Latest / The Lila Rose Show / How to Teach Your Kids to Pray: 3 Simple Daily Habits w/ Kendra Tierney Norton | Lila Rose Show
Transcript
- 0:00Every mom is busy. What would be one of your top
- 0:02tips for praying and incorporating prayer into your
- 0:05daily life, especially when you have little?
- 0:07Ones it's something we can do in the car, it's something that we
- 0:09can do when we're out. We'll be at a field trip at the
- 0:12aquarium. What would be that?
- 0:13Maybe an anchor practice? Like a first habit that you say,
- 0:16hey this is a really good one to nail.
- 0:18The first thing I'll say is is to have some sort of a like
- 0:23tense. Welcome back everyone to the
- 0:26Lila Rose Show and this special series on motherhood.
- 0:28It's Part 2, sitting down with another one of everybody's
- 0:30favorite guests, Kendra Tierney Norton, mother of a whole tribe
- 0:34of children. Also, we did episodes with her
- 0:36about grieving after loss, the loss of her first husband,
- 0:38finding love after loss, how she lives, the liturgical calendar
- 0:42with her kids. Enjoy this conversation with
- 0:44Kendra Tierney Norton, make sure to share with a friend and stay
- 0:48tuned for parts 3 and 4. Kendra, I so admire you.
- 0:51I have little ones, oldest sister five and then baby
- 0:54three-year old and you've got kids of all ages and the the way
- 0:59you do the faith, the prayer, making the whole life ultimately
- 1:02come back to the faith in this very beautiful ways.
- 1:05Huge fan. So I'm excited to hear your top
- 1:08tips for me and for other ladies listening about how we can, as
- 1:13mothers, help our children and our families pray.
- 1:15So first of all, thank you for being a role model for me and so
- 1:17many other moms. Thank you so much and it's my
- 1:21pleasure to be here. I always love talking with you.
- 1:24So can you just share really quick Catholic all year?
- 1:27What's the heart behind Catholic all year?
- 1:29Yeah, so Catholic all year started off as a mommy blog back
- 1:34in those days and and has become more of an apostolate and but
- 1:39but the heart behind it is, is helping parents to bring the
- 1:43faith home, you know, home with them and, and do that with their
- 1:48families in a way that seems fun and natural and not in a way
- 1:52that it is stressful or or, you know, feels like lessons that
- 1:56you want to feel natural and part of your everyday life.
- 1:59So it can be very tough. So I work, I have a lot of
- 2:02things going on. I know a lot of moms do, and
- 2:04every mom is busy. Especially when you got little
- 2:07ones. It's just life is busy.
- 2:09What would say, what would be one of your top tips for praying
- 2:13and incorporating prayer into your daily life, especially when
- 2:16you have little ones? Sometimes they go to bed at
- 2:18different times, there's nap times at different times,
- 2:20there's the chaos. What?
- 2:21What do you say? Yeah.
- 2:23So there's, there's a few different sort of angles that I
- 2:26try to approach it. And the first thing I'll say is,
- 2:30is to have some sort of a like a tent pole religious practices,
- 2:34the the things that are most important to you because
- 2:37developing that strong family culture is really an important
- 2:41part of of faith development with kids.
- 2:44So there are so many beautiful prayers, there are so many
- 2:48devotional practices and we can't, there's not time to do
- 2:52all of them for anyone, let alone, you know, busy families.
- 2:55But you pick the couple that are really seem the most meaningful
- 3:00and the most manageable for your family and do those.
- 3:03Now, there are some that are especially recommended, like if
- 3:06you can do the rosary, do the rosary.
- 3:08But if you can't do the rosary, you know, do the Angelus, do
- 3:12there, there's the Divine Mercy chaplet.
- 3:14There are little prayerful practices, you know, blessing
- 3:17your children before they leave in the morning to, to go to
- 3:20school, you know, with, with holy water.
- 3:22There are so many of those little things.
- 3:25It would be perhaps burdensome, you know, to do all of them.
- 3:29But you pick those, those few and you really stick with them.
- 3:32And, and then, you know, your, your kids have memories of those
- 3:36and, and it's just sort of an expectation of a thing that's
- 3:39built into your, to your daily routine.
- 3:42What are the top three that you would say?
