Update and Favorite Prayer Resources
Update: I'm trying to get my act together here. I plan to publish some Montessori posts, to continue a series that I started with a Part 1 but never followed up with a Part 2. These are in the works! I plan for them to be my summer project. In the meantime I plan to import here some of my unschooling posts from my other blog, Household Diary. I'll also post monthly Rabbit Trail themes, hopefully the day before the first day of each month.
In the meantime, here are some things that really helped me with prayer. I blush to post this because I don't feel very 'evolved' (as people tend to say nowadays) in my prayer life. I admit, regular, steady prayer has always been hard for me. I think other moms (probably you!) are better at this than I am. One reason why I liked being in a Catholic co-op or groups is that the activities often included prayer time and liturgical year themes.
For instance for many years our local Catholic homeschooling group would open on September 8th, Mary's birthday. We'd meet at a park to play. The kids would all bring muffins or cupcakes and we'd create a 'rosary' on a picnic table. Then we'd all say a rosary together, sing happy birthday to our Blessed Mother and then eat up the muffins and cupcakes for a snack. It was always the happiest time. We looked forward to the event every year. Our co-op always hosted an All Saints party with prayer, skits, game and of course kids dressing up as saints. A homeschooling mom in our group is incredibly creative and she made marionettes and a whole set to tell the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Her parish would host this event and people would come from all over to watch the puppet show retelling of the story of St. Juan Diego. My kids got to help with the marionettes a couple of years. We'd go Christmas caroling at a nursing home. We'd have a special Valentines Day cards exchange hosted either at someone's house or at a room at the local library. We often would plan field trips to local Catholic places like the Basilica or the art gallery if it was hosting an exhibit that featured Renaissance religious art. In May we'd host our own May Mary crowning at a local church with an outside statue or at someone's house who had a Mary statue in her yard. We'd also host an ice cream social every year for 1st Holy Communicants.
So all that really helped coalesce our group and support our families in our faith. Even if you don't have an academic co-op, it is really nice to have one-Catholic-event a month that reflects something going on in the liturgical year. You can take turns hosting it at your home, or at a local library or often even if your church can't spare enough room for a weekly co-op meeting, they can give you space for a one off event, like an All Saints party.
Back to prayer in the home:
When my oldest got to the preteen years, I relied on this publication, Word Among Us, which my parish gave out for free. I'd read the daily readings out loud at the breakfast table. We only went to daily Mass once a week, so it really nice to start off the day with the readings from Mass we would have heard if we'd gone every day. The reason we only went once a week to daily Mass, is that the whole act of piling my kids into a car and taking them to Mass and then coming home burned me out. I just found it stressful. So I aimed for once a week and that seemed to e a good balance. My kids appreciated the change in routine. It made that day special.
But then at some point I discovered Universalis and we began praying Lauds at breakfast. I loved praying the Psalms. In fact, I still pray Lauds every morning by myself now (because my kids are all older and have their own daily schedules).
We also would listen to Franciscan Media's Saint of the Day each morning.
I struggle with the rosary. We went in and out of praying it consistently, so what I aimed for for many years was praying it formally as a family in October, the month of the rosary. And as I've mentioned several times, we used this resource (scroll down to get to the children's scriptural rosary).
Then we'd try (operative word here is 'try') to remember to pray a decade of the rosary every time we got in the car. This would result in praying at least one full rosary a week.
We would say grace before our meals. We would try to remember to make the sign of the cross whenever we passed a Catholic Church in our daily travels. We'd pray a Hail Mary or just a quick aspiration for anyone who was hurt or in trouble whenever we heard a siren.
Very, very inconsistently we'd go to Holy Hour together or we'd remember to pray the Divine Mercy.
In the evening before bed we'd pray night prayers. That was an Our Father, petitionary prayers for anyone who was sick or who we remembered had requested our prayers, and then we'd pray the St. Michael the Archangel prayer.
************************
Books that helped me personally with my own prayer life:
Prayer for Beginners by Peter Kreeft (So basic and so profound)
Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales (beautiful, gentle, practical spiritual advice). I return to this again and again.
Reflections on the Psalms by C. S. Lewis (wonderful insight into what the Psalms are and their deeper meaning).
