As was mentioned last week, each new covenant of Holy Matrimony establishes another domestic church, a place where families can be nurtured in faith. Faith is not an activity only to be expressed at church, but is meant to be the air we breathe and the water we swim in. Last week, I wrote about the foundation of family prayer, when husband and wife pray together. Hopefully some of you took the opportunity to give it a try. It works wonders if you work it!

   Moving beyond the husband-wife relationship, prayer and the practice of the faith should also color the relationship of parents and children together. The Vatican II document on the Church has this to say about family faith: "The family is, so to speak, the domestic church. In it parents should, by their word and example, be the first preachers of the faith to their children” (Lumen Gentium 11). The example comes when kids see their parents praying, whether separately or even together. The word comes when parents teach their kids about the faith. You don’t need to have a degree in theology to know a few things about the liturgical seasons, the basic teachings of the Church, or the Ten Commandments. This is where resources like FORMED can help strengthen the entire family. Watching a faith-based movie or TV show instead of ordinary content can provoke interesting conversation and new realizations.

   Praying as a family before bed is another activity that can greatly increase family unity. The structure looks remarkably similar to couple prayer, but now you involve the kids at their own level of development. A 4-year old will not pray like a 12-year old because he/she doesn’t have the same language skills. But even a toddler can form a simple prayer like “God, thank you for this day, especially popsicles and bike rides. Amen.” If you got a toddler to make an act of thanksgiving to God every day, who knows what wonders would enfold!?!? Prayers of thanksgiving can be accompanied by prayers of contrition (“God, I’m sorry for X”) and prayers of intercession (“God, please help X with their Y”). Prayer time is a time to be with God and speak to Him from the heart, but it’s also a chance for each member of the family to hear what’s on our heart and be attentive to it in the next 24 hours. The key is repetition, and daily repetition very quickly forms good habits. Learning to sit still, to wait their turn, to grow in familiarity with prayer out loud, build potent habits that carry into other parts of life. If before bedtime doesn’t work for your family, pick another consistent time that works.

   To sum up: every family is called to a life of prayer and faith. Occasionally spending our family time engaging with something faith-based can unite a domestic church around something wholesome, while praying together as a family builds unity and attentiveness to the needs of others. Whether your family is large or small, old or young, conversation with God is a necessity to build your domestic church on solid rock!

   -Fr. Stephen