“The Secret World of Children’s Prayers”: Cari Donaldson

at Aleteia:

When my oldest son was three, he had a special devotion to Our Lady of Breakfast, judging by his Hail Marys:

Hail Mary, full of grace
The Lord is with Thee
Breakfast art Thou among women,
And breakfast is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus

He was so sweet and earnest when he said it, I always wrestled with correcting him, or just letting the prayer self-correct as his understanding of the words deepened.  Ultimately, I just let it go, and he now can say a Hail Mary with the best of them.

But it was the start of an anthropological project on my part, a concept that all parents understand.  Living in such close proximity to tiny humans yields all sorts of glimpses into rich, exotic cultural practices, and the prayer life of children is no different.

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