Take Five: Meditation with John Henry Newman - Usually I don't stick with little meditation books. I don't seem to be able to get much out of little daily quotes and then a short reflection, but I loved this one so much I've prayed through it twice!
Anything by Father Michael Gaitley.
In the meantime, here are some things that really helped me with prayer. I blush to post this because I don't feel very 'evolved' (as people tend to say nowadays) in my prayer life. I admit, regular, steady prayer has always been hard for me. I think other moms (probably you!) are better at this than I am. One reason why I liked being in a Catholic co-op or groups is that the activities often included prayer time and liturgical year themes.
For instance for many years our local Catholic homeschooling group would open on September 8th, Mary's birthday. We'd meet at a park to play. The kids would all bring muffins or cupcakes and we'd create a 'rosary' on a picnic table. Then we'd all say a rosary together, sing happy birthday to our Blessed Mother and then eat up the muffins and cupcakes for a snack. It was always the happiest time. We looked forward to the event every year. Our co-op always hosted an All Saints party with prayer, skits, game and of course kids dressing up as saints. A homeschooling mom in our group is incredibly creative and she made marionettes and a whole set to tell the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Her parish would host this event and people would come from all over to watch the puppet show retelling of the story of St. Juan Diego. My kids got to help with the marionettes a couple of years. We'd go Christmas caroling at a nursing home. We'd have a special Valentines Day cards exchange hosted either at someone's house or at a room at the local library. We often would plan field trips to local Catholic places like the Basilica or the art gallery if it was hosting an exhibit that featured Renaissance religious art. In May we'd host our own May Mary crowning at a local church with an outside statue or at someone's house who had a Mary statue in her yard. We'd also host an ice cream social every year for 1st Holy Communicants.
So all that really helped coalesce our group and support our families in our faith. Even if you don't have an academic co-op, it is really nice to have one-Catholic-event a month that reflects something going on in the liturgical year. You can take turns hosting it at your home, or at a local library or often even if your church can't spare enough room for a weekly co-op meeting, they can give you space for a one off event, like an All Saints party.
Back to prayer in the home:
When my oldest got to the preteen years, I relied on this publication, Word Among Us, which my parish gave out for free. I'd read the daily readings out loud at the breakfast table. We only went to daily Mass once a week, so it really nice to start off the day with the readings from Mass we would have heard if we'd gone every day. The reason we only went once a week to daily Mass, is that the whole act of piling my kids into a car and taking them to Mass and then coming home burned me out. I just found it stressful. So I aimed for once a week and that seemed to e a good balance. My kids appreciated the change in routine. It made that day special.
But then at some point I discovered Universalis and we began praying Lauds at breakfast. I loved praying the Psalms. In fact, I still pray Lauds every morning by myself now (because my kids are all older and have their own daily schedules).
We also would listen to Franciscan Media's Saint of the Day each morning.
I struggle with the rosary. We went in and out of praying it consistently, so what I aimed for for many years was praying it formally as a family in October, the month of the rosary. And as I've mentioned several times, we used this resource (scroll down to get to the children's scriptural rosary).
Then we'd try (operative word here is 'try') to remember to pray a decade of the rosary every time we got in the car. This would result in praying at least one full rosary a week.
We would say grace before our meals. We would try to remember to make the sign of the cross whenever we passed a Catholic Church in our daily travels. We'd pray a Hail Mary or just a quick aspiration for anyone who was hurt or in trouble whenever we heard a siren.
Very, very inconsistently we'd go to Holy Hour together or we'd remember to pray the Divine Mercy.
In the evening before bed we'd pray night prayers. That was an Our Father, petitionary prayers for anyone who was sick or who we remembered had requested our prayers, and then we'd pray the St. Michael the Archangel prayer.
************************
Books that helped me personally with my own prayer life:
Prayer for Beginners by Peter Kreeft (So basic and so profound)
Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales (beautiful, gentle, practical spiritual advice). I return to this again and again.
Reflections on the Psalms by C. S. Lewis (wonderful insight into what the Psalms are and their deeper meaning).
Take Five: Meditation with John Henry Newman - Usually I don't stick with little meditation books. I don't seem to be able to get much out of little daily quotes and then a short reflection, but I loved this one so much I've prayed through it twice!
Anything by Father Michael Gaitley.
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| This book was so beautifully revelatory to me! |
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