The Catholic faith offers many wonderful experiences and expressions. Pilgrimages, devotionals, even listening to a great sermon. Yesterday was the feast of Corpus Christi and there may have been a Eucharistic Procession at your parish or in your town.

As a parent of young children, I know that now is the time to plant in their minds the importance of faith. Church is a wonderful place, and it’s a place that they belong. The struggle with young children is that they have very short attention spans, and their mood swings like a barn door. So while there may be many opportunities to enrich their faith, parents sometimes have to pick their battles.

Our priest organized a Eucharistic procession around the parish grounds immediately after Mass. Four altars were set up and as we processed, we stopped for a scripture reading, prayer, and blessing at each one. Even better, the procession happened between the last English Mass and first Spanish Mass of the day, so it was a bilingual procession. The Parish, normally separated into two language-based communities, prayed as one.

It was a long Mass, followed by a long procession. All told, we were at Church for three hours, some of it walking outside in the heat and sun. But the kids were there, praying, and experiencing the richness of their faith.

Raising kids is not easy, and parenting is entirely tiresome. The temptation is to take the path of least resistance. If we want our kids to grow up into mature adults who take ownership of their faith, we need to go the extra mile in exposing them to it while they’re young.

Tags: Prayer