"fundamental and irreplaceable" St. JPII

[MariaChristi]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I do not remember praying as a family when I was a child, but I remember my Mom’s strong faith which led to our attending Catholic School and learning to pray mostly through our teachers there. But prayer is not just words. Prayer is above all our relationshp with God, and my mother’s faith was something we learned from her example as well as the words she helped us to learn – memorizing prayers for school.

Both parents ideally are educators in prayer for their children, but Mothers, it seems to me, have a unique role – even as our Mother Mary has been given a unique role in the spiritual life of children. St. John Paul II in his exhortation, “Familiaris Consortio” shares this:

…The concrete example and living witness of parents is fundamental and irreplaceable in educating their children to pray. Only by praying together with their children can a father and mother-exercising their royal priesthood-penetrate the innermost depths of their children’s hearts and leave an impression that the future events in their lives will not be able to efface. Let us again listen to the appeal made by Paul VI to parents: “Mothers, do you teach your children the Christian prayers? Do you prepare them, in conjunction with the priests, for the sacraments that they receive when they are young: Confession, Communion and Confirmation? Do you encourage them when they are sick to think of Christ suffering to invoke the aid of the Blessed Virgin and the saints Do you say the family rosary together? And you, fathers, do you pray with your children, with the whole domestic community, at least sometimes? Your example of honesty in thought and action, joined to some common prayer, is a lesson for life, an act of worship of singular value. In this way you bring peace to your homes: Pax huic domui. Remember, it is thus that you build up the Church.”…

While I certainly agree with St. JPII that the example and living witness of parents is fundamental and irreplaceable, if that was not our experience, we are not without God’s help, nor are our children – if we were not good examples and living witnesses to them. All are called to Holiness and God will not refuse prayer offered for our children now. I know my Mother in heaven and my earthly mother both prayed for me and continue praying for all their children. There is something very special about mothers’ prayers!