PARENTING
Who is
raising
our children?
Television? Internet? Soccer coaches?
Teachers?
What are they learning and what is the role of parents and the
church?
“Let nothing be taught to children
except those things which nourish the soul and make one a better
person.”
St. Cyprian of Carthege
“A man becomes a Christian with sound
teaching; he is not born one.”
Terttillian
“An
important part of a child's education is Story-telling, since good stories
excite the imagination and strengthen the bond between parent and
child. Stories from the Bible are preferred, and the child should
repeat them often, to underscore full comprehension.”
The Catholic Church teaches that
parents are the primary educators of their children. But what
happens when parents, themselves, aren't educated enough to convey
the Christian faith to their children.
The answer is simple. They don't! Each
year we welcome into our community many infants whose parents have
brought them to receive the Mysteries of Christian Initiation. Some
of them enroll them in Catholic schools and Latin programs. Some of
them eventually enroll them in our parish Eastern Christian
Formation program, at least for a few years. Some enroll them but
seldom bring them. Some take them out because sporting activities
take precedence over the worship of God.
Some do care and bring them
faithfully. Some just don't care because they don't know anything
about their faith and don't have a living relationship with God or
don't believe what their church teaches.
Failure
to convey the faith to their children puts in jeopardy the spiritual
life of the precious gift that God has entrusted to their care. What
answer do we give to God for failing to inculcate the gift of
eternal life into the lives of our children?
Role modeling is the primary form of
communication between a parent and a child. “Experience has shown
us that men who are the happiest and most content in their masculine
role today are those whose father invested a great deal of time and
energy their lives," writes David Stoop and Stephen Arterburn in
”The Angry Man”.
The same can be said of women. Women are more influenced by the behavior and
presence of their father’s than we realize. Values and faith come
from parents lives not a classroom.
If parents don't take their faith
seriously and practice it in the home we shouldn’t expect the
children continue their relationship with God as they grow into
adulthood.
The problem is that most parents
simply don't know how to practice their faith or they don’t
understand it enough to make it an integral part of their life.
What to do? A course of correction is needed and now! Let us all make a sincere effort to change if change is required. And you won't have to do it without help. Father Peter can help!