– Supernatural catechesis The learning of the faith at home is fundamental in Christian families. It is about transmitting the faith to children in a simple, natural and lively way. And this is the subject of the latest podcast by Mantita y Fe, from the Gospa Arts Foundation. Its previous work was about praying in a Worship to the Blessed Sacrament.
In the conversation, lasting 1 hour and 25 minutes, Bárbara Constanza Bustamante interviews Olatz, creator of 'Blessings' (@Blessings.es on Instagram), who shares her experience as a mother and wife, and offers concrete keys to live the faith in the day-to-day family life.
Here are some clues to Olatz's answers about teaching faith to children. The minimal selection is from yours truly. You can see the full video at the end.
Initial ideas
1. Asking forgiveness from a child. The Gospel
Asking forgiveness from a child is precious. Asking forgiveness from a child is one of the most beautiful things that has ever happened to me, because it is the most precious forgiveness.
In the morning we read the Gospel of the day and we ask, each one asks for something. Many people say to me: "But your three-year-old daughter, she doesn't understand the Gospel of the day. I say: "Well, I don't either sometimes, you know". It is that the Word of God is living and effective, and sometimes I don't have to understand it in order to nourish the heart.
2. Jesus really wants to see you
You don't want to see Jesus, but Jesus wants to see you very much. So let's go for Him, because you won't always want all the good things. But since it is good, we go and do it. How beautiful it is that it is because of that will that says: "No, I want what is true, what is beautiful, what is good; I am going back to the way. Not because I have been told that I have to be good or I have to be good, but because I have experienced that what is good for me is the love of God. Right?
3. Our family, a garden with many flowers
Barbara: I know you are an entrepreneurial mother, a full time wife, and coming here to record a podcast, also implies a family organization. Thank you very much.
Olatz: I'm a fan, I'm a fan of the podcast, so when you told me if I was coming, I made room because I think it's great.
B.: For those who don't know you, what is your Blessings project about?
OWell, first of all, I am a daughter of God, right? Which is what gives meaning to my whole life, I am the wife of José Manuel and we are the parents of six children in a wide range of ages. It's a good lab because we have our daughter, who just turned two, who is the youngest. And then, our oldest son is ten, but our fifth daughter is eighteen. Ah, look. This is a little bit weird, it needs to be explained. Four years ago we took in our fifth daughter. When she was fourteen, now she's eighteen.
It's like a garden with several flowers, and you have to give one a little more shade, the other a little more water... Well, it's our family. And then I decided to start my project, Blessings, which was born as a Christian decoration store, but the Lord called me to something more beautiful.
4. What is the art of faith
The store ended up becoming the excuse, because through social networks we showed a little bit of how my family lives. And then, through that, and I'm talking about almost ten years ago, a little less, many people approached a family window of Catholic faith. And many people came closer to that, to how we lived our faith.
These networks led me to continue with the store where God was calling me and to create Prayplan, which is the virtual community of faith where we pray every day. We pray with the Gospel, and we see how to discern the voice of God in our daily lives, because we realize that the art of faith is precisely in this: discerning between the good and the better.
5. The Gospel and the Bible have a word for me.
Our life is full of haste, of split-second decisions to be made, of instantaneousness, of noises, of trends, so we have to stop for a while and say okay. But what is the best thing to do, what is God calling me to do? Among all the options, which are perhaps all good, the Gospel that happened two thousand years ago has a concrete word for my life today.
For that decision I'm making, for that thing that has me overwhelmed, for that depression I'm going through, for that crisis I can't solve, or for that family I'm suffering with my children, for example.
He has a word, that multiplication of the loaves has to do with me today. That Word that is alive for me, that is the wonder of the Gospel... Then the Bible and the Gospel become that experience that, far from being a theory or something or history, is my nourishment. Well, that's what we in the Prayplan community do.
6. God gives me his love for free
I grew up thinking that love had to be earned. The love of your parents, the love of your boyfriends. So, of course, when you grow up like that, you think, 'God's love, how much more do I have to earn it? Because God's love is so great.' So, if it's so great, I have to earn it. Then I have to be very good, don't I? For God to love me I have to be very good. And of course, I was not very good (...). This made me fall in love with God. He gave me his love for free.
I always knew that what I wanted to propose to my children was the experience of living with Jesus and not to throw up what I had received, no matter how good it was for me. For me, what I have achieved is very good, because I have already realized that unconditional love. I knew that yes, the experience in the house of a Jesus who lives with us was basic. It is essential and also a marital experience. Look how they love each other.
Summary
Daily life as a school of faith
An axis. Faith should not be relegated to Sundays or to "formal" matters, but should permeate daily life. Praying together as a family, answering the questions of our children, living charity and forgiveness at home: all this is fertile ground so that faith does not remain something distant or alien.
It is not a matter of imposing a rigid "manual of values", but of showing a lived relationship with Jesus. It is in this authentic love that others can be attracted.
There is plenty of time for a three-year-old to learn the Lord's Prayer, the parable and the Creed. The important thing is that little children feel loved by God.
Direct testimony, ordinary moments
Daily witness (more than just words) has great power: "There are people in love who transmit Jesus without speaking".
In the home, ordinary moments (meals, talks, prayers, difficulties) become spaces to reveal God if we look at our children with affection and coherence.
3. Doubts, spiritual darkness, challenges
There are "moments of darkness constantly". In those periods, the enemy raises objections, "Who are you to speak to others?".
It is countered by remembering that it is not a matter of doing something on one's own merit, but of being "channels": God acts through what one offers.
Jesus is truth. When I live in the truth, the truth may be that today I am very nervous and I have shouted, and I have shouted at you. That may be true, but it is also true that I say: sorry, sorry, because today I was very nervous and I shouted.
"Fundamentally and basically, for us it is everything, it is forgiveness. Forgiveness is something that, when it comes into the picture, is so healing that, well, we who are very much in need of this forgiveness, it's something that constantly comes into the picture."
4. Humility, gratitude
Reflection: contrast between human humility and the greatness of God. Christians should be "happy and proud to carry God", but recognizing that we are "jars of clay".
When one sees one's own sin and fragility, pride disappears and gratitude for divine mercy arises. The everydayness of forgiveness is something that in our house takes a lot of advantage. To ask for forgiveness and to welcome this humanity, knowing that this evil does not have the last word. So I would say that, as a daily dynamic, we should ask forgiveness from each other, from our brothers and sisters, from our parents, from our children, from our parents. May forgiveness be something constant and daily.
5. Authentic transmission versus indoctrination.
Distinguish between transmitting "textbook" values and offering a living relationship with Jesus. A loving relationship with Jesus transcends words and rules.
You have to be very available so that when they have a question or something that questions them, be very available to hunt for that moment.
Falling in love with Christ every day is more effective than a list of religious obligations. The key is not so much what we teach, but how we live what we say we believe.
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