Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
We hope you enjoy your visit!
You're currently viewing Catholic CyberForum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our online cyberparish, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.
Join our community!
Messages posted to this board must be polite and free of abuse, personal attacks, blasphemy, racism, threats, harrassment, and crude or sexually-explicit language.
If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Passing On Your Faith; to your own children
Topic Started: Tuesday, 13. November 2007, 01:40 (1,460 Views)
James
James
Yes, I agree.

When a child gets to a certain age then little acts like these can be explained as they go along.
In the case of older people - then we are never too old to learn and get good advantgage from the knowledge.

A small child sometimes leads up the offertory procession ,holding the bread, in our church.
His grandmother hovers behind him with arms nearly enfolding him in case he drops it.
But he never does.
It takes him a long time as he walks very slowly and carefully.
I know as I walk behind with the collection !
He loves it but I think he is still a bit young to explain very much.
The priest waits patiently for us and then gives him a little smile.
Lovely exposure before instruction
Edited by James, Saturday, 16. May 2009, 22:38.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Deleted User
Deleted User

Although this isn't strictly concerning passing on the faith to our children, I do think this Catholic Herald article highlights the problem of where children and students gain a deeper understanding of the faith
Quote:
 
This brings me to the collection of essays associated with the Baroque exhibition currently on view at the Victoria and Albert Museum. It is a heavy, sumptuously illustrated volume but its shortcomings in the ecclesiastical contributions go beyond a limited understanding of Catholic doctrine to cloudy misrepresentation which brings shame to a national institution as eminent as the V&A. The principle contributor on religious subjects is Nigel Llewellyn, head of research at Tate Britain. Of 30 essays, he contributes nine, of which six are on religious subjects. These include liturgical topics like High Mass, sacramentals, devotions like the Stations of the Cross, the cult of saints, and doctrinally informed works of art like representations of the Immaculate Conception.
Nowadays even scholars are ignorant about the Faith
Quote Post Goto Top
 
James
James
I think he spent too much time reading the Da Vinci code and The Holy Grail books.
They can really confuse you if you don't know any better.
Take priest's vestments for instance - did you know that they originated from the early druid ceremonies at Stonehenge.

This was the original form of worship and practised by rhe knights templar on the way to Scotland when they escorted Mary Magdalen and her son who escaped from Jeruaslem after the death of Jesus.

They remained there for a while and built stonehenge as a massive compass so that when the sun cast shadows in different directions - the ceremonies would inform them what direction to go for the rest of the journey and were very accurate. The party got to scotland but several had to remain in Stonehenge and perform other ceremonial calculations. You can still see their descendants at various times with the original vestments handed down. The sat- nav owes a lot of it's calculations to these early form of worship.

Trouble is, in this day of packaged facts and folk with little time to spare will believe anything if there is a bit of mystery and it sounds plausable.

Sad, Sad,
Edited by James, Sunday, 17. May 2009, 01:38.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Derekap
Member Avatar

I thought, James, the vestments in the Latin Rite originated from Roman clothing. Would the Druids at Stonehenge really have influenced the Church authorities in Rome?
Derekap
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Rose of York
Member Avatar
Administrator
Derek I think James is being ironic, about authors who make up mystical nonsense.
Keep the Faith!

Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Derekap
Member Avatar

I'm still on analogue, I haven't got round to digital - yet.

Blame it on old age!
Derekap
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
James
James
Well, at least you have not read the" Da Vinci Code" Derek, by the looks of it.
As well as some of the other rubbish.

That puts you one up on our friend at Victoris and Albert who appears to have been very influenced by the "new interpretations"

Anyway I like analogue - I still play my old LPs and, in good condition, they sound better than digital in most cases. Especially the old HMV ones with the dog and the gramaphone.

;)
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Rose of York
Member Avatar
Administrator
Father Peyton, the Rosary Rally priest, used to say The family that prays together, stays together.

Not always!

I don't think there is a formula to suit all families. Youngsters nowadays expect to have their own independent accommodation from an early age. They house share, on Sundays their friends go off somewhere (football, shopping, whatever) and they feel the pressure to fit in with their peers. Those who leave home to go to University are thrown from sixth form, wearing a school uniform, calling teachers Sir and Miss, straight into independent adult life, paying rent, budgeting, running bank accounts, arranging loans for fees. There is no long, long stride between childhood and adulthood. It is one big instant jump. Is it surprising they go their own way?

Lets forget about Youth Masses aimed at teenagers, and give some attention to YOUNG ADULTS. Integrate them into parish life, ask them to give a hand, to take charge of something if they have the ability. We must stop treating them like large children.
Keep the Faith!

Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
KatyA

Quote:
 
Catholic parents who have seriously attempted to ground their children in the Church are often flummoxed on that (almost) inevitable day when the kids announce: “I am now very smart and have doubts about all of that.” Having been fed upon the rich wine of faith and reason, scripture, tradition, and culture, our kids often enter adulthood with a stated preference for water. When that happens, it is not time to fret. Have faith in all you have taught them; if you know how to look for it, your kids will demonstrate for you in no uncertain terms which lessons were well-learned, and which were not.

