How to pray with children
Morning prayer became part of our schedule some time ago. I have tried out different things and refined my approach to morning prayer based on what works and what doesn’t. When Nick and I first got married, we prayed the Liturgy of the Hours together, and continued this until the children were toddlers and too disruptive to try to do this anymore. Then we revised it, shortened it, etc. My current approach works pretty well. The children are engaged and everyone who is age seven and up gets a lot out of it, I think, and is happy to participate. The ones who are under seven are learning that prayer is an important regular part of life. Here is my “game plan”, with links included, so you can see what components I have decided are important & meaningful:
1. Mass Readings of the Day : First Reading, Responsorial Psalm, Gospel read out loud with the podcast player. I have the computer read them out loud to us – since this ensures that if I have to leave the room with one of the younger children, prayer continues.
2. Daily Reflection on the Readings: Found here.
3. The Saint of the Day: The kids love these stories of heroic bravery for the sake of our faith. They and I taking turns reading them out loud.
4. Morning Offering: Finally if time allows, we do a Morning Offering, like the following, or an act of Spiritual Communion, like this one:
“O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer You my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world. I offer them for all the intentions of Your Sacred Heart: the salvation of souls, reparation for sin, and the reunion of all Christians. I offer them for the intentions of our bishops and of all Apostles of Prayer, and in particular for those recommended by our Holy Father this month.”
I notice that doing morning prayer sets our day off to a good start, and if we don’t do it for whatever reason, we miss it, and our day doesn’t go as smoothly.
To make things go even better, I know that the grace received from frequent communion helps A LOT. My New Year’s Resolution is to try to go to daily mass as often as possible! I hesitate to say daily, because I have tried this before, and failed repeatedly. But, what’s the purpose of seeting goal unless you have to strive to attain it? I will blog on my progress with this goal.