- 3:44These ones are true blue easy. You know, if a child is having a
- 3:50rough day or moment, you know, there you can still, you know,
- 3:54plow forward with this. Even if the kids are not like
- 3:56sitting quietly and praying with you.
- 3:58They're kind of part of the daily life.
- 3:59What will be the top three? You know, prayers or practices
- 4:02that you recommend, especially when you're dealing with kids of
- 4:04different ages? Well, the, the one that, that I
- 4:08think I have a big heart for the Angelus, whereas, you know, and,
- 4:13and we do try to get to the, to the rosary every day.
- 4:16We, we say a morning offering in the car.
- 4:20But, but I, I love the Angelus and I love that it's meant to
- 4:25sort of disrupt what you're doing because it's a, it's a
- 4:28prayer that happens at a particular time, most often at
- 4:31noon, but there's are also traditions of doing it at 6:00
- 4:33AM at noon and 6:00 PM. So any.
- 4:36Of those 4:00 AM these days, sadly, but kids in the bed at
- 4:406:00 AM. We're praying right now, guys.
- 4:43We're going to go back to bed now.
- 4:44But I have an alarm set on my phone and it rings church bells
- 4:48and you stop what what you're doing.
- 4:51And I love that. My kids, my kids know it.
- 4:53Now we stop what we're doing. We stand up and we say the
- 4:56Angelus and it takes one or you know, one minute like maybe 2
- 5:01and and we say that together. It's a call and response.
- 5:04So it's something that we that we really do together, but mid
- 5:08sentence, mid activity, whatever, we stop and we do it.
- 5:12And so that's something that that I particularly,
- 5:16particularly love. Can we, can we do it now just as
- 5:19a practice of what this looks like?
- 5:20So you're, let's say if you're homeschooling mom or your kids
- 5:23are at school and you've got a couple little ones at home or
- 5:25you just got the one baby, doesn't matter.
- 5:27You have the lock set, you know the timer on your phone set for
- 5:30noon. Maybe you're about to eat lunch.
- 5:32You just had a snack. It doesn't matter at noon.
- 5:34Like, hey, guys, it's the Angelus.
- 5:36How do you describe to your kids what you're about to do and why
- 5:38it matters? Well, so at this point they hear
- 5:41the alarm and they just stand up.
- 5:43Oh, they. Know they're.
- 5:44Trained, Yeah, when we're in a group with, you know, with our
- 5:47other Catholic family moms, multiple alarms will go off at
- 5:51noon, which is fun. But yeah, so we just, we, we did
- 5:54start saying, you know, there's first I started, well, I'm going
- 5:58to try to do the Angelus, but until I set the alarm on my
- 6:01phone, it didn't really happen. But but yeah, I just explained
- 6:05this is this prayer that we're going to do.
- 6:07And I did both sides with them for a while and now they, you
- 6:11know, now they can do it either either leading or following.
- 6:14Did you? Kind of share what was the
- 6:16reason behind the Angeles for them and like why we pray the
- 6:19Angeles? Like what?
- 6:20How did you kind of introduce it to your kids?
- 6:22Yeah. Well, and that goes into another
- 6:25really important part of of our practice of the faith in the
- 6:29home, which is the liturgical calendar.
- 6:31And there are so they're all these little things that we want
- 6:34to introduce to our kids. And the beautiful thing about
- 6:36the liturgical calendar is that there are feast days, and the
- 6:41entire intention behind them is to reach the lady and help us to
- 6:46learn and understand and appreciate and celebrate our
- 6:49faith. So on the feast of the
- 6:51Annunciation, that's when we talk about the story behind it.
- 6:55And, you know, the fact that the Angel Gabriel appeared to marry,
- 6:59told her, you know, asked her if she, you know, would be willing
- 7:03to be the mother of God, and that she assented.
- 7:06And and that's what we're remembering every day when we
- 7:10pray the Angelus. But it's that it's the
- 7:13liturgical calendar that, that that gives me sort of the push
- 7:17to all right, on this day every year, we're going to talk about
- 7:20this, we're going to explain it. And they can understand it a
- 7:23little better, a little more deeply every time it comes back
- 7:27around. But so, you know, on Divine
- 7:29Mercy Sunday, we do the same thing.
- 7:30We talk about that. And then when we do the Divine
- 7:33Mercy Chaplet, they understand and there are feast days for
- 7:36most of the mysteries of the rosary.
