Faith community

Last week I was driving to an event with a co-worker and we were talking about the sweet Lord and our children. She asked me where my children go to school, and I quickly said, “They are in public school. We teach the faith at home.”

She excitedly replied, “Oh cool, tell me about that.” Wide-eyed and suddenly very dry-mouthed I mumbled over things like “ugh…well, we say the rosary” and “umm…we try to take advantage of teachable moments that life brings.” She graciously affirmed that was great but I had a legitimate cause for pause.  How are we teaching the faith? What is it that we are doing … really?  

I can write these columns about my family from inspirations of the Holy Spirit but when asked out of the blue, I lacked confidence. I doubted. The Lord, in his gentle way, reminded me that it was not just “we” as in my husband and me. It is also those we are surrounded by and those we are blessed to expose them to. This reality both soothed my heart and served its usual dose of humility. We aren’t expected to do it alone. We can’t do it alone. I am thankful for that because the curriculum I would come up with would involve mostly pictures and just wearing a lot of medals.  

I’m blessed to share with you how only two days after my instance of panic the Lord created a weekend that I could only look back in awe. I could see in retrospect all the places he was helping us teach our children. Not only did he show me how he was supporting our efforts but he very clearly showed me that the people in our lives make us the Christians that we strive to be. They model the faith with their lives, too. It was such a relief to know we didn’t have to do all the teaching, at least not directly. If we made the time for certain things then the Lord would take over from there. 

That Saturday my husband and I split up for different events. I felt heavy guilt because I had planned for quite some time to participate in our church’s Christmas market with my oldest. Well, as it turned out, an opportunity for her to be surrounded by many religious sisters in the form of a discernment retreat popped up the same day. We both knew she wanted to participate and I needed to accompany her so my husband agreed to take the middles to the Christmas market and run a booth ALL DAY while trying to wrangle our rascaliest rascals.

Even my Mom and niece made time for my switcheroo and traveled to our house to watch the baby.  My oldest and I spent a day so full of the Holy Spirit that we couldn’t wait to tell everyone else. Everyone else was tired. I went to bed that night with a bit of sorrow for putting others out so that we could climb the mountain.  

The next day we had to go to 7 a.m. Mass but get there at 6:30 a.m. for dad’s KC rosary. It was day two of the market and my shift. Also that day the middles had Catechism, then I dragged all five of them to my Carmelite Christmas party and then back home for evening Catechism for my oldest and husband as a teacher. 

The weekend was nonstop and exhausting. I again went to bed thinking about how everyone accommodated what seemed like a weekend full of stuff I wanted to do but the next morning in prayer I heard the Lord. It’s NOT about YOU, Ellen, again, get over yourself. EVERYONE contributes to teaching the life of faith and then what was like a reel of Holy Spirit events flashed in my heart. 

My daughter was able to see really young sisters at the very beginning of their vocation. She was able to hear their stories and giggle and pray and relate to each one of them. She spoke to sisters much older that worked in the streets of India alongside St. Teresa of Calcutta.  She saw some sisters so gifted with age that they needed an extra arm to walk but could spring from their pew in Mass to hear the Gospel. 

My middles and husband donated rosaries and spoke to people of faith and the community all day and enjoyed each other. My mom and niece were able to have one-on-one time with the baby. 

The next day at the market we were able to visit with one of our parish’s sisters. She is so full of Jesus’ joy that she quite literally jumps and dances in the middle of conversations.  Your heart warms up in her presence. She will come from behind, take the baby and walk off to love and bless him. 

We then went to my Carmelite Christmas party where one of the members brought some relics for us to experience and receive blessings. The kids wanted to see them all.  She told stories of the saints, and we visited with people whom my girls described as “mom’s super holy Carmelite friends.”  

They all wanted to learn about my kids and they all gave witness to my kids. We left wanting to go to Medjugorje and not Disney, well at least in the midst of a specific testimony. This entire weekend was educational and none of it was done by my husband or me. We, in fact, gained formation ourselves. 

Yes, we teach the faith at home but our community teaches them more.

The columnist is a Catholic mom living in the Diocese of Baton Rouge facing the same challenges all families face.