p. 18Devotions Which Parents Should Teach Their Children

1. Necessity of Prayer.—There is nothing which it behooves parents to engrave more deeply in the hearts of their children than the absolute necessity of prayer for salvation. St. Alphonsus, doctor of the Church, says: “He who prays shall certainly save his soul, and he who does not pray shall certainly lose it.” Hence, if you have the salvation of your children at heart you will not fail to do all in your power to persuade them of the absolute necessity of prayer. Say to them, in the words of St. Augustine: “Prayer is the food of the soul; as the body cannot live without food, so also the soul cannot preserve its spiritual life, which is divine grace, without prayer.” Tell your children that Our Lord says expressly, “Without Me you can do nothing” (John xv. 5). This means that without God’s grace we can do nothing for our salvation. But we cannot obtain this indispensable grace of God without praying for it. Explain, moreover, to your children that prayer is all-powerful with God, for He has solemnly promised to hear our prayers: “Amen, amen, I say to you, if you ask the Father anything in My name, He will give it to you” (John xvi. 23). Remind your children that they can pray at all times and in all places, for God is everywhere, and is ever ready to listen to us when we speak to Him or ask Him any favors. Tell them that they should always pray with attention, with earnestness, with confidence, and with perseverance; and that they should pray, above all, for all the graces which they need to avoid sin, to keep the divine commandments, and to be saved. Tell them also that they may pray even for temporal favors, under the condition that such favors will not endanger their salvation. See that your children pray (1) every morning to thank God for having preserved them during the night, and to offer to Him all the thoughts, words, and actions of the day; (2) before and after meals; and (3) at night, before retiring to rest. Teach them, moreover, how to make a good intention before every action, offering it thus to God: “All for p. 19Thee, O Lord, all for Thee.” Impress deeply on their minds the necessity of praying at once in temptation, by repeatedly invoking the holy names of Jesus and Mary, for if they then neglect prayer, they will assuredly be lost.

2. The Infant Jesus.—Your younger children should be animated with a special devotion to the Infant Jesus. Explain to them in simple language that the Son of God became a little child for their sake, to teach them how to be good children. Relate to them how He was born in a stable in great poverty and destitution, beginning then already to suffer for the sins of mankind. Tell them how He grew up in age, grace, and wisdom before God and men; how He was obedient, patient, industrious, kind, and charitable towards all, and how He loved prayer. Do not fail to explain to them how they can best imitate so great a Model.

3. Our Saviour’s Passion.—In the next place, inspire your children with a tender love for Jesus Crucified. Read to them or make them read aloud out of the Gospels, especially on Fridays and during Lent, the history of the Passion of Jesus Christ. Explain the crucifix to them, telling them how it teaches them three principal lessons. First, speak to them of the enormity and malice of mortal sin, which is so grievous and so offensive to God, that not even all men and all the angels combined could, by any amount of penance, sufficiently atone for a single mortal sin, and that the horrible and endless pains of hell itself are insufficient to appease the divine justice for a single mortal sin, but that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, innocence itself, alone could do so, and that He did it by taking our sins upon Himself and dying on the cross after shedding all His blood. Tell them, secondly, that the crucifix teaches us the value of our soul, which is, indeed, worth more than the whole world, since Jesus Christ, who well knew its value, paid for it an infinite price,—every drop of His most precious blood, by which He redeemed our souls. Showing the crucifix to your children, say to them: “Behold, my children, how much your soul is worth; do not, then, sell it to the devil for a trifle, for a momentary pleasure, but save it at any and every cost, for ‘what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul?’” (Matt. xvi. 26). In the third place, say to your children that the crucifix urges them to love Jesus Christ, who has loved them so much as to die for their sake the most cruel and disgraceful of deaths. Say to them: “Children, Jesus died for you because He loved you so much; He could not have done more to show His love for you: love Him, then, in return, for He desires your love; love Him truly by seeking to please Him, by avoiding sin, which so greatly displeases Him. Go to Jesus on the Cross in all your troubles and sufferings, and suffer a little for Him who has suffered so much for you. Go to Jesus on the Cross when you are sorely tempted, and beseech Him most earnestly p. 20not to suffer to fall into sin and be lost that soul of yours for which He has died: if you do this, Jesus will surely hear your prayer.”