Evidence of their grounding
I enjoyed reading that piece, but I have to say (as a parent of wandering adults) that I wish I was convinced

KatyA
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Rose of York
Member Avatar
Administrator
My parents passed on the Faith by example, and answering my questions. They had backing from the school. The teachers taught us about our Catholic heritage, the catacombs, martyrs, saints. That made us proud to be Catholics. They failed to teach me that God the Father loves me. We learned all about him being ready to punish us. We were to get to Heaven by our own efforts, avoiding mortal sin. Nobody explained that my Father in Heaven loves me so much he years for me to turn to him for forgiveness when I have hurt him.

Somehow a balance needs to be found, between "Jesus loves you whatever you get up to you'll be OK" and "Watch out, God's about."
Keep the Faith!

Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Mairtin
Member Avatar

Rose of York
Monday, 11. October 2010, 20:11
My parents passed on the Faith by example, and answering my questions. They had backing from the school. The teachers taught us about our Catholic heritage, the catacombs, martyrs, saints.
I think that is a lot more difficult nowadays because, whilst every generation in human history has probably regarded the following generation as having gone to pot, there is no doubt that there has been a far greater degree of change over the last 1 - 2 generations than ever before.

For example, when we were kids and our parents told us that things like abortion and homosexuality were great evils, it was easy to believe them because society in general regarded those things as evil; nowadays, society doesn't so Catholic parents have to convince their kids to reject what society at large is saying.

Also, when we were young, our parents, our teachers and our priests were the dominating influences in moulding the development of our thinking as we grew up; nowadays, kids are subjected to far wider and more intense influences like television and the Internet, so again it is a much harder battle for Catholic parents.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Angus Toanimo
Member Avatar
Administrator
Tradidi quod et accepi
Posted Image
Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Gerard

Mairtin,

Quote:
 
For example, when we were kids and our parents told us that things like abortion and homosexuality were great evils


In my experience everyone knows that abortion is evil - and the younger they are the more the know it.
Homosexuality is a more subtle issue but, again, children (well, teenagers) are more intolerant of it than adults.

Gerry
"The institutional and charismatic aspects are quasi coessential to the Church's constitution" (Pope John Paul II, 1998).
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Anne-Marie

Mairtin
Tuesday, 12. October 2010, 08:13
when we were kids and our parents told us that things were great evils, it was easy to believe them because society in general regarded those things as evil; nowadays, society doesn't so Catholic parents have to convince their kids to reject what society at large is saying.

Also, when we were young, our parents, our teachers and our priests were the dominating influences in moulding the development of our thinking as we grew up; nowadays, kids are subjected to far wider influences, so again it is a much harder battle for Catholic parents.
Thankfully, Mairtin, you chose not to comment on that change...
Because that old attitude was exactly what enabled pædophile priests and sadistic nuns to get away with their evils (and politicians to keep their hands firmly in the till).
We now (quite rightly) challenge everything - and I happen to think our society (Catholic or otherwise) is a great deal healthier because of that change.
If the Catholic Church wants to survive that culture change (and survive it obviously will - Jesus promised it), it has to get its act together, behave itself and start practising what it preaches (other than silence and submission to it).
Young people (and most of the rest of us now as well) will no longer respect and tolerate the humbug and hypocrisy of the past: we require good example to follow, or we walk away.

We (collectively as 'The Church') preach love, kindness and care... and when it suits us we practice (and often preach, as some have observed elsewhere in this forum) rejection, hurt and hatred for those we object to or disapprove of. And what happens when our temporal power is challenged (be we lay or religious) can be disgusting to see.

The modern world (as the people in it) judge by what we do, not what we say.
Either we both believe and practice or we will be (rightly) rejected.
The younger generation knows right from wrong - many of we oldies have long since forgotten.
THAT is what has actually changed
Edited by Anne-Marie, Tuesday, 12. October 2010, 12:07.
Anne-Marie
FIAT VOLUNTAS DEI
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Clare
Member Avatar
Putting the "Fun Dame" into Fundamentalist
Anne-Marie
Tuesday, 12. October 2010, 12:03
We (collectively as 'The Church') preach love, kindness and care... and when it suits us we practice (and often preach, as some have observed elsewhere in this forum) rejection, hurt and hatred for those we object to or disapprove of. And what happens when our temporal power is challenged (be we lay or religious) can be disgusting to see.

The modern world (as the people in it) judge by what we do, not what we say.
Either we both believe and practice or we will be (rightly) rejected.
Yes, well it's difficult when people confuse "practising what one preaches" with "hatred".

What many people seem to want today, and in fact what they get, is for us Catholics not to practise what we preach.

And worse still, we start preaching what we practise. And it isn't Catholicism.
Edited by Clare, Tuesday, 12. October 2010, 19:43.
S.A.G.

Motes 'n' Beams blog

Join in the Fun Trivia Quiz!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
Go to Next Page
« Previous Topic · Archived Discussions · Next Topic »
Add Reply