Part 1 - Prayer

Creating a legacy of faith within your family that can be passed from generation to generation provides the foundation on which strong marriages and families can be built. It becomes the solid ground on which our lives are built. Without this foundation our lives are like homes built on shifting sands. In turbulent times they may even crumble. With a faith foundation, the earth can move below and our lives remain solid and united. A legacy of faith promises salvation for generations to come.

Creating a legacy can sound daunting but in reality it is built on the beauty of simplicity. It is in the small everyday things that you do that set the footings for a legacy of faith. It is not grand plans; elaborate celebrations or constant planning that creates a legacy. It is the simple things you do as an individual, husband or wife and family consistently that creates a legacy.

Here are some foundations for creating a legacy of faith in your home:

You can start at any time. You may have been blessed with generations before you that have passed on a legacy to you and it is your mission to keep it going, or you may be starting from scratch. Your children may be young, teenagers or grown and left home. It is never too late. The challenges will be different at each stage, but it is never too late to create a legacy of faith that will benefit you and future generations.
It is in turbulent times that a legacy of faith becomes valuable to the current generation. It is important to note that each generation throughout history has described the times in which they live to be turbulent. Prepare your children and future generations for their own turbulent times.
Creating tradition and legacy takes depth and time to grow. Be patient and persevere. Trying a new idea may work immediately for your family or it may take some revisions for your own unique family situation.
Do what works for your family. God uniquely created you and your family to know Him, love Him and serve Him according to the gifts He gave to each one of you. Take good ideas from other families and adapt them to your own situation.
Set yourself up for success. Creating a legacy and tradition takes time and patience. Implement one new tradition at a time and let it take hold within your family. When it becomes routine and natural try a new one. Trying to implement too many ideas at one time may result in failure and/or exhaustion.

Getting Started

A legacy of faith begins with prayer. The following questions will help you to determine where you are starting. They will give you an inventory of what you may or may not have already put into action. If you have no answers do not feel embarrassed or be tempted to stop reading. Everyone has the opportunity and choice to create a legacy of faith and it is always a work in progress.

What are the prayer traditions within your home?
Are they consistent enough to be called as a tradition?
On a personal level do you feel you have your own prayer traditions or planned prayer time throughout the day?
Do you have prayer times that your family sees as tradition or take place at a regular time, place or event?

Here are a few ideas to help you get started.

Personal Prayer Time

Creating personal prayer time and reflecting on Christ’s words to us is the foundation for building a legacy of faith. Personal prayer traditions are as simple as:

Your spouse and/or children seeing you set-aside time for personal prayer and meditation.
Praying for people when a situation arises. Reminding yourself and your family to pray for those that have requested prayer or you know need prayers.
Encouraging yourself, spouse and children to pray for your daily needs. Help at school, work, a friend that’s bugging them, a teacher, for tests and all the other little worries of the day. Make it spontaneous and natural – like talking to your best friend.
Pray for the different situations that you come across throughout the day. For the ambulance that passed you with its sirens on – you know that someone’s life is being changed as well as their family’s lives. Pray for a farmer’s crop as you see him out on his tractor, for those involved in an accident, for the grouchy co-worker that is making your day miserable or for the meeting that is about to start in the office next door that will affect the direction of your company. Christ gives us so many opportunities in the day to pray for others. Imagine what our communities and the world would be if we all took those opportunities to pray each day.

Prayers at Meal Time

Create an environment that sets the stage for prayer. Everyone has their hands folded, no food in the mouth or distraction from forks, knives or spoons. Choose someone to start the prayer or set a day of the week that each member of the family gets to start.
Start with the same formal prayer each night. An example might be The Lords Prayer along with a meal prayer like: “Bless us O’ Lord, in these thy gifts which we are about to receive from thy bounty through Christ our Lord. Amen.”
Give family members the opportunity to express their own spontaneous prayer. It might be for a friend, family member or a problem that needs solving. You will learn a lot about what is going on in your family’s life through spontaneous prayer.
Conclude with the sign of the cross “In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
Some families like to end dinner with a closing prayer of thanksgiving for the food they have been blessed with but also for the time they have spent together at the table. Here is one closing prayer.
On the weekend when everyone is together for lunch you can do an Angelus. If you home school or your children come home for lunch it is a great prayer to balance your day. Involve your children with the different parts of the prayer that they can lead. The Angelus is to be prayed in the morning, at lunch and/or at 6:00pm.
To help family members learn new prayers, print out postcard size prayer cards that can be placed at each table setting. This also works well if you have guests for dinner that may not know your specific prayers. Younger children will learn through daily repetition.

When you create a tradition of prayer around mealtime it is easy to do anywhere with little confusion. It can be done formally sitting at your table, or informally gathered around a kitchen island before dishing up. It can be done at a park during a picnic, in the car while going through drive - thru or before a meal in a restaurant. It is a tradition that becomes as natural as breathing and one that your children will pass on to the next generation.

Night Prayers

Ending the day with prayer allows you to reflect on the love that Christ has shown you throughout the day and the many blessings that have occurred. Reflecting on your day allows you to review our own behavior. It allows you to see where you acted with charity, where you could have been more forgiving or gentle, where you did God’s will and where you fell short. It is a chance to do a brief examination of conscience or night balance and set some goals for the next day. (Click here for a night balance for children)

The tradition of night prayers trains you and future generations to use the wisdom of each day to grow closer to Christ.

Creating a legacy of faith through prayer is like setting solid cornerstones upon a rock foundation. The building constructed upon it will last for generations to come. Those around it may crumble, fall or rot, but your building will stand – weathering the elements of nature and mankind. Cornerstones of prayer built on the foundation of Christ and the Church will allow our families to stand strong – weathering the elements of society.

Join us in the coming months for the following articles on Creating a Legacy of Faith.

Part 2 – How To Do a Personal Meditation

Part 3 – Attending Mass and Creating a Holy Sunday

Part 4 – The Family Blessing

Part 5 – Sacrament of Reconciliation

Part 6 – Adoration and the Holy Hour.

Tracy Tomiak writes from Calgary, Alberta where she lives with her husband Bill and their five children. Her first book, Thriving Not Just Surviving – Living Abundantly With Pain was published in June 2004 and can be viewed at www.painandliving.com