We know that in this coming school year, children of all ages will be facing peer pressure to do all sorts of things they shouldn’t, from ridiculing less popular classmates to trying drugs.  St. Tarcisius, who has already been named the patron saint of First Holy Communicants, could also be aptly named the patron saint of resisting peer pressure.  As a youth living during the persecution of Diocletian, he volunteered to bring the Holy Eucharist to the Christians imprisoned for their faith.  Carrying the Sacred Species against his chest, under his tunic, he met some classmates who urged him to stop and play.  When he refused, they demanded to see what he was hiding under his tunic.  When he again refused, they attacked him and stoned him until a Christian soldier arrived and carried him to the pope.  Throughout the attack, St. Tarcisius did not relinquish his hold on the Blessed Sacrament for a moment; only when he was brought to the presence of the pope did he lift his hands and then die.

Surely no other saint resisted peer pressure more valiantly or sacrificed more in his struggle against it, and surely no other saint is better suited to be an example and inspiration to our own children as they face the persuasion and mockery of their classmates.

Yet how can we cultivate in our own children such an unwavering love of God and such a powerful devotion to the Blessed Sacrament?

Now, at the beginning of the school year, we need to schedule in to our routine regular visits to the Blessed Sacrament.  If we can fit in athletic activities or music lessons, which develop the bodies and minds of our children, we certainly can squeeze in, once or twice a week, an activity that develops the souls of our children.  Furthermore, while the typical extracurricular activities may provide experiences of anxiety or exhilaration, we must make a priority of an activity that will bring serenity, peace, reflection and prayer.

True, our children may not relish the prospect of visiting a church during the week.  It doesn’t matter.  We must make clear that this activity is non-negotiable.  Of course, we should time our visits according to the child’s age and attention span, anywhere from ten to thirty minutes.  To make the visits more fruitful, we can provide prayer books with attractive, reverent pictures for children too young to read.  For older children, we can print off the Internet the Divine Praises, a few litanies, or perhaps an act of reparation or an act of consecration to the Sacred Heart.  These prayers will show our children that prayer does not always consist of asking for things; like the Rosary or the Stations of the Cross, litanies and similar prayers combine vocal and mental prayer and teach us to adore, to meditate and to engage in mental prayer, which is essential for a strong spiritual life.

If our church isn’t open during the week, we could make a visit during Saturday afternoons when many parishes offer confessions (and we can receive the sacrament of confession while we’re there, as well).  Another option would be to stop by the rectory and ask the receptionist to open the church for us or we could check out different Catholic churches in our area to see if any of them are open during the week.  A prayer to St. Tarcisius would undoubtedly help us in our efforts to find an adoration chapel or an open church where we and our children could visit Our Lord!

There is something soothing and tranquil about visiting a church when no one else is there.  We may be surprised, after a few weeks, to hear our children asking to go visit Jesus – the peaceful atmosphere and the feeling of intimacy with Christ will satisfy their longings and draw their young hearts.  Moreover, they will understand the doctrine of the Real Presence more deeply because there is no reason to go to church when no Mass is going on unless they are visiting Someone.  They will grasp Our Lord’s infinite love for them more profoundly because they will see for themselves that He is waiting for them, day in and day out, to come to Him.  Eventually, their innocent hearts will respond to that love; they will yearn to return love for Love; and that is the first step to raising a modern day Tarcisius.

When my 10-year old told me what her younger sister said, I felt awe at the implicit faith of my child.

As the matter turned out, her statement was only a little premature – four days later, Frankie returned.

But the question remains: how can we, as adults, regain that simple, unquestioning, faith of children?

Sometimes our faith is weakened by oft-repeated prayers that went unanswered, seemingly prayed in vain.  “What good does it do to pray,” we may wonder, “when God always answers ‘no’?”

