Three Ways To Nurture Your Catholic Faith in Your Children

In this day and age of technology and instant access, there is much to compete with in our children's lives. It can be more than difficult to connect and create strong enough bonds to our faith and family without added distractions. I truly believe that knowledge is power and understanding your obstacles is the best way to create a plan to succeed in any endeavor.

The endeavor that is most important to me right now is helping to cultivate a love for God, family and the Catholic Church in my children. This has been a topic of interest for me for quite awhile actually. I am a cradle Catholic. Born and raised to go to Confession on Saturday afternoon, attend Mass on Sunday mornings and participate in Catechism classes and Youth groups as needed. That was the recipe to create a love for my Catholic faith. I am not knocking this recipe because obviously something went right. I am now thirty years old, still Catholic and attempting to nourish a faith in my own children and family. I am here to share what I have learned through many trials, more errors and things that I still do today.

Find a Parish to call Home

This is probably one of the most important things you can do to establish a real relationship with your children and their faith. A Parish is not just the church you attend on Sundays or other Holy days of Obligation. A Parish is a second family. They will be present for some of the biggest milestones and memories of your family! Baptisms, First Communion, First Reconciliation, Confirmation, Marriage and even funerals. They will be there when you need help, whether prayers or other types of assistance.

Create relationships with the people sitting with you in the pews and go say hello to your priest. My children have always been enamored by the priests of our parish. They love to give hugs, high-fives and always smile when they see people from our parish around town. My oldest son's teacher is even in attendance at our parish!

Another important aspect of being in a Parish is participation. Sign up to attend bible studies and other Parish hosted events as a family. Allow your children to make friends with kids at Religious Education and youth groups. Embrace what your Parish can offer your family but remember that it is also important to volunteer and give back as well. 

Decorate Your Catholic Home 

As a child, I remember the beautiful gold display that had the Ten Commandments engraved above my dining room table. The nostalgia of childhood rings so strong when you become an adult. Bring your faith into your home and allow it to have a place in your everyday life, not just Sunday worship.

The Liturgical season is full of distinct colors, sounds and beautiful scenes that can be displayed in your home. Add Holy Water Fonts, Crucifixes and display portraits of Our Lady and the Holy Family. I have incorporated a Home Altar that we update with the Liturgical colors, special Saints of the season, candles and rosaries.

The more these special reminders of our Catholic faith become apart of your families everyday life, the harder it will be for your children to go out into the world without them. These additions to your home can also be passed along to your family as they grow. There was a gorgeous statue of Mother Mary that was my Grandmother Mary's that my dad gave to me when I had children. It was something that I was able to bring with me from my childhood and I hope to pass along to my children one day as well.

Create Happy Memories and Traditions

This suggestion is probably the most important. Creating memories that are warm, happy and include our faith will be what our children think about in times of turmoil. The Liturgical year makes this super easy! Celebrate anniversaries of your children's Sacraments and Saint's feast days. Make new traditions with baking special dinners or desserts on certain days. There are several Liturgical seasons to embrace and each month is dedicated to a special devotion too. I include those days on our family calendar so everyone can see it. My children have started to remind me about certain activities or movies we are suppose to watch on certain feast days now! We incorporate special blessings and prayers. Create candles, crafts and so much more. Make the Catholic faith come to life.

If you need some ideas for ways to incorporate faith into your everyday activities, check out some of my ideas under the Liturgical Celebrations tab. Let your creativity free! You will be creating memories for yourself and your children! The positive association between happiness, love and faith will be something that your family can tangibly look back on as they grow older and venture into the world. My favorite thing about my faith is that we Catholics know how to celebrate! We do have many traditional ways you can incorporate but do not let that interfere with trying out some new family traditions that will be passed on to your children's children.

Interested in more ideas to keep your children Catholic? Checkout this month's CWBN Blog Hop with several articles written on this very intriguing and important topic. Several of my friend's from Everyday Ediths are contributing to this Blog Hop as well.

My Experience: A Walk in Her Sandals

I was blessed to receive a copy of A Walk in Her Sandals: Experiencing Christ's Passion through the Eyes of Women in exchange for my honest reaction and review.

