...................................Prayer...................................
 

Dear Lord,

Bless our precious children. We entrust them to Thy fatherly care. Grant us the grace to guide our children the way of Thy commandments. This we will do by our own perfect observance of Thy holy law and that of our holy Mother, the Church. Make us conscious of our grave obligation to You and bless our efforts to serve You. We humbly ask this blessing from the bottom of our hearts, for ourselves and for the children whom Thou hast been pleased to give us.

Amen.

Previous Thoughts Index

...Mass and the Blessings of Children

Trying to get four sons cleaned, dressed, fed and out the door for Sunday Mass has always been a bit of a challenge.  This past Easter Sunday comes to mind, when fifteen minutes before we were to leave for Mass, Cade came up the steps covered in mud and dog poop because he had fallen off of his bicycle. *smile*

Dear, sweet Father Joe always has a smile and warmly welcomes us.  Fr. Joe is 82 years old and has more energy than all of my children put together.  Once inside, we find my Momma and my sister, Honey, and her twin daughters, settle into our pew and then the fun begins.  It's not only the talking, but little ones are constantly in motion...up and down the pew behind us when we are standing and walking back and forth in front of us on the kneelers when we are sitting.

My husband, who grew up Baptist, has a hard time comprehending the Catholic concept of children attending church with their parents.  "Baptists have church daycares so adults can attend church with no distractions," he is fond of saying after a particularly trying Sunday.

We are very blessed because for the most part we receive kind and understanding glances and smiles from our fellow parishioners...though I have seen one couple move to the other side of the church when we all plopped into the pew in front of them.  *smile*

I loved this article about children and Mass.