Recently, I was reading St. Claude de la Colombiére’s Trustful Surrender to the Divine Providence and found an intriguing response to this age-old query.  This holy priest wrote that our prayers are not answered because we do not ask for things in the proper order.  We are allowed to ask for temporal goods, for Christ promised to give “All things whatsoever you shall ask.”  However, we must ask for them in the proper proportion.  If we truly believe that spiritual graces are inconceivably more valuable and more important than temporal goods, then our prayers will reflect this conviction, and we will direct most of our prayers of petition for spiritual grace.  By contrast, if our heart strings are entwined too tightly in the lure of worldly goods, then our prayers will focus on worldly goods, and God will need to wean us from these disproportionate attachments.

Christ promised, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you.”  Bl. Claude tells us that this promise means that if we truly set our minds and hearts in the pursuit of spiritual progress, then we won’t even need to ask for temporal gifts – for God will supply our needs and even many of our wants.  When God offered to grant anything that King Solomon desired, and King Solomon asked for wisdom so he could rule Israel well, God was pleased and granted him not only wisdom but also peace and prosperity, the gifts Solomon could have asked for but didn’t.  Similarly, if we direct our hearts and our prayers towards growth in holiness and love of God, He will bless our efforts, and give us not only the spiritual goods we have prayed for, but also temporal blessings that we have not prayed for.

This may sound like we should never pray for worldly goods.  On the contrary, we should speak to God about everything that concerns us, from finding a parking space at a busy mall to finding a job in a troubled economy.  Big or little, if we give it a thought, we can and should mention it in prayer.  That way, every incident in our lives becomes sanctified; God becomes an intimate, familiar part of our daily lives, and we slowly learn to view everyday occurrences from His perspective.

However, if growing in holiness is truly our primary concern in this life and our ultimate goal, then our struggles to become holy will naturally form the major part of our petitions.  Moreover, our prayers will not begin and end with petitions, but will include acts of praise, adoration, love, contrition, and thanksgiving, as well as times of spiritual reading and quiet meditation.  Gradually, our prayers, our reading, and our meditation will help us to see the ups and downs of our daily lives from God’s perspective, with one eye fixed on eternity, and we will come to see the wisdom and beauty of God’s plan for our lives.

Then, slowly, we can regain that simple, unquestioning, trust of our children.

But that’s not all. Not only do I not take my children trick-or-treating, but I dress them up like saints (and oh, they look so cute!) and plan a party on November 1 instead of on Halloween. We eat candy corn, play games (my sister told me how her family plays “Angel, Angel, Saint” instead of “Duck, Duck,Goose” and I just loved the idea), and of course pretend we’re the saints we’re dressed up as. It’s lots of fun.

But that’s still not all we do.

This year, between thirty and forty children will come to my door on Halloween night, asking for candy, and I intend to use this opportunity to evangelize my neighbors. Why not? It’s a perfectly easy chance to do what we all dread doing – bringing Christ to our neighbor’s notice.

What I do every year is buy as many holy cards of saints as I do little bags of candy, and I staple or tape one card to every bag. Being artistically inclined, instead of buying the holy cards, I often make my own little illustrations of the saints, write a brief biography of each saint next to drawing, adding in big letters: “November 1 is All Saints’ Day. Who is your patron saint?” Then I photocopy them and cut them out.

I like the homemade method even better because it’s cheaper, and I can make sure the biographies are suited for the general age of the children who will receive them (you sometimes get rather grown-up prayers or biographies on store-bought holy cards.) For those not artistically inclined but financially strapped, a quick search on the Internet would turn up some charming pictures of the saints that could be printed out and photocopied, too. You can add a short biography or not, as you please. Either way, the children are getting a lesson in the lives of the saints, the people who should be our real heroes, rather than popular singers and athletes who may demonstrate talent but, sadly, not always the virtue we want our young people to emulate.

If you have children yourself, they will probably enjoy helping you to choose the pictures, cut them out and tape them onto the bags of candy. They’ll also be getting a lesson in evangelization, without even realizing it.

I love All Saints’ Day. The crisp autumn air, the smell of candy corn and dead leaves, the sight of my children dressed as quaint little soldiers, bishops, nuns, queens and shepherdesses, and best of all, the chance to spread God’s Word to my neighbors. So what if they think I’m a little nuts? I’m enjoying growing closer to God with my family through a fun-filled feast day.

