Many families celebrate Advent with the beautiful tradition of the Advent wreath, with its pink and purple candles and festive greenery. But Advent, like Lent, is also a time for deepening in prayer. Do your kids know how to pray to God in their own words? I recently asked my 11-year-old daughter if she ever prayed. She said that she thanked God when she found something that was lost, and she asked him for help sometimes during the day. "But do you have conversations with God, like when you're really sad or really happy?" I asked. "No," she said, "when I'm really sad, I run up to my room and cry everything into my pillow." I suggested that she cry to God instead. "But I like my pillow," she insisted. "Well, why don't you just let God listen in," I responded, which made her giggle. Fr. Dubay says that even young children can easily learn how to talk to God in their own words for a minute or two at first, and then for longer. If you help your children to start a habit of prayer this Advent, it could last their whole lives through. The best Christmas gift ever.
St. Therese of Lisieux may have said it best when she wrote: "For me, prayer is the heart's impulse, a simple gaze toward heaven. It is a cry of gratitude and love, from the depths of trial as well as the heights of joy. Finally, it is something great, supernatural, that expands my soul and unites me to Jesus."
ReplyDeleteI love St. Thérese! Thanks for the quote.
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