- 7:38So it gives them a greater understanding of those things
- 7:42that we're praying about if we've discussed them and
- 7:46celebrated them in in a way on their on their particular.
- 7:49Day when is the Feast of the Annunciation?
- 7:51Feast of the Annunciation is on March 25th.
- 7:54It's We celebrate it during Lent, but nine months from
- 7:58Christmas. So March 25th, that's when Jesus
- 8:00ultimately was conceived. Mama Mary, the Angel comes to
- 8:04Mother Mary and says, you know, you know, you know, full of
- 8:07grace. Blessed are, you know, if she
- 8:08doesn't say blessed says full of grace, hailful of grace.
- 8:11Later on, Elizabeth says, blessed are you?
- 8:14But she says full of grace and then basically says, you know,
- 8:17he offers her the opportunity to conceive the Son of God, God
- 8:21himself. And she says, be it done unto me
- 8:23according to thy will. So we're going to pray this
- 8:26right now if that's OK, this prayer.
- 8:27But I, I think that's really beautiful that you're reminding
- 8:30us about the liturgical calendar.
- 8:32Because the reality is, if we did pay attention to every feast
- 8:37day on a liturgical calendar and solemnity on the liturgical
- 8:41calendar and explain it to our even very young kids, they'll
- 8:44start to know these things more familiar.
- 8:46They'll be more familiar for them, right?
- 8:47Like, Oh yes, you know, Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit
- 8:52after the Angel Gabriel comes. And there's a whole day where we
- 8:54celebrate that once a year on March 25th.
- 8:57And so when we praying the Angelus at noon every day, we're
- 9:00remembering that beautiful, not just story, but that, you know,
- 9:03sacred part of our faith. Let's go to.
- 9:06If you're good with doing it, let's let's.
- 9:08I'll be your. Five year old and you be and
- 9:11I'll do this. I've got my phone up with the
- 9:13words and we'll, we'll pray this, all right?
- 9:16There's a beautiful painting that a lot of people have
- 9:18probably seen that's called the Angelus.
- 9:20And it's it's a man and a woman who stopped in a field, stopped
- 9:24their work and they're standing, bowing their head, praying the
- 9:27Angelus. And so that's what I love about
- 9:30it. It's you.
- 9:31You stop what you're doing and, and take that moment for God.
- 9:34So in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit,
- 9:37Amen. The Angel of the Lord declared
- 9:38unto Mary, and. She conceived of the Holy
- 9:41Spirit. Hail Mary, full of grace, the
- 9:42Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women,
- 9:45and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus holy.
- 9:47Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of
- 9:50our death. Amen.
- 9:51Behold the. Handmaid of the Lord.
- 9:52Be it done unto me according to thy word.
- 9:55Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed thou
- 9:58amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus,
- 10:01Holy Mary. Mother of God, pray for us
- 10:03sinners now and at the hour of our death.
- 10:04Amen. And the Word was made flesh.
- 10:06And dwelt among us. Hail Mary, full of grace, the
- 10:09Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women,
- 10:11and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus holy.
- 10:13Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of
- 10:17our death. Amen.
- 10:18Pray for us, the Holy Mother of God, that.
- 10:21We may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
- 10:23Let us pray for forth we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our
- 10:27hearts, that we to whom the incarnation of Christ Thy Son
- 10:29was made known by the message of an Angel, made by His passion
- 10:32and cross, be brought to the glory of His resurrection
- 10:35through the same Christ our Lord, Amen, Amen, Father, and of
- 10:38the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen, that feels.
- 10:40Doable, yeah. How do you explain incarnation,
- 10:43the incarnation of Jesus, to a three-year old?
- 10:46Yeah, well, I mean, my, my kids know the excitement of, of
- 10:53finding out a new baby is coming, right?
- 10:55So, so they know that that that baby that was once growing
- 11:01inside their mom's tummy is now their brother or sister.
- 11:07And, and so that, that understanding of that, you know,
- 11:12that God would choose to come and become a tiny baby and grow
- 11:16in his mother's womb. Honestly, like they think that
- 11:20sounds like a great idea and really fun, you know, because
- 11:24it's part of their, you know, general frame of reference.
- 11:27But yeah, I, I, I think the, the neat thing about starting this
- 11:31when kids are young is that it's, it doesn't seem so far
- 11:35fetched to them as it does for adults that have never heard it
- 11:38before. Kids are really open to to the
- 11:42more sort of weird mystical, you know, what's the what's the
- 11:48word? I'm looking for the.