Being Catholic has never been so much fun.

As I sit and watch this scene play out again and again, I can’t help thinking how often we adults do the same thing. God wants sanctity for all of us. He wants us to soar with the saints. And we struggle so hard to cooperate with Him in this effort. But how often do we fail to soar, or actually fall ignominiously to the ground, because we won’t let go — of our fears, our worries, our guilt, our addictions, our desire for material goods, our attachment to unhealthy relationships, our obsession with technology! How often God would gently tell us, if we would listen in the silence of our hearts, that if we let go of these things, then we would be free. Then we would truly be happy. We would have time to think and pray by ourselves, to talk or play with our children, to sing.

Christ told us that to be perfect, we should sell all that we have and give to the poor. Those of us living in the world, alas, cannot follow this advice literally. We need to have cars and phones and washing machines to function in our society. We have to buy toys and books for our children. Yet we must strive to detach ourselves from these things, to be in the world but not of it.

We must be aware of world news without becoming obsessed and depressed over it. We have to budget wisely but also put aside our fears about money and allow ourselves to be generous — giving to the needy and possibly even be open to having another child in our own household. We must be polite to others but at the same time, detach ourselves from relationships that hurt us, people who lead us into gossip or impure jokes or negative thinking about ourselves or others. We need to wean ourselves from all addictions, not just alcohol or drugs, but from anything we’re addicted to, such as the television, the internet, video games, junk food, ipods. Anything that distracts us from spending time with God in prayer or with our families in wholesome activities needs to be reevaluated and limited. Most of us would be pleasantly surprised at how refreshing simple fun can be. We might be surprised that if we let go the things that we clutch most tightly, we will experience freedom and joy beyond anything we’ve ever known.

Like my little toddler, we are so afraid to let go. We are afraid to let go of our attachment to worldly goods and concerns — so afraid to surrender ourselves, untrammeled, to God. And yet, did not Our Lord tell us that he who dies to himself will have eternal life?

We can start by putting a picture or statue of the Sacred Heart in a prominent place in our homes, where the whole family will see it often. Christ has promised to bless any home where an image of His Sacred Heart is venerated. What could be better than to receive Christ’s blessing on our homes? Surely we could find an inexpensive statue or picture of the Sacred Heart to grace our living rooms. Even better, we can have the Sacred Heart enthroned in our homes by asking a priest to come and bless the image! Don’t we all want the peace and joy in our homes that a blessing from Christ would impart?

If we say prayers as a family in the morning or evening, we can add a little prayer to the Sacred Heart, at least during the month of June. It can be short, just “Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on me” or “Jesus, meek and humble of Heart, make my heart like unto Thine.” If we’re really ambitious, we can sing a hymn to the Sacred Heart every night during June before the children go to bed. The most famous one is “To Jesus’ Heart All Burning” which you should be able to find in an old hymnal or on-line.

On the feast day of the Sacred Heart, which falls on June 19 this year, we could say the Litany to the Sacred Heart as a family. Litanies are great for families because even if you only have one copy of the prayer, the whole family can say it because the responses are repeated over and over. Even children who can’t read yet can learn to say, “Have mercy on me” after every invocation. Or you can consecrate your family to the Sacred Heart on His feast day. Many graces will flow to your family from this consecration. If you don’t have a copy of the Litany or the Act of Consecration for Families, you can easily find both on-line. They can also be found in the Raccolta or other Catholic prayer books.

Another idea would be to say a novena to the Sacred Heart as a family; you can do it for the nine days leading up to the feast of the Sacred Heart, or you can do it anytime during June, or, of course, anytime throughout the year when you have a special favor to ask Our Lord. The Novena to the Sacred Heart written by St. Alphonsus Ligouri is particularly moving and can be bought in pamphlet form from Ligouri Press. You can give your children holy cards or coloring books about the Sacred Heart during June. Learning about the life of St. Margaret Mary is another great way to increase devotion to the Sacred Heart. The Sacred Heart Color and Learn Book is an especially beautiful coloring book available from http://www.catholic-christian-home-school-saint-prayer-book-gift-store.com .

