Parenting is daily catechetical ministry

In her excellent piece, on praying with children Kathy Coffey writes:

Ever hear of an exercise class where you just talked about it? No coach would allow the idle chatter of “It’d be nice to stretch or do sit-ups.” The people who benefit from jogging do it regularly. So our children must see us making sense of our experience through the lens of prayer, trying to understand where God has been active, leaving an unmistakable but invisible imprint.

Kathy is very right, of course. Our children need to see us living out the faith, and living out the expressions of hope, trust, humility and adoration that is implicit in prayer. They won’t learn it by osmosis.

In a related way, we should take advantage of resources that can help us make the faith lively and dynamic for our children; parenting is a daily ministry in catechetics. I learned this much too late. I learned many things about parenting, much too late. It is amazing my kids are not baboons.

Today the Catholic portal at Patheos is launching a new column by innovative catechist Lisa Mladinich, which will each week offer new ideas and advice for parents, CCD teachers and others involved with catechetical ministry. Today Lisa introduces herself and encourages the minister to first minister to the soul of the self, through the sacrament of confession, in preparation for all that is to come.

Her lively weekly columns will also provide links and resource notes. Keep your eye out for it, each Wednesday – you can see her ad in my sidebar.

Speaking of children and faith, if you have not already seen them, check out two very different features on the home page, both touching on where we are and where we are going, Tom Howard’s Searching for Holiness and Glory and Tony Rossi’s the Culture of Life and the Children of Men.

By the way, if you like Pat Gohn–who today gave us thispiece on Leo the Great and who also knocked your socks off here and here, so how can you not like her–look for her new column “A Word in Season” which will launch tomorrow!