How Catholic Families Can Make It a Faith-Filled Summer

The Challenges of Summer Break for Catholic Families

During summertime the Son of God and the sun in the sky are in fierce competition with each other. Sunday Mass is up against a new set of enjoyable and meaningful extra-curriculars. Unless we prepare our own hearts and our families, summer can quickly pass us by, and so can our relationship with God. 

Start supporting Catholic families with their summer spirituality by downloading and sharing the Family and Faith Summer Kit. This free kit includes eight sessions that will bring families together to talk about their faith and ways to live it. Each session will give families the opportunity to:

• Learn about the faith-filled life of a saint or holy person
• Discover a unique aspect of what makes us Catholic
• Reflect on ways to live out faith as missionary disciples
• Pray together and reflect on God's love

3 Strategies That Will Help Catholic Families Keep Faith a Priority This Summer

Along with printable resources, families should be given strategies that will help them keep faith a priority during summer. To ensure Catholic families spend their summertime basking in the sun and the Son of God, they can: 

1. Practice and Cultivate Gratitude
2. Share Personal Stories of Faith
3. Celebrate the Sacraments Together

Strategy 1: Practice and Cultivate Gratitude

Being a family of gratitude is foundational to being a family of faith. When we focus on gratitude, God takes first place, as everything good comes from him. Attending Sunday Mass becomes important for different reasons. With gratitude in our hearts and mind, church is where we will naturally gravitate to worship and thank God.

The summertime affords us many opportunities to cultivate gratitude in our families. Many of these opportunities happen organically. You don’t need to prepare in advance. But we do need to be mindful of these natural openings for grace and growth when they present themselves.

For example, seeing my children playing on the trampoline together, one afternoon, and noticing how they are not shoving each other or pulling each other’s hair for once—or jumping on top of each other! —I shouted, “I love you guys so much! Thanks for playing nicely.” They smiled and laughed a little. Later that afternoon, we had a snack together around the kitchen table. Grace, my four-year-old, said to me, “Thanks for the snack, Daddy-waddy.” I chuckled. And I thought about how contagious gratitude is. Just a few words of thanks to my kids resulted in a few words of thanks to me. It reminded me to ask the kids to give God gratitude. So we prayed a table blessing together.

Practicing gratitude by being mindful of our blessings is a great way to stay connected with God throughout the summer! Download a takeaway sheet with three simple ideas for families to practice gratitude at home this summer or any time of year.

Strategy 2: Share Personal Stories of Faith

Parents can and SHOULD be their children’s first and primary religious educators. Through my travels and speaking engagements, I often come across well-intentioned Catholic parents who are, to put it mildly, frightened about “teaching” their children the Catholic faith. But the truth is that every parent is already equipped to share their faith in transformative ways. It all begins with getting in touch with and sharing your own experience of God in your life.

When it comes to teaching the faith at home, I prefer to use the language of “faith sharing.” Faith is first experienced and later described and repeated in doctrinal form. Many young children and adults have profound experiences of faith though they lack the words to articulate them. They sense the hand of the Divine in their lives, but may not feel comfortable describing the experience.

As primary faith sharers, parents have the ability to do three things:

1. Listen carefully to children’s stories and experiences to help them identify those “God moments” or moments of grace in their own lives.
2. Reflect on their own life journey and the role God and faith have played in it.
3. Share their reflections with their children.

To learn how to articulate faith experiences more fully and authentically, read my full-length article here.

Support parents as they share their faith story with their children during the summer or any time of year. Download and share an eBook that outlines the key Dos and Don'ts of sharing family faith.

Strategy 3: Celebrate the Sacraments Together

Catholic families can celebrate the sacraments WELL together… even during the summer months! Whether a family has one child, or six children (like me!), they can utilize strategies for worship that help minimize the challenges and distractions that parents often face when bringing children to Mass and the sacraments.

Worshiping well as a family takes some planning and some effort, but the payoff is worth it. I’ve seen my kids slowly evolve from not liking Sunday Mass, to not minding it, to sort of liking it. It’s not perfect, but it’s progress! Here are three things that our family has discovered out of necessity and experience that can help your family celebrate the Mass and sacraments together.

First, it helps to remember that sacraments are celebrations of God’s love for his entire people, not just you. The sacraments are special encounters with God, who gives us his grace so that we can love him and our neighbor as ourselves—you guessed it—more gracefully. 

Second, celebrating the sacraments well means taking time to prepare for the celebration. If you know it will be difficult to pay attention during Mass, take time to read the Sunday readings with your spouse or the whole family before Mass. Discuss the readings. Remind children that they can listen for these readings during Mass, which will help them pay attention to the words being spoken and read.

It is important to acknowledge the struggles that each of you are facing when attending Mass. Family prayer is a great way to do this! When you pray as a family throughout the week, add the intention of “paying attention at Mass” or “getting the most out of Mass” or “enjoying Mass together” to your list of intentions. Share with each other what would help you get the most out of Mass.

Third, make the small investment in a children’s Bible and a children’s Mass guide. If you have particularly squirmy kids, as I do, these and other kid-friendly resources can be a great way to keep them engaged in their relationship with God without providing them with an alternative activity that will distract them from the Mass.

Being able to look at pictures of the Scripture stories they are hearing, or following along with the order of the Mass and praying along will help them actively engage and participate at Mass, which means less “shh-ing” from parents.

Want more tips for enhancing your family worship? Download the Three Things to Help Your Family Worship Well Tip Sheet and use to prepare for a great Sunday experience at Mass this weekend.