For older children, there’s a biography of St. Margaret Mary by Mary Fabyan Windeatt that is available from TANbooks.com; your children could read it on their own, or you could read it a loud to them, a little bit every day, during the month of June. There are also plenty of adult biographies of St. Margaret Mary to inspire high-schoolers and parents. If you can’t afford to buy a book on St. Margaret Mary, do some research on-line. Find the 12 Promises for those who practice devotion to the Sacred Heart. Read the words Christ spoke to her. Print them out and meditate on them. Read them to your children. Christ’s sadness over man’s indifference cannot fail to move you.

You best know your children and what will appeal to them. Whatever method we choose, the Sacred Heart appeals to everyone because the Sacred Heart is a symbol of Christ’s love for each and every one of us, and how can our hearts not respond to such a generous outpouring of love? Our Lord said to St. Margaret Mary, “Behold this Heart, which has so loved men, and yet men do not love me in return.” He told her that most people treat Him, on the contrary, with contempt, coldness, ingratitude, sacrilege, irreverence. How can we reject an appeal like that? How can we turn our backs on Someone Who loves us so deeply and yearns for our love so passionately? How can we not be moved?

During this month of the Sacred Heart, let’s read a little about the devotion to the Sacred Heart. We can start with His appearances to St. Margaret Mary and the heart-rending words He spoke to her. One message will come through, stronger than anything else: believe it or not, Christ wants our love. He is God. He has everything. He is infinitely happy in Heaven with the Father and the Holy Spirit. He doesn’t need us. And yet, He loves us infinitely and actually cares about whether we love Him in return. He yearns for our love, for us to give ourselves to Him as He gave Himself to us. This is hard for us to understand, but it’s true.

Here is an excerpt from a letter from St. Margaret Mary which may get us started on thinking and meditating on Christ’s love for us as revealed through His Sacred Heart:

From this divine heart three streams flow endlessly. The first is the stream of mercy for sinners; it pours into their hearts sentiments of contrition and repentance. The second is the stream of charity which helps all in need and especially aids those seeking perfection in order to find the means of surmounting their difficulties. From the third stream flow love and light for the benefit of his friends who have attained perfection; these he wishes to unite to himself.

This divine heart is an abyss filled with all blessings, and into the poor should submerge all their needs. It is an abyss of joy in which all of us can immerse our sorrows. It is an abyss of lowliness to counteract our foolishness, an abyss of mercy for the wretched, an abyss of love to meet our every need.

Are you making no progress in prayer? Then you need only offer God the prayers which the Savior has poured out for us in the sacrament of the altar. Offer God his fervent love in reparation for your sluggishness. In the course of every activity pray as follows: “My God, I do this or I endure that in the heart of your Son and according to his holy counsels. I offer it to you in reparation for anything blameworthy or imperfect in my actions.” Continue to do this in every circumstance of life.

But above all preserve peace of heart. This is more valuable than any treasure. In order to preserve it there is nothing more useful than renouncing your own will and substituting for it the will of the divine heart. In this way his will can carry out for us whatever contributes to his glory, and we will be happy to be his subjects and to trust entirely in him.

These words, written by St. Margaret Mary, show us that this devotion isn’t just for saints, but for sinners, for real families, who struggle against peer pressure, financial straits, hectic schedules, and the influence of the secular media; families who are striving to conquer their own sinfulness and live a holy and Christian life. Christ knows we’re not perfect. He calls us to love Him, to give ourselves to Him as we are, and He will make us like Himself. He will make our families like the Holy Family He grew up in. He just wants our love. How can we say no?

“No,” she answered.  “That’s the soldier guarding the tomb.”

Appropriately, she had written at the top: “Happy Lent!”

Well, at least that explained the gray helmet she had drawn on his head.

