21st December 2024

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Faith and The Child

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10 Ways to Help your Child or Grandchild Grow in Faith

10 Ways

1.  Create a Prayer Place in your child’s bedroom

Done with gentleness and creativity this can offer a quiet place for prayer, and can include supports like a holy book, picture or crucifix.

10 Ways

2.  Pray Grace before and/or after meals.

This reminds children to appreciate and to be thankful.

10 Ways

3.  Make the Sign of the Cross when you pass the Church.

The Blessed Sacrament, the Body of Christ, consecrated by God with the help of the priest at Holy Mass, is present in the tabernacle in the Church. Inside the Church we also genuflect for the same reason.

    10 Ways

    4.  Visit your family grave and pray for people who have died.

    This reminds us all that we pass through this life as pilgrims and that our deceased loved ones, having already done so, now enjoy a glorious, new everlasting life with the Lord.

    10 Ways

    5.  Place a Holy Water Font at the front door and bless yourself as you leave the house (and keep it topped up with Holy Water, available free in the Church).

    This reminds us to be thankful to God for His many blessings and to ask Him to keep us safe from all evil or accident when we are out and about.

    10 Ways

    6.  Say Morning and/or Night Prayers.

    This reminds us that Jesus Christ is with us first and last each day and it helps us to be open to His gentle voice all day long.

     

    10 Ways

    7.  Visit the Church at a quiet time (normally open until 3.00 pm on weekdays with access via the Parish Office) and chat to your child about what they see.

    We all need quiet time-outs. Learning to be at ease inside a church can be very helpful for prayer and especially for whenever we have to face the inevitable hard times in life.

     

    10 Ways

    8.  Read a story with your child and emphasise the Christian values found in it.

    In a world where media often suggests that there is no real truth and that our comfort is all that has value, reading a good story with your child can show that we are ‘called to greatness, not just to comfort’ (Pope Benedict XVI) reinforcing children’s idealism, altruism and appreciation of heroism.

    10 Ways

    9.  Do acts of kindness with your child.

    We all learn best by ‘doing’ and to be real our Christin faith must be expressed in continuous acts of kindness, as much for our own sake as for the sake of those we help, so our children can benefit from this both ways.

    10 Ways

    10.  Visit a religious site or a place that is religiously significant for your family.

    True religion is really about being conscious of our deep connectedness to God for whom ‘our hearts are made’. These visits remind us that today peace, happiness, effectiveness, and growth depend as much on our relationship with God as they did on the ‘faith of our fathers’ in the past.

    Children’s Morning Prayer

    For rest and shelter of the night,
    For this new morning with its light,
    For health and food, for love and friends.
    For everything your goodness sends,
    We thank you, dearest Lord. Amen!

    Children’s Night Prayer

    Bless me, Lord, as this day ends,
    Bless my family and friends,
    Keep me safe throughout the night,
    and wake me with the morning’s light
    Amen!

    Grownups’ Prayer

    Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.
    Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
    where there is injury, pardon;
    where there is doubt, faith;
    where there is despair, hope;
    where there is darkness, light;
    where there is sadness, joy.
    O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love; for it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.