In the past my husband and I have attended homeschooling conferences, lectures and gatherings. We've been lectured on what curriculum to buy, how to laugh at ourselves, the best way to teach boys and so on. But the last event we attended shot right to my core.
Locally, there are no specifically Catholic homeschool conferences for educating mothers and fathers. So we attended a Christian event which tends heavy on Protestant themes. As a convert, it isn't too difficult for me to translate. I take what is helpful and leave what is not. I wish there was a way for me to help make it more ecumenical.
So the session that got me this year was a Protestant pastors talk. I actually realized I was sitting in the wrong session after he had begun. His session was called "Family worship". It was all about the importance of praying together as a family. But I felt called to stay in the room, so I did.
This pastor said that most families in American are not saying meal prayers together, let alone having a family prayer time together. Woah. Really?
But then he broke it down. Most families are so busy getting to soccer and doing homework and whatever else that they don't even eat a meal around a table together.
What a different way to live! In this house we tend to eat the evening meal together all of us and the other two meals have a majority of us around the table! We pray together before the evening meal.
But I was challenged to think...
Do we say a thanksgiving prayer before every meal? Before each snack? Do we say a prayer when we are finished eating? I found this simple guide of meal prayers.
What if we already pray meal prayers? Can we do more?
Could we add more prayer throughout the day with our children?
Several years ago during Lent, we made a habit of praying the Angelus at noon. Another year we focused on the Morning Offering. But these prayer moments were just the children and I that were home during the day. As part of our homeschooling, we read the Bible and do a Lectio Divina in the mornings. Would a habit of praying in the evening more intentionally be a good thing?
My husband and I listened to what the Protestant pastor was encouraging homeschoolers to do. I thought perhaps we as Catholics needed this encouragement too.
Are we pausing to take some time to pray each day as a family? It doesn't need to be a whole Rosary. It can begin small and be appropriate to the day and the needs of the family. But there is no reason we can't carve out some time in our busy modern life to pray together.
We say that we are Christians. But we people look as us, would they know that we are? Does our home reflect that we are praying people? If Jesus stopped in our home, would He find us faithful?
I hear from the pulpit that we are to get ourselves right with God (accept him into our lives, get to confession, etc) and then we are to go out and preach the good news to others. Perhaps there is a middle piece we forget? We forget that those who need Christ the most are right in our own homes. We need to be nurturing that relationship with God under our own roof! When we skip right from self to world, we leave a whole family that needs to be encouraged in the faith.
We have a designated prayer area in our home. I was pleased to hear the pastor make this as a suggestion for families!
He also encouraged the use of a catechism to use and drill your children. Hmmm. Not a problem. We use the Catechism of the Catholic Church in our homeschool. But perhaps we could use it for dad to train the children in the evening during our family prayer time?
So how about you? Do you have family meal prayers? Do you have an evening prayer time as a family? Or a morning prayer time? Do you have a designated area for prayer?