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​The Domestic Church

Children first experience God in the arms of their parents. The home is where children first experience the sacred presence of God as either personal and intimate or impersonal and indifferent. By watching and imitating their parents, children learn how to love and embrace; to listen and respond; to belong; to forgive; to pray; to reach out; and to serve.

Where these are lacking in the home, they will be lacking in our children and in our church. In their manner of child rearing, parents will either cultivate faith in their children or stifle it. 

Ignoring our faith, taking it for granted or relinquishing the faith as the work of others, hurts us all, especially the children. There can no longer be the separation of children from families in passing on the faith as we once had, but rather, families interacting with their children in matters of faith is now emphasized.