My wife Karen and I have been working hard on a fun new project coming out in February, and we figured now is a great time to start sharing some sneak peeks to get you excited!
How To: Catholic Family is a fun new book from the incredible team at Word Among Us Press, and Karen and I have put the book together as a practical, encouraging guide for the rest of us: Catholic parents that want to impart the faith to their children but aren’t quite sure where to start. The topics we’ve in the book include leading by example, having conversations about faith, reading the Bible as a family, learning about the saints, praying together, learning what the Mass means, celebrating special/feast days and liturgical seasons (Advent, Lent), and finding community with other Catholic families.
We were sure to put the emphasis on making all of this a doable task and, with a little bit of humor, we are here to let readers know that there will be plenty of fails along the way but encourage us all to not give up on trying to develop a faith-filled family life.
Today we wanted to give a sneak peek into the topic of attending Mass as a family.
In the chapter titled Only Well Behaved Kids Get Donuts, we explore the challenges and opportunities around attending Mass with a van-load of kids at various levels of ability when it comes to sitting quietly for an hour and worshiping the one true God.
“On a recent Sunday morning, for example, Tommy asked Paul to find some comfy yet appropriate clothes and get dressed on his own to allow Mommy and Daddy some time to get ready. As we walked toward the front door to leave, he jumped out from his bedroom dressed head-to-toe in a Spiderman costume, mask included.
Thanks be to God, he left the web shooter at home.
These little setbacks give us a chance to head back to the drawing board week after week as we try to craft that perfect yet elusive Sunday morning routine that gets us showered, dressed, in the pew, and ready for action.”
If you’ve ever showed up to Mass only to realize at least one of your kids isn’t wearing shoes, this is the chapter for you!
And, of course, we go to lengths to point out that our kids are never going to do the right things in Mass unless they see us doing the right things at Mass:
“Our kids are never going to do what we want them to do at Mass unless we do what we want them to do at Mass. That’s hard. One of the most difficult things about being a parent who wants to raise kids to be good and holy adults is that we have to actually try harder to be good and holy adults. We have to pray the prayers, listen to the readings, and wish God’s blessings on the people around us.
Our kids are watching.”
The rest of the chapter provides concrete ways to make going to Mass as a family easier and more fulfilling, and is jam packed with more stories for our own family life that will hopefully help you feel right at home.
For this and more great content about how to keep your family focused on the Catholic faith throughout the day-to-day rush of life, pre-order How To: Catholic Family now, and keep it here on Catholic Mom for more great sneak peeks as we get closer to the big release!
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Copyright 2018 Tommy Tighe
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