Talking To Your Child About Faith

Mom & Dad, the way you live has a big impact on me.  You are teaching me how to live whether you know it or not...

Sharing Our Stories

By Kaitlin Berger, Echo Apprentice

One of my most powerful faith experiences from my teenage years took place in the back of my family’s mini-van.  It was a simple prayer amidst the yelling that took place every Sunday on the way home from Mass.

After 7 years of Catholic school, a childhood of family prayers before bed, and weekly Sunday Mass with my family, I begged God to really reveal Himself to me.

I had been going through the ‘motions’  and hoping to feel something… That desperate cry to the Lord: “If you are really there, Show me!  I believe in You, but I want to KNOW You, Lord...” changed my life.

Weeks later the Lord revealed Himself to me through the Scripture at Mass.  It was as if He was speaking the words of the scripture to my heart.  As if when that scripture was written, it was for me, and the exact situation that I was in at the moment.   I was so overwhelmed with the Lord’s presence that I became warm and tearful.  This was just the beginning of my deeper relationship with the Lord.  I began to receive joy and peace in new ways.

Throughout my life my mom has shared some of her experiences of the Lord with me.  My mom is one of those people who desires to go to Mass and actually enjoys it!  When I saw people like her, I wanted what they had.  Finally, through this experience of the Lord, I had that desire to experience God in any way that I could.  Because my mom shared her stories with me, I believed that I could experience God too. Suddenly Mass seemed more meaningful, and so did my prayer-life. I share this story to encourage all of us in the following:

1. God does want to reveal Himself to us in very real ways,
2. As dysfunctional as any family or parish can be, the Holy Spirit still works through the imperfect.
3. LASTLY: One of the most powerful ways that we can share our faith and help others (especially our children) persevere in seeking God is through sharing our personal stories about how God has worked in our own lives.

REFLECTION Questions:

• How has God worked in my life?
• Where am I on my faith journey?
• Is there someone with which God wants me to share a personal faith-story?

Our Calling as Parents

"God's love is communicated to infants and young children primarily through parents." 

Parents are catechists precisely because they are parents.  Their roles in the formation of Christian values in their children is irreplaceable.  They "should speak naturally and simply about God and their faith, as they do about other matters they want their children to understand and appreciate.

Parents are also the most effective catechists of prayer for their young children.  They know what their children are capable of understanding and can easily teach their children basic prayer and the fundamental attitude of prayer.  By praying frequently with their children at special moments during the day and especially by praying with them at they Sunday Eucharist, parents introduce children into the prayer life of the Church. 

By incorporating prayer into everyday family experiences, parents teach their children by example.  Their witness encourages their children to call upon God as their Father who loves and protects them; to look to Jesus, their Savior and brother, who leads them to the Father; and to acknowledge the presence of the Holy Spirit, who dwells within their hearts. 

Children ordinarily enjoy listening to their parents read to them and tell them stories.  Reading stories from Sacred Scripture combines both these simple activities.  Just as children learn their family histories through stories told by their parents, they learn about the Catholic faith as their parents introduce them to the person of Jesus and the beauty of the word of God and tell them the story of Mary, the Mother of God, aswell as of the lives of the saints.

 -National Directory for Catechesis (48E)

Family Resources:

Faith at Home Discussion Guide for March 2012 Issue

Faith at Home Discussion Guide for February 2012 Issue

Parent's Handbook for Religious Education 2011/2012

Prayers by Grade Level

Praying as a Family

Family, Faith and Fun

A Call to Faith- More Actitivities