As the month of January comes to a close, I have been contemplating some resolutions I made for myself this year. Reading more, creating fellowship through my parish and striving to improve my relationship with God were among these resolutions. I came across a book that touched all areas that were important to me and I am happy and honored to share what I have learned in hopes that you will take the chance of reading and sharing your experience as well. This book is a special devotion created especially for women to follow through the Lenten season.

Christ's Passion has always been an emotional topic for me. In high school I participated in a Youth Group that hosted the Stations of the Cross during Lent and no matter what I did, I would weep as I read the station I was assigned to share. As a women, I often hear the words empathetic, loving and emotional as a description of my experiences in life. Sometimes it can seem as if these words are thrown at us in a negative manner but I am here to tell you that they are special qualities that we, as women, have been blessed with by God. A Walk in Her Sandals not only explains these amazing gifts in descriptive detail but will make you proud to embrace these qualities while opening your eyes to a new perception of our Savior's Passion that will touch your heart in a very unique way.

Suffering is a part of life. It will touch every person on this earth at some point, multiple times throughout their life. Men and women experience and deal with pain and suffering in different ways, it is how God created us. The Passion of Jesus is an experience of suffering and pain that is so deeply touching that it can reach anyone receptive to its true message on some level. It reveals itself to us in our own sufferings as daughters, mothers and women. It is time for us to come together in a fellowship of womanhood and embrace each other as we grow in faith by sharing our stories of suffering, love and enlightenment. 

This book is not just a book, it is an adventure. An adventure that you can chose to take alone or in the sweet embrace of a group.On this adventure, you will be introduced to Anah, Huldah, Miriam, Veronica, and Zilpah and experience these special women and their encounters with Jesus. There are special, intimate stories shared from the author and a deep look into the scripture. As if these inspiring factors weren't enough, there are Questions for Group Discussion that you could discuss with a group or answer within your prayer journal.

I honestly felt a change within me while I read this book each evening and I am looking forward to opening this book again during the Lenten Season. I was amazed by the perception and detail and of the stories and I am not afraid to admit that I cried through every chapter. I cried tears of love, joy and understanding and loved every minute of it.

I am often guilty of losing focus of myself, as most women are, and focusing on my children and husband most of the time. Use this Lenten season to grow your faith with this truly amazing book. I would love to hear about your experience as you start your adventure too.

Interested in learning more? I am working with some extraordinary women that took on this book and all the touching stories are being shared at the CWBN Blog Hop. Make sure to hop over and see what other women learned during their reflections.

Start planning how to host your own Lenten Book Club or join Between the Wines: Lenten Book Club hosted on WINE (Women in the New Evangelization) online featuring Walk in Her Sandals. Since I completed this book alone the first time, I am looking forward to starting a book club or joining one for my second experience.

Keeping Christ in Christmas and {GIVEAWAY}

Over the years , the Advent and Christmas seasons have somehow lost their uniqueness and their TRUE meanings. Advent is the four weeks prior to Christmas and is meant to be a time to prepare or the coming of Christ. It is a time of anticipation and longing. This is when we clean our homes, eliminate clutter and decorate. We begin cooking special treats that will be shared during the Christmas season. If you are still searching for some ideas on how to make your Advent season more Holy check out my entire Advent series below:

How to Prepare for a Holy Advent Series: Part 1

How to Prepare for a Holy Advent Series: Part 2

How to Prepare for a Holy Advent Series: Part 3

How to Prepare for a Holy Advent Series: Part 4

Now, Christmas is the season following Advent and is so much more than one day of unwrapping presents. The Christmas season is actually much longer and means so much more! The official end to Christmas ends with the feast of the Baptism of Our Lord. Why are we in such a hurry to finish celebrating the birth of our Savior? I am going to share some ideas that will help you recenter the focus of your Christmas season.

Christmas Day: December 25th

The most important thing to remember today is that we are celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. It is his birthday! If you take a look at all the family traditions you have on this special day from the perspective of you celebrating baby Jesus's birthday, everything will become more meaningful. Those presents under your tree are not just presents, but gifts that Jesus wants you to use to spread joy and love because he is the light of the world. Another easy and simple way to make today about Jesus is to bake him a Birthday Cake! You could even top them with candles: one for each family member, or even put the year written out with number candles. Today is also the day we light our Christ Candles. If you have a nativity displayed, now would be a perfect time to start moving the wise men a little closer to the Nativity each day, until they arrive on the Epiphany, also known as Three Kings Day.

