Well, being a self-described Lutheran blog here, we’ll pass over the items involving invoking Mary and the other saints, and sacramentals… but anyway, this article describing familial worship life in the home actually contains a lot of really good ideas and suggestions.  I quote a bit…

“Family altars, like the rest of the home, can be decorated according to the liturgical season, changing tablecloths, sacred images, and flowers according to that Season’s liturgical colors and themes. One tip I have is to buy one of those little tiny 6″ easels made to display small pictures, and then buy an assortment of Holy Cards to place on it according to liturgical season or Feast. For ex., on the Feast of St. Nicholas, a Holy Card bearing his likeness can be set out; on Good Friday, a card depicting the Crucifixion; on the family’s Name Days, depictions of their patrons can be placed on it, etc.”

“It is very important for parents to make the liturgical year come alive for their children, to make it a part of the rhythm of their children’s lives. This will help them pay more attention at Mass during the Gospel and sermons, and it has the psychological benefit of helping the children feel both ‘grounded’ in a stable, traditional family, and a part of something ‘bigger than they are’ in terms of the Church, the cycles of the liturgical year being something shared by [Christians] for millennia. These ‘little things’ connect you to your children, your children to each other, and your family to the Church.”

“On a different level, [Christian] homes should be filled with books, art, music, the necessary things to make crafts, etc. There should be plenty to feed the mind and heart, and to engage the body. A well-trained child should rarely speak of ‘boredom’ or offer it as an excuse for getting into trouble or whining; he should learn to entertain himself, to imagine new games and to marvel at and learn about the world about him. Young children never hate to read and to learn! That comes later, after bad teachers who ignore the importance of phonics and don’t know how to engage a child’s interest make them feel stupid, and when television has robbed them of imagination and taught them to think in sound-bytes and quick-moving images. It is too much television that trains them to feel restless unless pounding music and rapid-fire motion are assaulting their senses.”

“If you don’t: read, draw, paint, play a musical instrument, embroider, knit, purl, tat, whittle, carve wood, dance, make furniture, build model airplanes, birdwatch, brew beer, ferment wine, stargaze, or make mosaics or learn foreign languages or shoot guns or camp or do archery garden, bake, work on cars, write stories, model in clay, fly kites, develop screenplays, play sports, collect something, walk in the woods, write poetry, learn about astronomy, etc. — I think you get my point — then turn off the T.V., pick something, and begin now. If you’ve lost your child-like love of learning and sense of wonder, pray to regain it!

“And on a final note, keep your sense of humor! Life is serious — quite serious — but it is also wondrous and sometimes hysterically funny. If you are so stressed, so cynical, so rigorist or ‘educated’ that you can’t laugh, then something’s got to give. Deal with it before you pass that dour trait on to your children or let it infect your marriage. Pray about it and talk to a spiritual director or other wise person. You will be happier and healthier, and so will your family.”

This entry was posted on Monday, November 6th, 2006 at 6:51 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.