At first I thought that this episode showed how hard it was for children to understand Lent, but upon further consideration, I’ve decided it shows how little we adults understand Lent.  Most of us think of Lent as a time of penance and, therefore, suffering, and so we dread it and reflect on it with grim expressions on our faces.  Why does it never occur to us that we are happy when we have a chance to make a sacrifice for someone we love, and therefore, we should be extra happy during Lent, which is our chance to make sacrifices for the One we love more above all else?

Because I truly love my husband, I am pleased to have a chance to sew a button on his shirt or put just the amount of cumin that he likes in his chili.  It doesn’t matter to me if I’d rather be reading a book or if I like a little less cumin (actually, I don’t eat chili at all so I’m usually stuck that night with leftovers or a sandwich).  But those things don’t matter.  I’m just happy that I have a chance to do something for him.  Not all sacrifices are quite as easy to make; I love my children, but I am not so thrilled when I have to get up in the middle of the night to feed a baby or to deal with a bed-wetting.  Still, getting up in the middle of the night is so much easier when done out of love for a hungry or wet child.  In fact, I would be very upset if sickness or some other reason prevented me from getting up and helping my child.

Why don’t we feel the same way about making sacrifices for Our Lord?  We look all too quickly for excuses.  Sometimes just being pregnant during Lent tempts me to think, “Why should I make up any extra penance?  Isn’t feeling sick all the time and never getting a comfortable night’s sleep enough of a penance?  Why should I make up anything else to do?”  Of course, if there’s a valid reason not to fast, we need to be prudent and safeguard the health of the body that God gave us; however, do we give up fasting reluctantly or with a huge sigh of relief?  Do we use our ill health or pregnancy or just plain busy-ness as an excuse not to offer any extra sacrifices during Lent?

Instead of looking for excuses, we should be searching for new, creative ways to show our love for Our Lord.  Just as we eagerly browse through a shop looking for the exactly right tie or watch that we want to buy for our husbands, not caring how long it takes or how many stores we need to stop at, so also should we look with equal eagerness and determination to find something we can offer to Our Lord, and then offer it with the same cheerful, patient love with which we give a present to our husbands.

That’s what the saints did.  They were excited to find a new opportunity to show their love for God.  Penance wasn’t a dreary duty but a personal expression of the deepest, strongest movement of their hearts — their love for Jesus Christ.

Every time we yearn for a cup of coffee or a taste of chocolate or whatever it is that we’ve given up for Lent, we can quietly close our eyes, smile at Our Lord, and say, “I love You, Jesus.”  Isn’t that the way we give presents to those whom we love?

With this attitude, we truly can have a “Happy Lent!”

We know that February is actually the longest month. 

The weather is too cold to take the children out, and the children are way too restless to make even the roomiest mansion large enough.  The bleak gray skies lower everyone’s spirits as the family stares out the window day after day, hoping for something more exciting than snow flurries.  And you can’t even remark cheerfully that spring is just around the corner.  It isn’t.  Not until after March, and maybe not even then, depending on what part of the U.S. you live in.

How can we possibly brighten up the dreariest month of the year?  Here are a few ideas:

Do St. Valentine’s Day up well.  Have the children make homemade valentines for friends and family, using stickers, rubber stamps, doilies, etc.  Short poems or spiritual bouquets make the valentines more meaningful.  The children could make up short poems about St. Valentine or compose poems about the person to whom they’re sending each valentine.  Heart-shaped cookies and maybe a skit about the life of St. Valentine would turn this into an unforgettable day.  (Granted, we don’t know tons about St. Valentine, but there is a charming legend about his curing the prison guard’s blind daughter.  Robert Sabuda’s picture book St. Valentine retells this legend for children, although I think it’s out of print.  See if you can get it through Interlibrary Loan or buy a used copy off the Internet.  Abe.com is a great resource for used books.) 

