Bulletin Column: Family Life and Passing on the Faith, Part 4

Greetings in Christ on the Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time. In our continuing reflection on family catechesis, I would like to highlight the ideas we have touched on so far. First, we identified that parents are the primary educators of their children. This fundamental reality is rooted in God's plan for the family and has been the consistent teaching of both Scripture and Tradition, as well as the magisterium of the Church. Secondly, we considered the Church's understanding of education, which is oriented toward the whole person with the goal of helping our children to become fully mature disciples of Jesus Christ. There is no educational method that can offer more success in making disciples of our children than when parents are modeling discipleship as living witnesses of faith. Thirdly, we invited each person to consider their status as a disciple of Christ by reflecting on the precepts of the Church, along with interior and exterior habits and practices that can move us toward a fuller maturity in faith. Doing this can help God's people embrace their baptismal vocation as a disciple. Today's focus is on the living faith within families and the core practices that can move them closer to Christ.
 
First on any list of faith practices for families would be participation in the Sunday Eucharist and the frequenting of the sacrament of reconciliation. Recent studies done on the faith practices of adult Catholics reveal that roughly 30% attend Mass on a weekly basis. The research is even more startling for the sacrament of reconciliation, where we find that 14% go to confession once a year, 10% go a few times a year, and 2% go monthly. The sad reality is that the vast majority of adult Catholics in the United States today are not receiving the divine life of Christ in the Holy Eucharist or his mercy in the sacrament of Reconciliation. The consequences of adults not entering into the sacramental life of the Church are twofold. It prevents authentic discipleship from emerging in the life of adults and it sends the message that Christ is not the central focus of life to the children that surround them. When parents take the first step of teaching their children about the vital importance of the sacraments, through both their words and their practices, the other dimensions of the faith can naturally follow.
 
After the sacraments, families should strive to incorporate prayer into their everyday lives. This can take the form of simple prayers before meals and at bedtime or by gathering together as a family for Scripture reading, the rosary, or the Divine Mercy chaplet. It can also be a prayer of blessing over our children at the beginning of the day or before an important event. The message parents communicate by leading their families in prayer is that God is the most important part of our life, and we are placing our trust in him.

With sacraments and prayer in place, we should become more comfortable with the conversation of faith in our homes. Research indicates that the majority of Catholics rarely or never talk about God or the Faith outside of the confines of the Church. The conversation of faith and reflection on the things of God should be the common language of the disciple as the Holy Spirit's activity increases. Following the sacraments, prayer, and the conversation of faith, families should seek to serve others. Finding ways as a family to follow Christ's command to "love our neighbor as ourselves" is a transformative experience for both parents and children. Lastly, families should become more intentional about embracing the community of the baptized that God has placed in their lives. In my next article on December 10, we will take a closer look at the role of the parish community in the life of the family.

To be continued...