4. The Blessed Eucharist, the Sacred Heart, and the Holy Face.—One of the most necessary devotions with which you should inspire your children is the devotion towards the Blessed Eucharist. Teach them to genuflect to our dear Lord present in the sacrament of His love when they enter and leave the church, and to behave in His presence with the utmost propriety and reverence. Send them regularly and punctually to holy Mass on all Sundays and holy-days of obligation. Provide them with a suitable prayer-book, and see that they make use of it whenever they assist at Mass, and whenever they go to confession and holy communion. If possible, send them to hear Mass every day. Inspire them with an ardent desire to receive holy communion, and leave nothing undone to dispose them well for the reception of so great a sacrament, especially when they are to receive their dear Lord for the first time. It is advisable for you to receive holy communion with them on this latter happy and ever memorable occasion. Accustom them to go to Vespers and Benediction, and to salute, at least interiorly, our Lord Jesus Christ, whenever they pass before a church. To the devotion to Jesus in the sacrament of His love we should join the beautiful and salutary devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus—to that Heart which has loved men so much, and which will bestow so great favors on all who honor it. Endeavor to introduce into your family the praiseworthy and most useful custom of approaching the sacraments on the first Friday of every month, or on the Sunday following, in honor of the Sacred Heart. Nowadays many insults are offered to God by blasphemy, by false, unjust, and unnecessary oaths, by cursing and other profanations. In atonement for these outrages introduce into your family the devotion to the Holy Face of our loving Redeemer.

5. The Blessed Virgin Mary.—St. Alphonsus justly maintains that a true servant of Mary cannot be lost. You should, therefore, consider it one of your most important duties to leave no means untried to instil into the hearts of your children, from their very infancy, a deep and tender devotion to Mary, the Mother of Jesus. It would be well if, after the example of many pious parents, you would dedicate your children, even before their birth, or at least from their baptism, to this most holy of virgins, and thus place their innocence and purity under her special protection. Teach your children to look upon Mary as their loving Mother, to invoke her aid with all fervor and confidence, in all their temptations, in all their trials, in all their wants, and to prepare for her feasts by novenas of prayer and good works, and to receive holy communion on all her principal feasts. Cause them to wear a medal and the scapulars in her honor, and daily to recite the beads. If you succeed in inspiring them with a true and tender devotion to this purest of virgins, to this most powerful and loving of mothers, you will have secured the preservation of their purity and their eternal salvation, for Mary is, indeed, the Mother of perpetual help and of final perseverance. Recommend to them also devotion to Mary as Our Lady of Sorrows, and teach them to sympathize with her in her sorrows, especially with the grief and anguish which she endured at the foot of the cross, when she became our Mother by the last will of her dying Son, Jesus Christ. Mary, says St. Alphonsus, will extend her special protection in life and death to all who sympathize with her in her sorrows.

6. St. Joseph.—“Since every one of us shall die one day,” says St. Alphonsus, “we should all have a great devotion to St. Joseph, especially that we may through his intercession obtain the grace of a good death.” St. Teresa used to declare that she had never in vain invoked the assistance of St. Joseph in either temporal or spiritual wants. Strive then to inspire your children with a great devotion to St. Joseph, so that they may be assisted by him in all their temporal and spiritual wants, and especially that they may obtain through him the inestimable grace of a good death.

7. The Guardian Angel.—Frequently remind your children, from their very infancy, that each of them has a guardian angel constantly near them to protect them, to advise them, to help them to save their souls, and to witness all their actions. Inculcate on their minds that it is their duty to revere and love him, to avoid doing in his presence what they would be ashamed to do before their fellow-men, to pray daily to him to assist and protect them, and to have all confidence in him, especially in all dangers of both soul and body.

8. The Patrons of Youth.—Teach your boys to honor, love, and imitate St. Aloysius Gonzaga and St. Stanislaus Kostka, those youthful saints and patrons of youth, and to pray frequently to them to guard and preserve them from all danger of losing their faith and purity. In like manner, endeavor to inspire your daughters with a great devotion to St. Agnes, that young virgin who, to preserve her faith and her purity, underwent martyrdom. Have your daughters to place the priceless treasures of their faith and purity under her protection, and often to invoke her to obtain for them the grace to preserve both their faith and purity amid the many dangers that may beset their path in this life.

9. The Souls in Purgatory.—Since “it is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from their sins” (2 Mach. xii. 46), you should endeavor to inspire your children with a tender compassion for the suffering souls in purgatory. Teach them how to relieve these holy souls by their prayers, by acts of self-denial, by the offering up of good works, and especially of holy Mass and holy communion, by the gaining of p. 22indulgences, and by alms from their savings to the poor and the needy.

10. Pious Confraternities.—Be sure to induce your children to join pious sodalities, confraternities, and societies, according to their age and means, and to keep faithfully the rules thereof. This is especially necessary for your grown-up children. You should leave no means untried to keep them out of not only forbidden and dangerous societies, but even all purely worldly associations, where they may meet with companions whose worldly-mindedness and religious indifference may prove dangerous to their faith and their morals.