Organize a treasure hunt in whatever language you’re teaching your children.  Write the clues down in Spanish or French or Latin and hide them all over the house.  The children can find them, translate them and find the next clue.  At the end of the hunt, there should be a stash of candy or baseball cards or some little gift each child will appreciate.  (You might be able to do something similar for other subjects if you’re creative.  For example, write down math problems on each paper.  When the children figure out the answer, they can refer to a secret code you’ve made up and find out where the next clue is hidden.  This will take a little more effort but it should be fun!  Clues can be written on different colored papers and each child looks for papers of one color so they can do math problems on their own level.)

Have a concert or recital just for the family.  Children could memorize a poem, sing or play a song, perform magic tricks, or put together a skit.  Do a small recital once every week or two until the weather hits a certain temperature, say 60 degrees.

Think of indoor field trips, such as roller skating rinks, museums, aquariums, pet shops, and historical houses, depending on your location and your budget.  Some museums are free on Sundays.  If you have a baby or toddler, find out if strollers are allowed inside before you go.

Set aside one day of each week in February for educational games, science experiments, and crafts.  Surely the children will help you come up with ideas, or you can find a book in the library that will help.  This will provide a little change to your routine, and give everyone something to look forward to, without sacrificing school time.  You may want to continue this tradition into March!

Teach your children to dance — the polka will wear out the most energetic child — or have contests to see who can do the most jumping jacks or sit-ups.  You’ll have to come up with a small but tempting prize to motivate the contestants.  This will use some of that bottled-up energy for sure.

Find out what plants grow well indoors, and invest in a flower pot, potting dirt and seeds. 

Some of these ideas will take a little energy on your part, but dealing with restless, argumentative children stuck inside all day takes more than energy — some days, it takes nothing short of heroic patience.  At least this way, your energy is going toward something productive.

All of the ideas I mentioned, by the way, can count for either language arts, science, math, social studies, music or physical education so you can include days spent on these activities as part of your required 180 days of school.  They may not exactly correspond to what we’re covering in our curriculum, but if they cause us to laugh, relax and return to our books with refreshed minds, then they’ve served their purpose.

In many regions of this great land, March isn’t much easier to bear than February.  These ideas may help you muddle through March, too, and St. Patrick’s Day is certainly easier to celebrate than St. Valentine’s Day.  Learn some Irish songs, do a skit about St. Patrick (there’s plenty of legends to choose from here!), memorize appropriate poems (each child could learn one verse of Phyllis McGinley’s “St. Patrick the Missioner” for example), have your own St. Patrick’s Day parade and finish it off with a nourishing dinner of corned beef, cabbage, and Irish bread (cupcakes with green icing or cookies shaped like shamrocks work, too). 

One way or another, we can shake those winter blues!

Longfellow begins his poem by recalling the thousands of years that “the belfries of all Christendom” have rung out the message of “peace on earth, good will to men.” But his reaction to this message is not what we expect in a Christmas song; yet it is a reaction that I have always been able to relate to:

“And in despair I bowed my head.

‘There is no peace on earth,’ I said.

‘For hate is strong, and mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good will to men.’”

The more I read, the more I realize that in all ages have men been tempted to despair, not just for personal reasons, but because of the state of the world in which they lived. After all, it is a fallen world. War and poverty, greed and lust, have always existed since the time of Adam and Eve. “The poor you always have with you,” Christ Himself told us.

That is not to say that our own time is no worse than other times. This is, of course, a difficult thing to judge objectively, but we do know that the world will progressively grow worse towards the end of the world, a period which is approaching, either proximately or remotely. Furthermore, we know that the power of the omnipresent media, especially the Internet, has provided untold opportunities for the corruption of our youth and the temptation of adults, to an extent unknown in any other age. Moreover, today the violence of the battlefield has spread its evils even to the very wombs of mothers.

Despair is increased by a feeling of helplessness. We look at the candidates for political office, and usually select — not a candidate we like — but a candidate who is less objectionable than his opponent. We vote — and “our” candidate loses. We write letters to our legislators, we donate money, perhaps even participate in political protests — and then watch the liberal media carry off victory after victory.

Like Longfellow, we are tempted to bow our heads in despair.