- 11:49Unexpected. It's.
- 11:50Like out of. Routine it's like we're going to
- 11:52get AI. What I love about it is like
- 11:53with the idea with the Angeles and making that part of like a
- 11:56staple for family prayer with kids is that it's also like
- 11:59you're going to stand up. OK rise, we're standing up and
- 12:01it's interactive. Like I say a prayer you say
- 12:03prayer and even if they mess up or they don't know the prayer
- 12:05yet you can say it for them, right?
- 12:06You can like guide them along and then they bow, you know bow
- 12:09your head now and it just takes what, 3 minutes?
- 12:11Yeah. And then you're done and then
- 12:14move forward. But you had a moment as a family
- 12:15where you're remembering the incarnation Jesus coming into
- 12:19the world to save us, You know, our Lord and Savior.
- 12:21I mean, there's something so beautiful about making anchoring
- 12:23the day with that. And having it be community that,
- 12:27that there was a time when church bells would ring in, in
- 12:30town and everyone would stop and say the Angelus.
- 12:34And so I like that idea of, of our domestic church stopping for
- 12:39a moment and coming together. You know, the kids, if they
- 12:41aren't, if we aren't all together and they see what time
- 12:44it is, they'll come running. So, so I, I like that aspect of
- 12:48it too. It's something we can do in the
- 12:50car. It's something that we can do
- 12:51when we're out. You know, we'll, we'll be at a
- 12:53field trip at the aquarium and a couple of families will just,
- 12:56you know, stand over to the side and we'll say our, our Angelus.
- 12:59And it's a way to be, you know, a subtle witness to, you know,
- 13:06to the prayerful practices that are part of our, our family
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- 14:3620% off your order. All right, Angeles, we're good.
- 14:42We got we were gonna do that. Give me two more.
- 14:46What else? What else are we doing in the
- 14:47given day? I think that that to start the
- 14:51day with something is, is really important and really beautiful.
- 14:55Some people, you know, will bless their their kids with holy
- 14:58water as they're leaving for the house.
- 14:59What we usually do is say the morning offering and the
- 15:04guardian Angel prayer and we do that, you know, for my
- 15:07homeschoolers, I do it when we start the homeschool day for the
- 15:11kids who go to traditional school.
- 15:13When I was driving them, we would say it in the car
- 15:15together. Now they say it on their own,
- 15:18but but what I love about a morning offering is that if it's
- 15:22the only thing you get to in a day, you're saying I want to
- 15:25make my whole day a prayer. I want everything that I do this
- 15:30day, whether you know the whether it's a challenge or a
- 15:35joy, I want to offer all of that to God.
- 15:38And I'm making a point of saying that this morning.
- 15:41And if it kind of slips my mind every now and again during the
- 15:43day, at least I, you know, at least I started, started the day
- 15:47right. And, and again, the guardian
- 15:48Angel prayer, asking our guardian angels to be with us
- 15:52during the day. That's something that kids
- 15:55especially love the idea that that they have not the idea, the
- 16:00fact that they have a guardian Angel that is there with them
- 16:03all the time. And, and it's it, it's great to
- 16:07acknowledge that. So the Angeles at noon, the
- 16:10guardian Angel prayer and the and the Angeles in, you know,
- 16:15first thing in the morning, at the morning.
- 16:16Offering the Guardian in the morning.
- 16:18Offering, yes. Guardian Angel prayer in the
- 16:20morning offering I think are are both things that are really.
- 16:24You're sneaking in A2 on one. Oh, I know, I knew this was
- 16:28going to happen with you. Kendra, you've got so many
- 16:31liturgical living opportunities with you.
- 16:33But so, so you're saying, So what does that look?
- 16:35And we're going to say that these prayers too here in a
- 16:37moment, the morning offering, which is a really short prayer.
- 16:39I mean, it literally takes like 20 seconds.
- 16:40It's awesome. And the Gordian Angel prayer,
- 16:42again, like 15 second prayer. You're done, right.
- 16:46I'm, I am curious though, if I don't know about your household,
- 16:49but, and you have many more children than I have, but I have
- 16:52the three kids, you know, 5 and under.
