J
junior3kv
Guest
Kids equal questions. Anyone who has a child knows this. We have to use this to our advantage and exploit it, in a good way obviously. Kids are insatiably curious about the world….So let’s make them insatiably curious about God.
This is the idea I want parents to try with their children: I usually sit in the back of church, and week after week I see kids who don’t want to be there. The youth are squirming in their seat or whispering incessantly to bro or sis bc they DON”T want to be there. What can we do about this? Now, 8 or 9 years ago, I was in Church bored out of my mind. I was always daydreaming and just thinking about things not God. I noticed that I had all these questions about God that were not necessarily fact questions like “What’s Advent?” but questions like “What does each verse of the Our Father and Hail Mary mean?’ ‘I’ve been saying these prayers for years but have no clue what they’re truly about.’” I’m sure you’re kids have questions, like the most basic question of all: “How do you know God exists?” Anyways, so I started bringing a pen and paper to mass to write down these questions, because particularly, during mass, more than any other time, questions and comments would pop into my head. Then, I naturally wanted to get these questions answered but I didn’t know who to go to and ask. Randomly, one day after mass I went up to a nun and asked her if she could help me with all my quandaries and she was and is more than willing, to this day.
I also want parents to take the Bible to church and lay it next to your kids/teen because it would be something for your kids to do. I think eventually they would open the Book and check it out out of curiosity and because the difference between the missalette and the Bible is that we look at the Bible as this holy and sacred thing whereas the missalette is NOT looked at as such even thought the Scriptures are in it. I believe eventually they would open the Bible and see what’s in this thing we hold so dear. The option is there for them to do something, instead of being completely bored and not pay attention to mass. Maybe even bring a highlighter and pencil so they can highlight or underline passages if they like.
Now, with children, why not bring a religious coloring book or picture book or simply a children’s Bible. You can bookmark passages in your child’s Bible that relate to the Sunday readings. Kids cannot fathom/comprehend/rationalize what mass and God is because it’s too abstract, so let’s help instead of hinder them. And instead of you just encouraging your kids to do this, you should also take a pen, paper/notebook, and Bible to set thee example. Because kids are “ADHD” more than ever, we need to do something to grab their attention, even if it’s something little like what I’m proposing.
Maybe you think taking a Bible, pen, and paper to church is a bad idea because it will distract from the mass (And yes I do understand that the mass is supposed to have our full attention) but I say that kids and teens are not going to be distracted in the first place because they’re not even paying attention. Even if they’re coloring their books or reading the Bible, they’re still, at least, going to memorize the mass by the time they’re 10 years old. If they go to mass week-in week-out, like I did, from the time they are born till the age of 10, they will have gone to mass over 500 times (Just multiply 52 weeks in a year times 10 if you don’t believe me). You do anything that many times and you’re definitely going to hear something or memorize it because it seeps in after so many times. Could you imagine doing something for 1,000 hrs. that you didn’t like doing or doing something 500 times you hated every second of. That’s what many young people are experiencing. And don’t many people experience this in their journey as being a Catholic? I rarely remember actually paying attention the first 20 years of my life I went to mass but the mass still seeped in.
I want to put the children’s faith in their hands with this idea because there are just too many parents not willing to put in the work it takes to help their child find Jesus. Or it can simply be that they just don’t know what to do. And with some parents, they are just not able to because of extenuating circumstances.
This endeavor is going to take courage on the part of anyone that does it. When I started doing it I felt awkward being the only one taking a Bible, pen, and paper but I felt this way because we are an impersonal Church where many people go on their journey towards Jesus alone, but I got over the awkwardness because, as Mother Teresa said “You see, in the final analysis it is between you and God; It was never between you and them anyway.”
I want people to take a Bible to Church because many Catholics never even open a Bible if you discount the missalette. Maybe this will encourage people to open the Bible outside of Church.
When it comes to teens, we must remember that we are dealing with one of the most difficult, if not thee most difficult, people there are so we have to coyly do something to sneak God into their lives. Give them this option since they don’t have the option of not going to mass.