That’s when we need to remember our most powerful weapon — not our votes, not our money, not our pens — but our prayers. Prayer is what allowed people like Mother Teresa and Mother Angelica to accomplish all that they did against seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Prayer was the secret weapon of all the saints whose accomplishments often extended to the miraculous.

Pray? Now? At the busiest time of year, the Advent and Christmas seasons?

Yes! After all, Advent and Christmas are, essentially, more than anything else, times for prayer, times for preparing our hearts for Our Savior and welcoming Him.

If you don’t say a daily Rosary, start now. If that’s too intimidating, try a decade or two a day. Go to Mass a few extra times during the week if possible. Make visits to the Blessed Sacrament. Spend five to ten minutes a day in spiritual reading. Say the Stations of the Cross on Fridays. Whatever you can add to your routine, even if it’s just a little, will have immeasurable benefit. Our Lord doesn’t scoff at us: “What, one decade is all you could manage? You might as well as not prayed at all!” On the contrary, He is tremendously pleased at our effort; He knows exactly how much it cost us to give up a television show or to put down a book and say a few prayers; and He will lovingly help us gradually increase from our one decade a day to five.

To be honest, in his poem, Longfellow doesn’t talk about the power of prayer. In fact, he doesn’t provide a deep discussion about why we should have Christian hope. He merely ends his poem with an affirmation of his belief and hope in God, an affirmation, however, that I find all the more moving because he has already admitted his temptation to doubt:

“Then peal the bells more loud and deep.

God is not dead, nor doth He sleep.

The wrong shall fail; the right prevail,

With peace on earth, good will to men.”

And we are reminded of the words of Christ: “Fear not; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

Some aspects of the game were comical; for instance, when my son offered my oldest daughter a choice of how she was to die: “Would you rather have a car run over you or have a car run over your tummy?” Not only have I never heard of an executioner offer a choice, but I have never heard of that particular form of martyrdom; and I had to agree with my daughter when she said blithely, “It doesn’t matter; they’re both really the same thing!” The second daughter was, in a more traditional manner, beheaded. I don’t know how the other one pretended to die, and I’m not sure if my son ended the game by having the executioner repent and convert, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he did.

But, beyond amusing me, the details of the game don’t really matter. What matters is they are practicing now, through a game, a situation that they may confront in real life when they grow up.I think people sometimes don’t appreciate the importance of games and role-playing in the development of children. I believe these activities are crucial. Playing out different careers and life choices is not just fun; it helps the children see what types of roles they enjoy and find satisfying; it helps the children realize, in a safe context, what are the consequences to certain actions and choices, including bad choices. I suspect the benefits go even further. Children have a real need to enact different roles, and that need must be implanted in them by God to assist them in the development of their imaginations, their decision-making skills, and their ideas of what they want to do with their lives.

How can playing martyrdom now help them when they grow up? Surely the United States government won’t run cars over Christians who refuse to renounce their faith? Perhaps not. I can’t tell the future. But I do know what is going on now. People may not be dying for their faith in this country, but they are certainly suffering for it. Think of the photographer who was sued successfully for refusing to photograph a same-sex “wedding” service. Think of pharmacists who are being fined for refusing to carry emergency contraception. Think of the Catholic adoption agency in Massachusetts that had to stop their services because they would not place children in the homes of same-sex parents. In the not-so-distant future, think of doctors and nurses who could be fired — or prosecuted — for refusing to cooperate with abortions, sterilizations and assisted suicides.

The devil is prince of this world. Being a Christian has always meant standing out and being different. Sometimes it means not laughing at bad jokes told at a meeting at work; sometimes it means being the only woman who dresses modestly at a party; sometimes it means standing up for an unpopular employee whom everyone else is criticizing uncharitably. It means different things in different situations. However, in the United States today, it means a lot more because it’s not just our culture that is pressuring us to conform to the world; now it’s the government. And the government has even more power.

