I'd like to offer a 79-cent tip that I think is worth far more than its cost.
Our children's godparents gave them a mirror cling Morning Offering prayer card as a tiny giftie for some recent gift-giving holiday . . . perhaps Easter?
Eight years into being a Catholic, this little prayer card is finally getting me to (fairly!) consistently pray a morning offering. I have tried many tricks, but this one is working. Pray for me that I continue to be steadfast. Why is such a small thing so difficult to maintain? Because we humans are frail.
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| The prayer card is on our family calendar on the white board above our kitchen table --right next to the reminder to feed the boxer turtle. |
When the children are assembled for breakfast, we now pray the Morning Offering in addition to the Angel of God prayer and Grace Before Meals which we had been praying for years. This all takes about 90 seconds. I should time it. There was brief revolt from the children about How Long This Takes and Whyyyyyyy Do We Have To Do It? but that passed within days.
Ideally, each Catholic should pray a Morning Offering as his or her feet hit the floor in the morning. For now, after eight years of fumbling and bumbling with this one, I will be grateful to be saying it with the family about an hour after we all wake up. Baby steps, baby steps.
One gets so much bang for one's buck with this prayer: those few seconds then apply to the whole day, giving more value to all one's works, joys, and sufferings!
I love that you are setting aside time every morning to pray with your kids. Josh has that prayer posted on his bathroom mirror, and I think he prays it every morning before work. Now, I am motivates to print it up and put it downstairs by the table to pray it with the kids at breakfast. What a beautiful way to begin the day!
ReplyDeleteMari: Yes, I had it posted on the bathroom mirror for a while. That was a step in the right direction because it got *me* praying the prayer, but it didn't get the children praying it. So I moved it to the kitchen. It would probably be good to have it in numerous places, so I was developing the habit of my saying it personally immediately upon waking, but also developed the habit of the children learning it (which requires my directing them to pray it).
ReplyDeleteI have it posted on our magnetic wall in the dining room. Now to make a habit of praying it together before breakfast!
ReplyDeleteWe still pray a very pathetic amount, but we start school with the morning offering. I learned it from my Holy Heroes prayer book.
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