- 16:53And the mornings are always, you know, crazy.
- 16:57Like there's screaming, laughing, jumping, running.
- 17:01They often get up around the same time, but not always.
- 17:04Someone's always sick or there's something else going on.
- 17:06And so it's like that moment to try to collect everyone and do
- 17:10this together. Like, how do you, how do you
- 17:12approach that? What do you?
- 17:13Recommend. I have two answers.
- 17:14One is for, you know, me personally as a mom, and then
- 17:18one's for the family. And the because I always my
- 17:22preference is to do these things together.
- 17:24So that's the better. But sometimes the better is the
- 17:26enemy of good enough, right? And so I say it on my own when I
- 17:30first wake up because I want to make sure that, you know, that
- 17:33I've said it. And then I try to find a time
- 17:37when we are all together. And for a long time that was,
- 17:40you know, us buckled into the car for the school drop.
- 17:44Yeah, exactly. So whatever, you know, whatever
- 17:46you're doing, first thing in the morning, before we turn on the
- 17:48radio, before we have any conversations, we immediately
- 17:51say the the morning offering and the guardian Angel prayer.
- 17:56But there was a long time where I almost didn't have to drive
- 18:01anywhere when my all my kids were homeschooled, which that
- 18:04was great. And so then we started, we just
- 18:06did it at the beginning of our homeschool day.
- 18:08So there was sort of a set time when when we were all together
- 18:12you. Are highly organized, but you
- 18:16you could probably do breakfast, I mean, or like if you're all in
- 18:19the kitchen together. Oh guys, let's stop and do the
- 18:21morning offering together. But I love what you said about
- 18:24as a mom, saying the prayer yourself before with doing it
- 18:27with the kids if at all possible, like having that just
- 18:29even a few minutes or or even a minute right before the create
- 18:34the chaos begins. I think that's really beautiful
- 18:37because it's like this is first fruits for God, first moments of
- 18:39my my day, my alertness. It's put on yours Put.
- 18:42On your oxygen mask, Yes. Yes, all.
- 18:45Right, let's do the morning offering together.
- 18:47I'm actually going to let you just pray it, OK?
- 18:49And I'll pray along with you silently.
- 18:51In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
- 18:53Spirit, Amen. Oh my Jesus, through the
- 18:55Immaculate Heart of Mary, Ioffer thee all my prayers, works, joys
- 18:59and sufferings of this day, for all the intentions of thy Sacred
- 19:03Heart, in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass offered
- 19:06throughout the world in reparation for my sins, and for
- 19:09all the intentions of the Holy Father.
- 19:11Amen. Amen.
- 19:13Father and son, we love that. Literally less than 20 seconds,
- 19:15I think that was that's for sure.
- 19:17And then there's the guardian Angel prayer, which I love.
- 19:20We, we actually pray this in the evenings, but I love the idea
- 19:22about the morning. It actually makes as much sense
- 19:25in the morning. You could also do it both times,
- 19:28of course, but let's do the guardian Angel prayer next, All
- 19:30right. And how do you, how do you
- 19:31actually, before we pray the guardian Angel prayer, how do
- 19:33you explain the guardian Angel prayer to the kids?
- 19:35Yeah, I mean, again, they are just ripe to to accept that that
- 19:42sort of that sort of thing that that they absolutely believe
- 19:46that God assigned an Angel to look after them.
- 19:49And, and my my mother-in-law talks about, you know, that when
- 19:55she was in parochial school, the the nuns would have them scooch
- 19:59over just a little bit to make room for their guardian Angel.
- 20:02That is so cute. And but just this idea of
- 20:05talking about it, making sure that our kids are are aware of
- 20:09it. I remember talking with my, I
- 20:12think then maybe 3 year old and we were looking at this.
- 20:16Very fanciful artwork in a doctor's waiting room.
- 20:19And there were mermaids and there were angels and there were
- 20:23narwhals. And, and I'm going through and
- 20:26asking her, all right, which is real and which is not real, just
- 20:29to see. And she was pretty sure mermaids
- 20:31were definitely real. Narwhals were not.
- 20:33No way that could exist. And but she knew that angels
- 20:37were real, so. How old was she?
- 20:39Three. I love that.
- 20:40I love that. All right.
- 20:42What's the guardian Angel prayer?
