Family prayer: how to learn to pray
Best of all, these times of intimacy bring us closer to each other and to God. "Let us pray that each of us may find consolation in a personal relationship with Jesus, and from his heart, learn to have compassion for the world," Pope Leo XIV prays in English in his first contribution to 'The Pope videoa monthly reflection published by the Global Network of Prayer of the Pope. Summer is always a good time to pray as a family; to pray together.
Importance of prayer in the family
Having the opportunity to grow up in a home where prayer is part of everyday life is a beautiful blessing. Its importance lies in the example of parents to children. Learning to pray in all seasons of life together with the family strengthens the union and family ties.
Family prayer springs from listening to Jesus, from reading and being familiar with the Word of God. "Faith reaches its greatest fruitfulness when it is lived in interaction with others, and in the first place with our spouse and our children, who, in fact, form our first community of life, our domestic Church." (Cic, 1655).
Living the faith in a concrete way in the home implies that there are moments of family prayer, moments of living the sacraments together, especially at Sunday Mass, which can become an authentic ritual to be enjoyed together.
It is not necessary to pray long prayers or make ostentatious acts. To pray as a family, prayers in church, made with devotion and constancy, can be enough, adding the family intentions. Simple gestures of piety, such as blessing the table, praying before going to bed or when traveling, reaffirm the Lord's presence in the home.
The union of family prayer
Praying as a family is the very foundation that holds the family together. because the family that prays together stays together. This spiritual principle, which involves prayer within the family, is a very important factor of change that helps to overcome difficult times. A family that focuses on taking time for prayer has a foundation that may be shaken at times, but will withstand whatever comes against it. Families who have their eyes constantly and sincerely fixed on the Lord, with devotion and humility, experience his great providence.
Jesus Christ taught us that "when two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them". (Matthew 17,19). Praising God, thanking Him and asking Him for His gifts is an essential part of a person's life. Christian family.
God wants a unity derived from Him. That is why Paul admonishes the church to be one. (1 Corinthians 1:10) And that is also why Jesus teaches that husband and wife are one flesh. (Matthew 19:5) These commandments of God call for total surrender. The family is a community of faith, hope and charity. That is why we can call it the domestic Church. The Christian family is a communion of persons, reflecting the communion that exists in God between the Father, the Son and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Families praying together they establish trust among themselves, learn to pray in community and come to an agreement through Jesus. This custom helps to bring unity to domestic life.
The family is a small church and our ministry begins at home. To care for it is to care for each member of the family, to show them God's way, to guide them to grow in the Lord, and to prepare them for adult life. Prayer is an important element in this process. A family that prays united with the heart for each other will pray with the heart for the world.
When God dwells in a family, happiness abounds in all its members.
Family recollection helps everyone
Education in the faith and the catechesis of children place the family in the sphere of the Church as a true subject of evangelization and apostolate. This year Pope Francis wants to strengthen the family, especially for this reason he named 2021 as the Year of the Family. And in CARF we have reflected on the challenges of the family in the 21st century in the Virtual Reflection Meetings.
Families, and more specifically parents, are free to choose for their children a particular model of religious and moral education, according to their own convictions. But even when they entrust these tasks to ecclesiastical institutions or to schools run by religious personnel, it is necessary that their educational presence remain constant and active.
For his general audience on 26/08/2015 Pope Francis chose to speak about family prayer. He explained that it is in the family that we learn to pray and to ask for the gift of the Holy Spirit. He said that the Gospel meditated on in the family is like good bread that nourishes the heart and asked parents to teach children to make the sign of the Cross.
How to pray as a family
An important part of how family prayer begins with shared reading and meditation of the Word of GodThe Word of God, a very good opportunity to create a family communion around Christ. Living the Word of God entails putting it into practice for the good of spouses and children, through the personal practice of virtues, tolerance and forgiveness. Faith, source of love, gives us the full reason to love our family by respecting it and being generous towards it.
The Bible tells us about these families of the early Christians, the domestic Church, St. Paul says (1 Cor 16:19)to which the light of the Gospel gave new impetus and new life. Pope Francis calls it a "home of mission".a home that fulfills the Lord's commission (Mt 28:19) spreading the Gospel of the family around him.
Example in the sentence
As far as children are concerned, the best way for parents to pass on the faith to their children is to live it themselves. There is no better catechesis for a child than the image of his or her parents united in prayer; such an image is more edifying, profound and lasting than words. Children need to see their parents praying at home. It is vital that family prayer be with devotion, that it not be limited to words, but that it be transformed into deeds and testimonies of faith, so that the children learn to make gestures, to repeat some simple formulas, some songs, to be in silence speaking to God.
