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TryingMyBest
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| Posted: Aug 30 2013 at 11:44am | IP Logged
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I always say I'm not a pious person. I'm not comfortable, at all, talking about faith. I was raised by Catholic converts who didn't get the saints or the BVM and it wasn't taught very much in CCD either (1970's and 1980's CCD was pretty awful).
I want to raise our daughter to grow up loving the Saints and Our Lady but I struggle with how to teach her to do that. Maybe "teach" isn't the right word here since these things have to be internalized.
I'm comfortable talking about God, for the most part. Although it took effort for me to verbalize those things to my daughter.
We talk about the feast days and do the prayers. I remind DD to say good night to her Guardian Angel, patron saint and Our Lady. But I know I'm missing that kind of old fashioned fashioned piety that one sees in the pre-VII books (I've been collecting old 1940's and 1950's readers and other books for kids).
How do you do this when you struggle with it yourself?
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JennGM
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| Posted: Aug 30 2013 at 12:34pm | IP Logged
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This is hard, I agree. I'm not really emotive when it comes to my devotions. The purpose here is to have your daughter turn to Our Lady as she would to her own mother.
It does take some adjusting in your language. It helps me to do discursive meditation which is a big term for a simple idea of "putting yourself in the scene."
St. Josemaria has beautiful rosary meditations which do just that. You can read them online.
And the other thought is just trying to have the presence of God in mind at all times. Very hard, but that's the goal. There are examples throughout the day that can show your daughter that we are thinking of the spiritual world, that THAT is more real than our physical reality.
Examples would be prayer through the day, Angelus, blessings before and after meals, morning offering, night prayers. Before you teach rote prayer, have them come from the heart. Discuss why we do these prayers who are we talking and thanking and petitioning?
Then spontaneous prayers, like praying to Our Lady when we see an ambulance or Fire engines, praying the Eternal rest prayer when we pass the graveyard, making the sign of cross and a little spiritual communion when we pass the church, or even better, make a short visit to Jesus our Friend, asking our Guardian angel for help with a parking space or traffic jams to get on time, asking St. Anthony for help to find something, asking St. Joseph to help your husband in doing fix-it jobs. Talk about Our Lady washing clothes for St. Joseph and Jesus when you do your laundry.
These are all said aloud. This is your web of your days.
And then, read saints stories. This is just one of the most key tools you can have. At least from my personal experience with myself, and now with my boys, after starting young, they want to hear more. They choose to read more, read longer and deeper.
I have the liturgical calendar hanging on the wall, and the rhythm of the day is to check what feast and season it is, listen to the Mass readings of the day, and look up for further reading on the saint of the day, and look at images. Discussion ensues, and it's beautiful.
Those are my back of the envelope notes. I hope that helps a bit.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Aagot
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| Posted: Aug 30 2013 at 12:55pm | IP Logged
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Do you have Treasure box books? I know they are crazy expensive but they are so good at instilling a love for guardian angels, Mary , Jesus etc. I have such fond memories of these stories when I was little and I remember having a very real relationship with my guardian angel.
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ekbell
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| Posted: Sept 25 2013 at 9:03pm | IP Logged
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If you can't think of your own words, stories are invaluable and a picture is worth a thousand words.
There are oodles of statues, icons, artwork, coloring pages, crafts etc. etc. available for free or at a reasonable price.
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: Sept 26 2013 at 7:08am | IP Logged
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The book Leading Little Ones to Mary is a series of talks for children meant to instill devotion to our Lady. I paraphrase a lot while using it (and it is really written more as a guide rather than a read aloud), but even if you do not use it in full, it might give you some ideas for how to speak of devotion to Mary to children.
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Lindsay
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TryingMyBest
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Update on this one. I bought Mary My Mother by Fr. Lovasik for DD and starting last week, she's wanted to have it read to her every day. Sometimes several times a day. For the last few days, DD has been playing "Mary" based on this book. Today she insisted on bringing Mary from her play Nativity Set to the grocery store and put it in the cart. In the produce section DD shouted "I want the Mother of God!" 
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SallyT
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That made my day.
I also think setting up a little shrine somewhere in the house is a beautiful thing. We have one of those old-fashioned "telephone niches" on the wall under our staircase, and I have a picture of Our Lady there (now joined with the St. Joseph statue I dug up in the yard, clearly buried there by some hopeful seller of the past) and a candle. When flowers are in season, I try to keep her supplied with fresh ones. I don't *say* much about it, but I think that continual small, visual presence is really potent. My youngest daughter, who likes to pick flowers anyway, enjoys bringing them in for her.
Sally
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myheaven1967
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Sally I am so glad you mentioned the Saint Joseph statue. I too dug one up. I didn't know what to do with it after I found it. I felt like... I don't know.
So I put it back in the ground. However I have no intention of selling our house in the near future.
It is ok to take it out??
Thank you for that!
I also just purchased the Leading Little Ones to Mary, but I had to find it on the Seton site, as Amazon was out of them!
Which is a good thing right?
Jill
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amarytbc
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I had this same problem and ended up copying what a friend, who grew up in a very traditional home, did with her children. She was always, "Talk to the Blessed Mother about it." and with the little ones it was "Mommy Mary." For about a year that's all I did until my own devotion increased. Most of my kids are grown up now and they are all extremely devoted to the Blessed Mother. It doesn't take much effort before Mary steps in and helps out with these things :)
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4Real Forums : Domestic Church
Topic: Teaching Love for Our Lady?
