Pray more...Pray 60! Tips on parenting from the trenches

1/14/2016

Recently, I learned about "Pray 60", a campaign to encourage schools, leagues, and coaches to not schedule games or practices for kids until after 1pm on Sundays. (This is a play on the National Football Leagues "Play 60" exercise campaign for children.) I love the sentiment behind the efforts of this Grass Roots movement! I love how "Pray 60" wants to change the world one kid at a time by pushing back at the attempt to push God aside. I love how there are Believers out there willing to do all they can to stop the erosion of Faith. I love the energy and commitment Coach Thomas Cronin (of St. Joseph's Parish, Greenfield Center, NY) has shown in establishing this ministry. And I am offering this personal testimony on behalf of Cronin's declaration: "We love sports, but we love God more!"

When I was a young parent, if asked: What do I want most in the world? My answer was always: That my child be healthy and HAPPY!

That is not an unusual response for a mother to have. Most parents, if they truly embrace their role, model a happy life worth living. After all, we are our children's first teachers. Right? But this inexperienced mom of the 90's, despite the "How To" self help books, knows now that hell is paved with good intentions and that I had somehow missed the forest for the trees.

I was a huge proponent of the arts, education and of course sports! (I myself played basketball in school and later coached a Travel Basketball team.) Those activities were, I believed, a prescription for healthy childhood development. My 26 year old daughter has been the benefactor of Maria Montessori (Montessori School) and Rudolph Steiner's
Waldorf School) ideology on learning. She attended one of the best private high schools in the northeast...and she can say she keeps company with our nation's first Catholic president; his name appearing in her high school's alumni catalog. She was a Scout, played basketball, soccer, was captain of her lacrosse team and had a chestnut gelding that she rode regularly. I had embraced the 90's cultural sense of what good parenting involved: Keep the kid as active as possible to build a solid college application and in the mean time... keep her too busy to get in trouble.

So are you wondering where God was in all that?
Actually, we were so busy there wasn't time for God.

Yes, He was mentioned occasionally as an expletive. He made a cameo appearance at supper time; He came to comfort us at our bedside when saying a brief: Now I lay me down to sleep.... And we visited Him a couple of Sundays a month. 'Not a perfect Mass attendance, but at least we did what we could. I was satisfied with just satisfying the bare requirements of our Catholic faith.

What I didn't realize was that our obligatory, spotty Sunday visits to church and CCD classes were too little exposure to the source of happiness I had hoped for my daughter. I didn't really show her how to have a relationship with God because I didn't understand how to have one with Him myself. And I was too busy and she was too busy. So it seems that I failed to live up to my responsibility as a Catholic parent and to the promise I made at her Baptism. I didn't get it. I didn't know that her Baptismal promise ought to have been taken as seriously as wedding vows.

The Good News is that this doesn't have to become a common story. Every Sunday, in one form or another, the invitation to become a part of the parish body...Christ's body is extended. So trust the invitation, make time for God... set aside what you think you know is good for you and invite Jesus into the heart of your family. Learn how to pray. Pray without ceasing and don't permit outside sources to distract you from the time you and your family can spend learning about and giving thanks to God.

A hundred years from now... no one will care how your child's team made the playoffs. A hundred years from now your grandchildren will enjoy the benefits of the Legacy of Faith you worked hard to preserve. And both God and you will be pleased as you gaze down on them from Heaven.

6 Comments

Bruce Blazo

1/15/2016 05:36:52 am

I wasn’t aware of this issue, when I grew up it was unthinkable to have any sporting events for youth on a Sunday. Not during worship time not even later in the day. My how things have changed.

Carmel Ann Sperti

1/17/2016 05:56:32 pm

This is a great summary of the problem (and its roots in good intentions) and one way to address it. I'm going to share this and hope parents listen! Thank you!

Evelyn Augusto link

1/17/2016 10:30:42 pm

Thanks so much!

Richard Anthony link

1/18/2016 04:45:04 am

"We love sports, but we love God more!" declares the campaign's website, www.pray60.info.

Evelyn, thanks for your post and for your email inviting me to view it. Actually, "Pray 24/7/265" would be more appropriate to give Glory to God and not unreasonable; but that is for clerics and not lay people like me.

Helping to keep holy the Sabbath Day is certainly a worthwhile objective. But let's realize the massive societal forces working against that Commandment of God. By our individual prayers perhaps our nation can continue to nurture good Christians and great athletes at the same time.

Evelyn Augusto link

1/18/2016 05:06:18 am

Amen and than you for your support. Watch for a new essay on The Piecing Together of One Body at 24 Hour Adoration

Ellen Moran

1/20/2016 08:19:29 am

I hope this mission will help in our society,where sports have become a false god,for good or for bad,we can't go back,We can only represent,Christ in our life ,now. We ,who are haunted by our mistakes,all develop succinct vision with 20-20 hindsight as far as raising our children are concerned.I almost lost my son from a SIDS like episode first day home from the hospital.I just "happened"to get up and check on him and he was turning...blue.Fear began to rule my life,any time he sniffled,I was up like a shot.I was a nervous wreck,I couldn't sleep for fear,he would be lost to me.My milk dried up,I started smoking again,we moved back near family.
My Mom was the only one to help me through my crisis,by gently telling me,my son,is "God's"first and it wasn't coincidence that I got up to check on him when I did .God wanted me to "save him" from the episode when I did( it turned out he had a mucus plug that was not quite cleared during delivery and later on, this episode in my life gave me the awareness to consider going into nursing)
Mom suggested,I have to keep and develop faith in the "Lord's will",for my son,not my will.As parents ,we do the best we can,with what the Lord gives us and we have to trust to his will for all his children,sports fanatics or close laity.There is only so much we, as his children can do,as hard as the struggle is,we have to trust him.I'm certain,you did the best you could within your circumstances.
We are currently giving our best ,of faith,to our blessing of a grand daughter,who told me during her most recent visit,"Nana, I am going to be a Saint,when I grow up",it made me very happy,then,I started to project and be very "afraid" for that stated "sainthood"!
(she's six,after all)
I pray she will have the grace of "fortitude"on her journey and I have to....trust to the Lord for all outcomes.Our families,past or present are our "first church",whether very "secular"in it's beginnings or close to being "church", we are here now,to help, to gently instruct, to live what we believe, as we continue "our"journey.I like the idea of the 24/7/365.many of the clergy,I know,don't always "corner the market"on "spirituality" and living in the trenches,My Mom,is still my foremost "spiritual adviser" ,when dealing with ..life on life's terms.I am also grateful to God for all other resources he gives us.Now,I have talked to my DIL about swimming lessons on "Sunday",I could take my grand daughter on the Saturday's,when I'm there.

LET IT aLL sTART hERE
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