- 20:43All right. In the name of the Father and of
- 20:45the Son, the Holy Spirit, Amen. Angel of God, my guardian, dear,
- 20:49through whom God's love commits thee here ever this day be at my
- 20:52side to light, to guard, to rule, to guide.
- 20:55Amen. And I love that ever this day,
- 20:58be at my side. And then if it's night and
- 21:00you're praying it at night, ever this night be at my son.
- 21:03Beautiful. All right, we've got you snuck
- 21:05in another one. That's good because I was like 3
- 21:07things we can do. But we got the guardian Angel
- 21:09prayer, the morning offering. But again, less than a minute of
- 21:11time. The Angelus got 2 minutes, maybe
- 21:153 minutes of time. What would you say?
- 21:17And, and here's the thing, like to your point, it's like, if you
- 21:19want to really develop a sense of God's presence with your
- 21:23kids, it does take a habit of building in more, more than just
- 21:27one little prayer day. It's not like just a prayer
- 21:28before meals, like the whole idea of like living your faith
- 21:30with your kids as you're incorporating it throughout the
- 21:32day. So I'm not trying to say, you
- 21:34know, it's not beautiful to get to the point where you're doing
- 21:37a rosary, you're doing maybe even meditation or other things
- 21:39in the evening with your kids. But if you're kind of maybe
- 21:42folks are listening like they, they're kind of haven't
- 21:43strengthened the muscle yet. They maybe they do a quick, you
- 21:46know, prayer of Jesus loves you before bed and a sign of the
- 21:48cross. Maybe.
- 21:49But what would be that kind of maybe an anchor practice, like a
- 21:53first habit that you say, Hey, this is a really good one to
- 21:55nail and and to to nail, meaning NAIL, not kneel, nail while you
- 22:01kneel, whatever that this is like a core 1 to start with and
- 22:04get really consistent with as a family.
- 22:07Well, and that's, that's something that I really
- 22:10appreciate again, about the Catholic churches that there
- 22:13are, there are these frameworks and so there's the liturgical
- 22:16calendar and there are these prayers that were said
- 22:18traditionally at different times during the day.
- 22:21So I, I like that. I like that we can have the
- 22:23morning offering and morning, we can have the Angeles at noon,
- 22:27Divine Mercy tablet. If you're going to throw that in
- 22:29there, it's usually at 3:00 and then, you know, and then at
- 22:31bedtime to do the acting contrition or you know, which,
- 22:37which itself is meditative, right?
- 22:39Because you're thinking about what, what things did I do
- 22:42during this day that I could have done better?
- 22:44And that's a beautiful thing to, to actually stop and do as a
- 22:47conversation with kids as they're, you know, winding down,
- 22:51you know, what are, what are things we're grateful for?
- 22:53What are things we could have done better?
- 22:55Would you recommend the Act of Contrition as as a really great
- 22:58starting place for evening our bedtime prayers?
- 23:01Yes, yeah, that would be my number one recommendation.
- 23:04And it seems like a long complicated prayer and it's not
- 23:07a not a very easy one for kids to memorize, but but it's what
- 23:12got me to finally memorize it. And then you, you know, you want
- 23:15to have it ideally memorized by the time kids have their first
- 23:20confession. So if they've heard it
- 23:23throughout their, you know, early years and that makes that
- 23:27part of of your first confession very easy.
- 23:29And why would you say that Act of Contrition is such a
- 23:32important and powerful prayer, even as the starting prayer for
- 23:35an air bedtime routine with kids?
- 23:38Yeah, because in the same way that the morning offering, you
- 23:41know, offers my whole day to God, the act of contrition
- 23:45allows me to look back on on the day and see, you know what,
- 23:50where am I grateful for things that that happened during this
- 23:54day? Where what are things that, you
- 23:57know, that I could have done better?
- 23:58Where are places that I failed and and it you know, we can all
- 24:04use that moment of of introspection, I think and to
- 24:08praise God, you know, in in all of those moments.
- 24:12How does? That work if the kit, if the
- 24:14child is, you know, below the age of reason, meaning they're,
- 24:17you know 345, you know they're a baby.
- 24:20Obviously if they're a baby, they're not they're just you're
- 24:22praying and they're in your lap or whatever running around or
- 24:24crawling around. But you know, my 3 year old,
- 24:27like he does remember things in the day earlier, like, you know,
- 24:30what was we go, we say what was your highlight and what was your
- 24:32low light? You know, sometimes, you know,
- 24:34at the family dinner table and it's like, you know, you know,
- 24:37my highlight is when I played with my Big Brother.
