Making a Catholic Home {Lent Book Series}

Today the Lent Book Series features Britta Kreps.

When my husband and I first got married, I assumed that living the liturgical life of the Church would be easy. He was the Director of Worship for our Church and our conversations revolved around the liturgical year much of time.

Living the liturgy was just what we did.

I naturally assumed that this would carry over into our home and that talking about and teaching the faith to our children would be easy.

There’s nothing like a dose of reality to bring us to our knees. While our Catholic faith is very tangible and accessible, faith and understanding  in a family of little ones doesn’t come without effort. My husband’s employment with the Church does NOT equal an easy road to instant faith education and practice.

Mary Newland Reed’s book, We and Our Children: Making a Catholic Home is an excellent source for the language and how-tos of making the faith present in our families every day – all the time.

I’ve read the book once and this Lent I’m reading it again with a pencil and notebook in hand!

A wise priest once preached on the necessity of reading Scripture three times in order to gain the most from its richness. He said to read through the excerpt once, then read it again slowly and prayerfully, and then one more time highlighting or making note of things that stand out.

What great advice. I think this should apply to more than just reading Scripture. That’s why I’m tackling Reed’s book again.

Lent is a great time to find an area of our lives that needs some work or needs refining. This Lent I am going to focus on how our family lives the liturgical year in our home. We and our Children is a fantastic resource.

Reed puts into words so much of what has been tumbling around in my head for 10 years! Her gift to the reader is the tools (examples, language, etc) for making the faith come alive in our homes everyday.

Reed makes the stories of the Bible come to life in language suitable for any age. By sharing her experiences with her own children, Reed encourages parents. She gives them concrete examples and suggestions as to how to broach somewhat sensitive topics like purity and chastity, all while using the richness of our faith.

I’m sad I didn’t learn about this book sooner. I feel like I’ve got some making up to do, and I plan on trying my best to incorporate her ideas as they suit my family. I want my children to live our faith in such a way that “it’s just what they do” without thinking that while living out the ordinary they become closer to the extraordinary.

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Britta Kreps has been happily married to Christopher for 11 years.  She is the mother to seven children Grace 10 yrs, Gianna 8 yrs, Tobias 6 yrs, Joshua 5 yrs., Samuel 3 yrs., Christopher, Jr. (aka Nick) is 2 and Alexander is 6 months old.  They are members of St. Patrick in Raritan.

She loves anything Catholic, reading, sewing, knitting, walking, bicycling and spending time with good friends.  She likes wearing skirts of all kinds and matching them up with sneakers– all about comfort!

She’s a homeschooling, kitchen-loving, blogging, trying-to-make-it-to-Heaven kind of mom.

You can read more from Britta at her blog  By Prayer and Petition.