In the past, we might have lost business from a client who disapproved of our Christian ethics; or maybe an anti-Catholic employer might have passed us over for a promotion; or the mothers in our neighborhood might have snubbed us because of our unfashionably large families; but now, the government itself will punish us and persecute us for our beliefs — with court fees, fines, and potentially even jail time. Pro-life activists have been dealing with this scenario for years, but slowly more and more people who are not activists — who have never taken part in politics but have lived quiet lives of faith — may find themselves in legal situations they never expected.

Now the government is attacking adoption agencies, wedding photographers and caterers, and medical personnel; who knows who will be under attack for their faith tomorrow? In other countries, priests have been jailed for “hate speech” when proclaiming the Church’s teaching on homosexuality — which, by the way, is not a hateful teaching, but a truly loving teaching, since only by recognizing a homosexual tendency as a disorder can we bring true peace and joy to people afflicted with these tendencies by actually curing them. Already parents are losing the right to protect their children from homosexual propaganda in public schools here in the U.S. Eventually, it may be possible that anyone in the United States might be prosecuted for simply repeating Church teaching on homosexuality — in the classroom, in print, perhaps even on-line.

I’m not trying to scare my readers, but to alert them to reality. We live in a time of persecution. True, not all Christians are currently being persecuted for their faith. And no one I know has died for their faith in this country. But even if we don’t have to die for our faith, are we ready to suffer for our faith? To go to court? To pay huge legal fines? To face jail time?

I hope and pray that whatever the world is like by the time my children grow up, their training in the faith — as reflected by their games — will help them be ready to stand up and be different, to do what is right no matter what the consequences, and to be willing to suffer for the faith, even unto death, if need be. I pray that I will be ready to do the same, as well.

Let us take the time to read the lives of the martyrs a little more seriously. Let’s meditate a little longer on the swiftness of this life and the eternity of the life to come. Let’s pray for the grace we received at our Confirmation to be a true soldier of Jesus Christ and a witness to His truth.

I love watching babies.  I feel that there is so much we can learn from them.  When a baby tries to do something and is thwarted and suddenly begins crying and screaming in frustration, I wonder if that is how I appear in God’s eyes when things don’t go my way and I too quickly become discouraged.  Do my sighs and complaints seem as ridiculous to God as my little one’s little tantrums do to me?

But I think I can learn even more about God when I reflect on my own reactions to a baby.  I remember when my daughter Carmella was just beginning to walk by herself, at first she would take a single, almost infinitesimal step, with her foot barely leaving the ground.  But no matter how tiny her first steps were, I would always clap and cheer her on with the utmost excitement.  And when Carmella first lifted her chin, and with a wide open mouth and tongue hanging out, attempted to bestow on me her first kiss, I was thrilled.  Discreetly wiping the moisture from my cheek, I thanked her with unbounded enthusiasm and hugged her ardently.  These tiny tokens of progress and of responsiveness touched my heart just as deeply as the much more sophisticated and articulate expressions of love from my older, more mature children.

This is, I think, how Our Lord views our own tiny efforts at prayer.  Like a devoted mother, He loves each of us so tenderly that even the slightest movement of our hearts to Him is precious in His eyes, and He rewards even the slightest token of our love with an outpouring of grace.  I think this is why so many short prayers have, in the past, been rewarded with what might seem to be disproportionately generous indulgences; because Holy Mother Church knows that Our Lord, in His love for us, so dearly appreciates even the briefest lifting of our hearts and minds to Him that He wants to reward us.  Sometimes we think of Him as a stern Judge, ready to pounce on us for every small infraction.  Of course, He does punish us, in His justice, for our sins.  We, too, immediately punish a toddler who has touched an outlet or bitten a sibling.  But, like any loving parent, He is saddened by the necessity of punishment and is much more eagerly vigilant in watching for signs that our hearts are turning toward Him. 

We can learn so much from babies.  Their very dependence on us and their tremendous ignorance of the ways of the world remind us, in a small way, of our own dependence on God and the smallness of our understanding in comparison to His omniscience.  If only we could learn to trust in His goodness as completely as a sleepy baby trusts in the mother who holds him in her arms!