"Lasagna in the Highest!" A Third Sneak Peek at How To: Catholic Family

Karen’s dad was one of twelve kids. Supper time at his child- hood home on the farm was like a competition to see who could finish fastest and get seconds. Enjoying the meal and the company around you was not the point. So, being somewhere in the middle of the pack, he learned to eat quickly in order to get his fill. Karen’s mom was one of two kids. She grew up in a stricter household, with a more refined approach to mealtime. The first time Karen’s dad went to dinner at his soon-to-be in-law’s house, he sat down at the table and joined in the typical prayer most Catholic families squeeze in before chowing down: "Bless us, O Lord, and these, thy gifts, which we are about to receive from thy bounty. Through Christ, our Lord. Amen." As soon as he said, "Amen," Dad picked up his fork and started digging in. The story goes that he looked up, halfway through his mashed potatoes, and realized they were still praying! "And may the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.” Prayer time often gives opportunity for laughs, especially when the kids make a mistake with the words, but it can also be an occasion of stress for us parents who are concerned with trying to get things right and fearful that failing to do so will lead to our kids leaving the faith. The good news is: it doesn’t take much to get kids to fall in love with prayer. One night, in the midst of a bedtime routine that had no time for books or two full minutes of brushing teeth, we tucked the kids in, kissed them good night, and tried to hurry out the door. James popped a question that stopped us dead in our tracks: “Aren’t we going to say our prayers?” In our parenting panic to get the kids to sleep as quickly as possible, we made the unconscious decision to skip our nightly prayer routine, and he noticed. We realized, in that moment, that we owed it to our kids and ourselves to slow down, say a prayer, and keep that time as time set aside to reach out to God, even when we feel rushed. Over the previous few years, we had impressed on our children the utmost importance of prayer, and James incorporated that into his worldview. When he saw us contradict what we had taught him, he pointed that out. That moment showed us two things: first, that our dedication to prayer was paying off for our children and, second, that having a designated time for prayer would help to keep us on track—and if it didn’t, our eight- year-old was right there, ready to remind us.

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