Car Line Catechesis: Launching Your Family’s Day with What Is True

Nicole Berlucchi shares about how she found a casual way to layer in faith formation during her kids' morning dropoff at school. 

Call me crazy, but I love squeezing the most out of my time with my kids. Carlines are a great time for conversation, but they have also become a great time to infuse the kids with faith as they start their day. 

Begin with a simple question  

When I first started doing this with my kids, I wanted Jesus top of mind: specifically the fact that Jesus loves them. So, I started asking, “Who loves you guys?” as we pulled forward around the school.   

Their answers started with: You. Dad. Grandmom. Pop. Our cousins. I would point toward the sky to get some more heavenly answers. And then came: Jesus. Mary. And a naming of a variety of saints.  

Now when I ask that question, Jesus, Mary, guardian angels, Saint Joseph, and a few other saints come without much prompting. So, that’s when I decided to level up a bit. I still ask the question, but once we settle into a waiting spot, I pull out a book to read and discuss.   

I have a couple of books I keep in the car for a little faith booster. They have been on saints, virtues, and just general faith. I tend to choose books that are eye-catching, relatable and/or interesting.   

If it’s a saint book, I let the kids take turns choosing the saint to read about. If it’s another book, I try to read a short, digestible section and either ask the kids questions of my own or ones from the book. 

Flexible Rather Than Forced  

I don’t try to fill every second of our waiting, but just enough to send them away thinking of good things, rather than whatever music is playing. I don’t ask them if they applied it or thought of it later that day. I simply give them the thoughts and trust God and His angels are tending to them.  

And let me confirm, it’s not perfect every day. My kids aren’t jumping for joy each time I pull out the book. Some days I get some groans and other days there is a school event or issue that they want to discuss, and I leave space for that. Still other days there isn’t enough time for the book, and I leave it at: Who loves you?  

I quietly introduced this exchange of the faith into our routine. I didn’t make a big deal about it. I just made it a thing that mom does in the morning without demanding they do x, y, or z and without asking permission to do it.   

My goal was setting a vibe — incorporating faith into the beginning of our day without it feeling forced. The books are there to use whenever. I’ve also pulled them out at odd times where we had an extended wait somewhere outside of school.   

Let’s make it normal to have books about your faith in our cars, because I hope that translates to my kids doing the same for their kids someday. Let’s make it normal to read and think about the faith when you have time to kill. Let’s make it normal to do it with others, especially your family, by introducing a little more faith into your day, maybe in a carline or maybe somewhere else. 

Good resources to get started  

Here are some of our staples circulated in and out of the car during the year: 

• Rise Up: Virtues Devotional for Kids (this was the first one we ever used) 
• Stories of the Saints 
• Heavenly Hosts 
• Made for Greatness  
• Marian Consecration for Families with Young Children  

We haven’t used these next books in the car because it’s always been a mix of boys and girls, but if you have all girls or all boys, certain activities in these would be good too. I’ve had the kids use these in the summer time on their own: 

• Be Yourself: A Journal for Catholic Girls 
• Be Yourself: A Journal for Catholic Boys 

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. (Philippians 4:8) 

The world is filled with so much nonsense. These kids have more information coming at them in a day than I used to have coming at me in a month, maybe even a year! If we can remind them of that which is true and most important at the beginning of their day, we can trust God can multiply that little bit throughout their day and that their day will be blessed by it. 

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Copyright 2024 Nicole Berlucchi
Images: Canva
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