The child learns to place our Lord in the line of the first and most fundamental affections, says St. Josemaría; he learns to treat God as Father and our Lady as Mother; he learns to pray, following the example of his parents. When one understands this, one sees the great apostolic task that parents can carry out, and how they are obliged to be sincerely pious, to be able to transmit, rather than teach, this piety to their children, which begins with family prayer.
St. Josemaría also emphasizes the uniqueness of each family and promotes using one's own creative methods to pray as a family and give thanks to God. In this way, family members become accustomed to praying at all times, and will have tools for their spiritual and emotional health.
In the family, faith must not remain an empty word or a posture, but must become a source of transformation that leads to desiring and doing good to others.
How to pray as a family with 2-7 year olds
For the young child, family prayer is often the occasion for tender intimacy with his parents. Seeing them leave their busy lives to prepare to meet God shows you the importance of this relationship. To initiate a moment of prayer with your child, Invite him to sit quietly and look at you, without speaking, while you light a candle in front of an image. This gesture associated with silence will give a certain solemnity to this moment. It will naturally lead the child to interiority. Afterwards, the child can begin to review his day, confide a problem or give thanks for the joys received.
How to pray as a family with 8-13 year olds
Catechesis completes the spiritual experience in the family, but this age group has a particular tenderness in this very familiar moment. The child is receptive and willing, we are also talking about an age of grace from a spiritual point of view. The rite is of great importance, praying an Our Father with him is a way of teaching him that beyond the family group there are many other people who pray. But encourage him also in his completely personal relationship with God. Reading the gospel will teach you that you can entrust your joys, sorrows and even your anger to God.
How to pray as a family for 14-16 year olds
With teenagers, praying as a family becomes more difficult. Their faith is more intimate and they do not like to manifest it.The influence of their friends often prevails over that of the family. The time has come to take care of their choices rather than impose our own.
Let us have the humility to accept that our children may not join in, or that they may do so in a way that is different from our way of praying. They will be able to pray or sing in chapel with their age group, participate in a meeting of young Christians, etc. Whether they tend toward mysticism or reject everything outright, they will have known the joy of prayer, and will be able to return to it at any time in their lives. P. "We are responsible for what we sow, not what grows!" Jean-Noël Bezançon.
A corner at home for prayer
Finding a place in your home for recollection helps to turn your home into a "domestic church". Above all, to face these difficult times that we are living in the world today. It is convenient to find a place in our home to establish a climate of family prayer. This corner facilitates recollection and calls for prayer. It is a powerful tool for family prayer, although it is not exclusively reserved for collective prayer because each individual can find there the calm and silence necessary to get closer to God during the day.
The permanence of this place in the house reminds everyone, throughout the day, of the role of prayer in our life, its vital importance. The family prayer corner can have a light permanently lit in front of the crucifix or image of Our Lady to remind us of God's reassuring presence.
We can also decorate it with fresh flowers and add written family petitions. Especially when we have small children these activities can make them feel part of this corner and family prayer time.
In spite of the complicated time in the family (...) Prayer allows us to find peace for the necessary things. Pope Francis, 2015.
Examples of family prayers
Pope Francis composed this prayer on the occasion of the Feast of the Holy Family. This year 2021, the pope also invites us to pray a novena as a family.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph
in you we contemplate
the splendor of true love,
to you, with confidence, we turn.
Holy Family of Nazareth,
also make our families
place of communion and cenacle of prayer,
authentic schools of the Gospel
and small domestic churches.
Holy Family of Nazareth,
that there will never again be episodes in families
of violence, closed-mindedness and division;
that whoever has been injured or scandalized
be soon comforted and healed.
Holy Family of Nazareth,
that the forthcoming Synod of Bishops
to raise everyone's awareness
of the sacred and inviolable character of the family,
of its beauty in God's plan.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
hear, receive our plea.
Praying the Holy Rosary as a family
Parents can help their children discover the beauty of this simple prayer, perhaps by teaching them to pray first one mystery, then two, and by explaining the meaning of this beautiful prayer addressed to the Mother of God and Mother of the Church.
"Would that the beautiful custom of praying the Rosary as a family would be revived!"
The Church has been willing to grant innumerable graces and indulgences when praying the Holy Rosary in the family. Let us take the necessary means to encourage this prayer so pleasing to the Lord and to his Blessed Mother, and which is considered "a great public and universal prayer for the ordinary and extraordinary needs of the holy Church, of the nations and of the whole world". It is a good support on which the family unit relies and the best help to face its needs.
Bibliography:
- Catechism of the Catholic Church
- OpusDei.org
- Conferenciaepiscopal.es
- Rosarioenfamilia.org
