I heard a couple speak last week about living the Year of Faith. Their history of being married for 30 years and raising the last three of their six boys made them the most qualified to speak on this topic.
What were my take away points? I asked myself for a narration of their 45 minute talk as I drove home with the baby....
The husband suggested that the living the faith was simple, simple, simple, but not easy. It requires virtue. Specifically developing habits. He suggested a book by David Issacs called Character Building. My husband and I hosted a book group with 4 other couples in our home on this book in 2004! I went back to my book journal to find some notes I had taken. (not one couple in the group had a teenage yet)
My notes from the book study say: We as parents must distinguish between what is important and what is unimportant. Small children need help to understand life's purpose and personal growth comes through effort. Clear explanations to children of all ages may help counteract negative influences in some instances. Extra effort is needed to help the shy or overly expressive child. Until the age of 7, children have difficulties differentiating between fiction and fact. In the teen years, there can be difficulty in distinguishing between people who have authority and exercise it; those who have authority and do not exercise it; and still more people who have no authority but are very capable of exercising influence.
I'm digging this book out to look at the virtues for 13+ now that I have older children!
One habit the wife suggested was attending daily Mass. I've tried this before. It's amazing. When my husband and I were dating, we would meet for 7am mass and then both go our separate ways to work. Perhaps my motivation then was seeing my husband rather than seeing Jesus (after all I wasn't Catholic, yet!). When I only had one child, we could have to travel about 10 minutes in the car to attend Mass. She developed a loving relationship with an older man who she adopted as another grandpa. (it was a win-win situation for her...Jesus and a grandpa)
Now we live three blocks from our church. Granted I have six kids, but we do love to attend Mass. We do not attend everyday, but we go once or twice during the week. Perhaps this talk is the encouragement I needed to add daily Mass again to our homeschooling routine.
Currently we read the Mass readings for the day when we can't make it to daily Mass. (Have you seen the wonderful app to find the readings for the Mass?) You can "borrow" a Missal from the church to keep on your dining room table, or order a monthly subscription that arrives at your house. When children are little, they can easily sit for 30 minutes! Daily mass is a great practice for sitting for an hour on Sunday.
Some people complain about the need for distracting a child during Mass. Distraction in that they mean the child needs to be quieted. I try to encourage my children to focus on the Mass as soon as they are sitting up. Most of my children have rung imaginary bells with the altar servers at the consecration.
I do bring religious books and a magna-doodle for my children two and under. Soft toys and rattles for the baby that are quiet. For the older children, they participate in the Mass by lectoring and serving. Those middle aged kids (3 to 8) are expected to participate as they are able. Perhaps saying the responses they know or standing and sitting when appropriate. It's sometimes more of a challenge when the older children aren't in the pew helping me with the littles, but I love to see them more actively involved in the Mass.
One book that I have found helpful in living the faith over the past 15 years is The Catholic Parent Book of Feasts: Celebrating the Church Year with Your Family. When I was a younger version of myself and learning the basics of the church year, this book helped me set up basic plans from month to month. It contains simple recipes, descriptions of saints and feast days, prayers and much more. This web site is extensive in giving ideas for celebrating feast days in your homes with food and fanfare.
We celebrate birthdays and baptismal feast days, name days and favorite saint days. We also give much attention to preparation times of the liturgical year (namely Lent and Advent). Each month has a focus as we live the liturgical year in our domestic church. (another post on this to come!)
Lastly I was encouraged by this couple, that their children who live away from home keep practicing the faith. It's one thing to live a a Christian life. It's even a better thing to see children who grew up in that home acknowledge the genuineness of that lived faith and choose to live it themselves. I'm praying my children carry their faith with them when they leave this domestic church. It's not just about living a Year of Faith, but simply making it a lifetime of faith.