A woman pushes a stroller while participating in the July 1, 2024 Eucharistic procession in Auburn, Ky., during the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage’s visit to the Diocese of Owensboro. RILEY GREIF | WKC
A parent’s witness
BY DR. JEFF ANDRINI, OFFICE OF EVANGELIZATION AND DISCIPLESHIP
Who influenced you the most in making your Catholic faith your own? For most, it is our parents. There is nothing more important in the lives or our children than to share our love for Jesus with them and for them to witness our discipleship throughout our lives. And the most recent study on American teens makes this clear.
“Of parents who report that their faith is extremely important in their daily lives, 67% of their teens report that faith is extremely or very important in their daily lives; only 8% of those parents’ teens report that faith is not very or not important in their lives. We’ll get what we are as parents. By normal processes of socialization, and unless other significant forces intervene, more than what parents might say they want as religious outcomes of their children, most parents most likely will end up getting religiously of their children what they themselves are.” (Soul Searching by Smith and Denton, 57)
Have you heard the famous saying by business leader Peter Drucker that “culture eats strategy for breakfast”? Here is my take: Our contemporary Catholic culture has not done a very good job of helping young people belong in the Church and our teaching as parents has mostly been to offer a little strategy to our kids, without a true culture of discipleship. According to St. John Paul II, “Our homes are to be schools of love.” However, due to our own limited view of God, many Catholics just do what they have been taught or witnessed by their parents. We attend Church on Sunday, get the kids to religious ed, and put a bit in the collection basket. But there is so much more!
God wants a daily living relationship with each one of us. To love our families well, we need to allow God’s love to be the source of our lives. Yes, in the Eucharist and daily through our prayer life and conversations with the Lord. When we are transformed, our families and children will be.
The U.S. Catholic Bishops put it this way, “Adult faith formation, by which people consciously grow in the life of Christ through experience, reflection, prayer and study, must our central task…” (Our Hearts Were Burning Within Us, paragraph 5). While educating our children is important, it is important to create parishes where adults are thriving in their relationship with God – and there is a vibrant community of disciples of Jesus. These realities will create a Catholic culture that is attractive, meaningful and fruitful.
Finally, parents: your witness matters, your words matter, your own relationship with our loving Creator matters! But, once your kids leave home, whether we have done a great job or not, we must turn to prayer and surrender our kids to God’s loving care. Our witness still matters, our joy, our love, but our words… not so much! You did your best; leave them in God’s hands!
Peace,
Jeff
Dr. Jeff Andrini is the director of the Office of Evangelization and Discipleship, and can be reached at [email protected].
Originally printed in the October 2024 issue of The Western Kentucky Catholic.