- 24:39My low light is when me hit me or whatever, whatever it is.
- 24:42But with the act of contrition, how do you explain what the
- 24:46child like to like a four year old?
- 24:48Right? How would you explain an act of
- 24:50contrition to a four year old and why it is important?
- 24:53Well, I. I think that that the, the crux
- 24:57of it is that every action that we do effects us, affects the
- 25:03people around us, affects the body of Christ, you know, and
- 25:06that God is aware of of all of it.
- 25:09And so all of those little things, all those highlights and
- 25:12low lights of the day, you know, we, we give those to God and we
- 25:17know that when we hit our brother, you know, God wishes
- 25:23that we had made a different decision that, you know, like
- 25:25that God wants better for us than that.
- 25:28And so to, to tie these places where we're trying to grow in
- 25:31personal holiness or even to say, you know, this afternoon, I
- 25:35got really frustrated and I, you know, I yelled at you and I
- 25:40apologize to you and I apologize to God for that because you
- 25:44know, God loves you and God wants me to be the best mom I
- 25:47can be. So.
- 25:48It sounds like you're using the active contrition, even with the
- 25:50very little ones as a way to talk as a family, even just for
- 25:53a few minutes about the day and look back on mistakes made and
- 25:57like good things that were given to us, blessings or good choices
- 26:01that were made. Just very high level to kind of
- 26:03have this family round up before God.
- 26:05And then you say the pro together, right?
- 26:08And some days it's just the prayer and I'm off to bed, but
- 26:11some days it's a conversation. And, and I, I love, I love that.
- 26:15I love that, you know, prayer is conversation with God and, and,
- 26:19and that, that prayer can stimulate conversation, you
- 26:23know, among, among the family. I love that.
- 26:25All right, let's do it. Let's see the act of contrition.
- 26:27Here we go. In the name of the Father, and
- 26:30of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
- 26:32Oh my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I
- 26:35detest all my sins because I fear the loss of heaven and the
- 26:38pains of hell, but most of all because they offend Thee.
- 26:41My God, who are at all good and worthy of all my love, I firmly
- 26:44resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to do penance, amend my
- 26:47life, and avoid the near occasion of sin.
- 26:50The name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit.
- 26:52Amen. Love it.
- 26:53I'm sure of you. I'm sure you've gotten asked me
- 26:55times what is hell? We do the Saint Michael's prayer
- 26:59a lot in there. It's like cast into hell.
- 27:01What is you know, So we have this and say hell ISM you, but
- 27:04people choose to go there because they don't want to be
- 27:06with God's love. Why would they want, you know,
- 27:09the conversations? It's incredible the
- 27:11conversations when you, you know, do prayers like this where
- 27:16there's so much curiosity and interest, not every night, but
- 27:19most nights about what is this? What what are we doing right
- 27:22now? What does it mean to say these
- 27:24words? What do these words mean?
- 27:26And the conversations they open are some of the best
- 27:28conversations I've seen. Absolutely.
- 27:30Absolutely. And I love it when kids have
- 27:33funny little insights into things like wow, you know,
- 27:36that's a really good point. I hadn't thought about it like
- 27:38I. Usually let my husband handle
- 27:40the tough theological questions. I'm like that one.
- 27:41You can, you can do. I love this, Kendra.
- 27:45Thank you. I'd love for us to just close
- 27:48with a little prayer for just moms listening or anyone
- 27:53listening for their families, for us to be able to grow in
- 27:58prayer practices of prayer, to draw closer to God as a family
- 28:01with our little ones. Do you want to lead us?
- 28:04Lead us here in? The name of the Father and of
- 28:06the Son, the Holy Spirit. Amen.
- 28:08Thank you God for the gift of motherhood and, and all of the
- 28:13accompanying blessings and, and challenges.
- 28:16And we ask you to watch over all of us and all of the mothers who
- 28:22are listening today and help us to love our kids for you and,
- 28:29and to love them the way that you love them and, and to help
- 28:34them to come to know you more. Amen.
- 28:37Amen, Father, son. Helise Freeman.
- 28:39Thanks Kendra all. Right.
- 28:41Thank you.