Dr. Grego Popcak - Discovering God Together

Dr. Gregory K. and Lisa Popcak

Discovering God Together

The Catholic Guide to
Raising Faithful Kids

SOPHIA INSTITUTE PRESS
Manchester, New Hampshire

Copyright 2015 by Gregory K. and Lisa Popcak

Printed in the United States of America. All rights reserved.

Cover design by Coronation Media in collaboration
with Perceptions Design Studio.

Unless otherwise noted, biblical references in this book are taken from the Catholic Edition of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1965, 1966 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church for the United States of America copyright 1994, United States Catholic Conference, Inc. Libreria Editrice Vaticana. English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church : Modifications from the Editio Typica copyright 1997, United States Catholic Conference, Inc. Libreria Editrice Vaticana.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Popcak, Gregory K.

Discovering God together: the Catholic guide to raising faithful kids / Dr. Gregory K. and Lisa Popcak.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-62282-246-1 (pbk. : alk. paper) ePub ISBN 978-1-622822-4780 1. Christian education of children. 2. Catholic Church Doctrines. 3. Catholic Church Education. 4. Child rearing Religious aspects Catholic Church. 5. Parenting
Religious aspects Catholic Church. I. Title.

BV1475.3.P67 2015

248.8'45 dc23

2015018434

To our children:
may the light of God's grace
guide your paths and ignite your hearts
with the fire of his love

Contents

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Appendix:

Part 1

Your Faith Journey: Getting the Lay of the Land

Discovering God Together: An Invitation

Raising a child much more, a faithful child is both an amazing blessing and a huge responsibility. All of us want to give our children the best. We wish them joy, peace, love, health, good values, and, of course, as Christians, we want them to have eternal life. But how do we share our faith in a way that will make sense to our kids and stick with them for a lifetime?

St. Paul tells of how we struggle to see God clearly (1 Cor. 13:12). Because of our own mixed experiences with life and spirituality, we often feel as if were looking through a dirty window when it comes to trying to understand, much less explain, our faith. We might carry emotional and spiritual wounds that can further cloud or complicate our relationship with God. When we combine these issues with the simple challenges of getting through the day, its not surprising that God often doesnt register on our personal radar. If he does, we might think of him in ways that make him seem remote or even suspicious.

Regardless of where you find yourself on the spiritual path, God is inviting you to deepen your relationship with him and to share that journey with your children to help them on their way to claiming every good and perfect gift that comes from him (see James 1:17).

Of course God wants your child to know his deep and abiding love, but he wants that for you too. Even more than you want to give every good thing to your child, God wants to give his love, his grace, and his healing to you (see Matt. 7:11).

There are many reasons both spiritual and practical that families benefit from cultivating their faith together. As you will discover in these pages, research shows again and again that when families openly live and share their faith, marriages become stronger, children and parents get along better, and children are less likely to succumb to drugs, alcohol, promiscuity, and negative peer pressure (Fagan, 2006). And those are only the temporal payoffs in this world! All the graces that we receive while pursuing a relationship of faith here also help secure sure and certain hope of everlasting life!

Doing Faith with Our Kids

Yet even with all this to motivate us, the idea of passing on our faith to our children can often seem intimidating. We are busy or feel too weak in our faith or feel that our faith is too private to share. No one ever really taught us how to do faith with kids. These and many more reasons can often lead even the most well-meaning parents to default to attempting to pass on the faith to children by checking off the right boxes:

Take child to church. Check .

Learn all the rote prayers. Check.

Send child to the right school. Check.

Set down the rules and regulations at home. Check.

Although each of these elements is an important part of passing on the faith, they often fall tremendously short of helping our children develop a true and lasting relationship with God. They can help form a whole picture of the faith for our children only when they are connected to the love that springs from Gods heart, a love that ties us to him and to each member of our household.

In the following pages, you will explore many ways for you and your children to discover God together in the big and small moments of your everyday family life and learn how to tap into the rich beauty of the sacraments and traditions of our Catholic faith. The Bible encourages us to share faith with our children when we sit at home and when we walk along the road, when we go to bed and when we rise (see Deut. 11:19). As you read this book, it is our hope that you will find many new and exciting ways to encounter God in your home, in your community, and in your life, so that every moment with your children can be filled with Gods grace, joy, love, and abundance.

Let the adventure begin!

What Makes Catholic Families Different?: The Five Marks of a Faithful Family

At the beginning of any journey, you need good directions, or a GPS, so youll know where youre going. If you begin a trip planning to make your way up as you go, you might not ever arrive at your intended destination. Even if you have a set of old directions that used to be correct, whos to say that the route hasnt changed? You need the most current directions to help you get from A to B.

The same might be said for your spiritual journey with your kids. If you want to arrive at your destination the point where your kids are ready to launch out into the world as faithful, Catholic young adults you cant just wing it. And the directions your parents or grandparents used might not get you there. Its a different world with a completely new landscape and more roads than ever for you and your kids to get lost on. To get where youre going, you will have to begin your journey with a clear sense of the route ahead, and you will need to be more intentional than ever about making sure you stay on the right roads.

Finding the Address

To start, you have to ask yourself, Is it enough for me to raise basically faithful kids? In other words, do you want to help your kids arrive safely at the address marked Faithful Catholic Adulthood, or is any other address in the neighborhood (e.g., Faithful Nondenominational Christian or Spiritual, Not Religious) just as good?

Assuming that youre more particular about helping your kids get to the address marked Faithful Catholic Adulthood, you will have to give them an example of Catholic family life thats worth repeating in adulthood. This involves two things.