been following a religious education model that is not as effective as it once was. The culture has shifted right out from under the feet of pastoral ministers working diligently to pass on the faith. Further, as Sherry Weddell says in her book, Forming Intentional Disciples, a majority of Catholics in our country have been sacramentalized, but not effectively evangelized.

The good news is that lately there have been many wonderful approaches rising in the realm of Catholic evangelization! It is an exciting time in the life of the American Church and, without a doubt, there is a renewal underway. Parishes that are centering in on traditional Christ-centered devotions, developing kerygma-based outreaches, and orthodox teaching are growing by leaps and bounds. However, my family lives in the boonies, our children go to public school, and some of these wonderful initiatives have not yet made their way to us.

So as a result, I have had to piece together my “ideal” formation for my children. We started by finding a parish we can call home. We have to drive an hour, but it’s a welcoming community with gentle clergy, a wonderful staff, good preaching, decent music, and with opportunities for children and adults to grow in their faith. With a deep sense of gratitude to the pastor and director of religious education, I’m excited to have the opportunity of homeschooling our children in religious education. We are by no means perfect, but we’re trying.

Here are ten things we do:

1. First and foremost, Mass is a priority. If we do nothing else, we get to Mass. Our worship, church and sanctuary is our classroom; we study the stained glass windows and talk about what they mean. We look at the Tabernacle, the altar, the crucifix, the baptismal font, the ambry, the liturgical colors, the candles, the credence table, etc. and we discuss why they exist and how they relate to Jesus’ love for them. The sacraments are encounters with their Savior. We teach them reverence through gestures and focus on the reality that the Eucharist is really Jesus.

2. We have a lot of philosophical conversations. Beginning when they were old enough to understand me, I started telling them, “God made you. He has a plan for you. I don’t know what it is, but if you stay close to Him, He will reveal it to you and you will have joy.” We talk about “the culture;” faith, science and reason; the appropriateness of songs on the radio and shows on TV; goings on in society; we weigh the good and the bad; and we talk about boundaries and making choices. We are not perfect; we say “I’m sorry” a lot.

3. Each week, we hone in on the weekend’s readings, in particular the Gospel. My husband likes to sit my boys down and read the Word Among Us with them. (It actually has good commentary, even for children as young as 7) and then they discuss it further about how to apply it in real life.

4. Our parish uses the Pflaum Gospel Weeklies, and I review them and mark what content I want them to read. Some of the content is better suited to a traditional religious education classroom environment, so I have them focus in on whatever doctrinal substance is there. For their confirmation prep program, the parish uses Chosen, which is fantastic!

5. We supplement with various resources. We use FORMED and free resources from Dynamic Catholic, such as “Decision Point,” as well as daily devotionals. The older kids like the saint movies put out by Ignatius. The little ones like a DVD series called “What’s in the Bible,” which is put out by the same folks who do VeggieTales. I was pleased to see how respectfully the “What’s in the Bible” series handles Catholic doctrine when it comes to the Bible; they even include vignettes about Catholic saints, such as St. Clare! As for the daily devotionals, we like Blessings Every Day: 365 Simple Devotions for the Very Young by Carla Barnhill and Grace for the Moment: 365 Devotions for Kids by Max Lucado. We try to read one every day at mealtime.

6. We send our older children to Camp Veritas. In my opinion, this week-long immersion in authentic Catholic culture teaches them more than an entire year of religious education classes. The kids have a BLAST doing traditional camp stuff, but there’s also solid talks, the presence of joy-filled clergy and religious, Mass, Liturgy of the Hours, and Adoration every day. Enough said.

7. We send the little ones to Vacation Bible School. Our parish has a fantastic program, but it’s a little far to drive, so we take part in a local one. The older kids volunteer, and the little ones absolutely love it, especially the music CD that comes with it!

8. We hang out with Catholic friends. I lead a women’s Bible Study, and often times they bring their children along. The kids play together while we study. We also hang out with priests and religious, who are kind, loving and fun to be around. We hope these friendships will counter all of the ignorant bigotry against priests, religious, and Catholicism the children will no doubt encounter as they go out into the world.

9. We hang out with our evangelical friends. We have an amazing, faith-filled group of evangelical friends who have a Friday Fellowship open to all congregations. They are beautiful, prayerful people who truly model discipleship, and it’s a way for my children to form faith friendships with kids who take it seriously. They are very respectful to people of all denominations. The fellowship consists of dinner, praise and worship time, and then everyone breaks out for some kind of Bible study. The teens do their thing, the little ones go upstairs for a fun-filled Bible lesson (think “Vacation Bible School”) and the adults stay back to hear a talk. What I like about their teaching approach is:

• It is developmentally appropriate and child-centered. They focus on ONE, basic theological truth at a time and convey it through storytelling, namely, through Biblical stories.
• The children begin to incorporate the story of salvation history into their mental and spiritual framework well by getting to know Biblical figures personally.
• Those memory verses come in handy when it comes to life application. Each week when the kids pray that the Word be “in my mind, on my lips and in my heart” at Mass, they are ever more equipped.

10. We pray as a family. Before they leave for school every day, we gather at the door (yes, usually in a huge stressful rush) and ask for God’s blessing and strength for the day to be “good disciples.” At night, we pray at dinner and lift up the contents of our “prayer jar” filled with a gazillion prayer requests from people all over the country.
In essence, whatever opportunity presents itself for us to immerse our children in Christianity, we do it. It has taken some creativity, but then again…we, as parents, have the first responsibility for the education of our children.

*FYI, if you’re a parent seeking faith-based resources, we created a Facebook group called, “Tri-State Catholic Family Resources,” a forum for parents interested in sharing resources for nurturing the Christian Faith in the lives of their family and children. It’s a closed group, but feel free to contact us for information.