Some churches have a children’s liturgy of the Word which some parents do send their kids to, but many churches/Masses don’t have that, so I propose this on behalf of the children.
This is the idea I want parents to try with their children: I usually sit in the back of church, and week after week I see kids who don’t want to be there. The youth are squirming in their seat or whispering incessantly to bro or sis bc they DON”T want to be there. What can we do about this? Now, 8 or 9 years ago, I was in Church bored out of my mind. I was always daydreaming and just thinking about things not God. I noticed that I had all these questions about God that were not necessarily fact questions like “What’s Advent?” but questions like “What does each verse of the Our Father and Hail Mary mean?’ ‘I’ve been saying these prayers for years but have no clue what they’re truly about.’” I’m sure you’re kids have questions, like the most basic question of all: “How do you know God exists?” Anyways, so I started bringing a pen and paper to mass to write down these questions, because particularly, during mass, more than any other time, questions and comments would pop into my head. Then, I naturally wanted to get these questions answered but I didn’t know who to go to and ask. Randomly, one day after mass I went up to a nun and asked her if she could help me with all my quandaries and she was and is more than willing, to this day.
I also want parents to take the Bible to church and lay it next to your kids/teen because it would be something for your kids to do. I think eventually they would open the Book and check it out out of curiosity and because the difference between the missalette and the Bible is that we look at the Bible as this holy and sacred thing whereas the missalette is NOT looked at as such even thought the Scriptures are in it. I believe eventually they would open the Bible and see what’s in this thing we hold so dear. The option is there for them to do something, instead of being completely bored and not pay attention to mass. Maybe even bring a highlighter and pencil so they can highlight or underline passages if they like.
Now, with children, why not bring a religious coloring book or picture book or simply a children’s Bible. You can bookmark passages in your child’s Bible that relate to the Sunday readings. Kids cannot fathom/comprehend/rationalize what mass and God is because it’s too abstract, so let’s help instead of hinder them. And instead of you just encouraging your kids to do this, you should also take a pen, paper/notebook, and Bible to set thee example. Because kids are “ADHD” more than ever, we need to do something to grab their attention, even if it’s something little like what I’m proposing.
Maybe you think taking a Bible, pen, and paper to church is a bad idea because it will distract from the mass (And yes I do understand that the mass is supposed to have our full attention) but I say that kids and teens are not going to be distracted in the first place because they’re not even paying attention. Even if they’re coloring their books or reading the Bible, they’re still, at least, going to memorize the mass by the time they’re 10 years old. If they go to mass week-in week-out, like I did, from the time they are born till the age of 10, they will have gone to mass over 500 times (Just multiply 52 weeks in a year times 10 if you don’t believe me). You do anything that many times and you’re definitely going to hear something or memorize it because it seeps in after so many times. Could you imagine doing something for 1,000 hrs. that you didn’t like doing or doing something 500 times you hated every second of. That’s what many young people are experiencing. And don’t many people experience this in their journey as being a Catholic? I rarely remember actually paying attention the first 20 years of my life I went to mass but the mass still seeped in.
I want to put the children’s faith in their hands with this idea because there are just too many parents not willing to put in the work it takes to help their child find Jesus. Or it can simply be that they just don’t know what to do. And with some parents, they are just not able to because of extenuating circumstances.
This endeavor is going to take courage on the part of anyone that does it. When I started doing it I felt awkward being the only one taking a Bible, pen, and paper but I felt this way because we are an impersonal Church where many people go on their journey towards Jesus alone, but I got over the awkwardness because, as Mother Teresa said “You see, in the final analysis it is between you and God; It was never between you and them anyway.”
I want people to take a Bible to Church because many Catholics never even open a Bible if you discount the missalette. Maybe this will encourage people to open the Bible outside of Church.
When it comes to teens, we must remember that we are dealing with one of the most difficult, if not thee most difficult, people there are so we have to coyly do something to sneak God into their lives. Give them this option since they don’t have the option of not going to mass.
Some churches have a children’s liturgy of the Word which some parents do send their kids to, but many churches/Masses don’t have that, so I propose this on behalf of the children.