Feast of Holy Innocents: December 28th

The feast of Holy Innocents is celebrated in remembrance of all the babies that were martyred while King Herod was searching for the baby Jesus. Today is also known as the youngest day. It is traditional to allow the youngest child to dictate the day and to celebrate with special treats that are white and red. White represents the purity of the innocent children and red represents their blood that was shed. Start a new tradition of blessing your children before bed with holy water each night. I know my boys love it! 

O Lord, omnipotent Father, we give you thanks for having given us children. They are our joy, and we accept with serenity the worries, fear and labors which bring us pain. Help us to love them sincerely. Through us you gave life to them; from eternity you knew them and loved them. Give us wisdom to guide them, patience to teach them, vigilance to accustom them to the good through our example.

Support our love so that we may receive them back when they have strayed and make them good. It is often so difficult to understand them, to be as they would want us to be, to help them to go on their way. Grant that they may always see our home as a haven in their time of need. Teach us and help us, O good Father, through the merits of Jesus, your Son and our Lord. Amen.

Feast of the Holy Family: December 30th

The Feast of the Holy Family is not just about the Holy Family, but about our own families too. The main purpose of the Feast is to present the Holy Family as the model for all Christian families, and for domestic life in general. This is a day to celebrate the "domestic church" within your home.

O most loving Jesus, Who by Thy sublime and beautiful virtues of humility, obedience, poverty, modesty, charity, patience and gentleness, and by the example of Thy domestic life, didst bless with peace and happiness the family Thou didst choose on earth, in Thy clemency look down upon this household, humbly prostrate before Thee and imploring Thy mercy. Remember that this family belongs to Thee; for to Thee we have in a special way dedicated and devoted ourselves. Look upon us in Thy loving kindness; preserve us from danger; give us help in time of need, and grant us the grace to persevere to the end in the imitation of Thy Holy Family; that having revered Thee and loved Thee faithfully on earth, we may bless and praise Thee eternally in heaven.

O Mary, most sweet Mother, to thy intercession we have recourse, knowing that thy Divine Son will hear thy prayers.

And do thou, O glorious Patriarch, St. Joseph, assist us by thy powerful mediation, and offer, by the hands of Mary, our prayers to Jesus. Amen.

Feast of Mary, Mother of God: January 1st

This is the first Holy Day of Obligation for the New Year. It's fitting that it is the first day of the New Year as well. Calling Mary "mother of God" is the highest honor we can give Mary. Just as Christmas honors Jesus as the "Prince of Peace," the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God honors Mary as the "Queen of Peace" This solemnity is also designated the World Day of Peace.

Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus: January 3rd

Today we celebrate Jesus being named. It is after his circumcision and in honor of Mary fulfilling what the angel foretold. 

Feast of the Epiphany: January 8th

Today is known as the day the three wise men came to see the new born king. It is known as the Epiphany and Three Kings Day. It is traditional to have a celebration on this day that includes enjoying a King Cake and blessing your home with blessed chalk. On your home paint the letters "20+C+M+B+17" which are for the Latin Christus Mansionem Benedicat (Christ bless this house). At the same time the letters are the first letters of the names of the wise men: Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar. 

Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord: January 9th

This is the "official" end of the Christmas season and is time to remove the Christmas decorations. It is custom if you have a real Christmas tree to celebrate the end of this magical season with a bonfire. Celebrate a renewal of your own Baptismal vows and finish off your Christmas treats today.

In addition to these special feast days and their traditions, remember to keep Christ in Christmas by sending Christmas Cards, singing Christmas Carols, plan a Twelfth Night party! I came across this neat resource called Why Christmas? and it has many online games including build your own nativity and build your own wisemen! Want to see more? Make sure to come back and see how I celebrate with my family throughout the Christmas season.

I am sharing this post with the CWBN Blog Hop. The hoppers participating here - affectionately calling ourselves the Siena Sisters* -- will post on the 3rd Tuesday of each month. The posts go live at the same time; and are all linked to this central landing page; allowing for easier visiting between blogs. We hope you will read many of them; as well as comment on the posts, and share them on social media.

In honor of Keeping Christ in Christmas I am running my first ever Giveaway thanks to the amazingly talented Jen from Faith and Fabric! The winner will get to pick one of the beautiful metal cuff bracelets stamped with "Pinot Noir and Prayers". Good Luck!

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