Bringing Faith Home

At-home activities are so important for building households of faith that continue to grow after the sacramental preparation period.  If families practice praying, reading the Bible together, faith-sharing, serving and forgiving each other, learning about their faith, etc. in between sessions, some of that will stick. 

This is part of coaching parents, and this kind of approach will result in more families valuing their faith tradition, regularly attending liturgy, and becoming connected to their parish community.

Connected to Sessions

Each session ends with a household action plan for the next week.  These are outlined on the last pages of the child and parent handouts.  Catechists help the families review these, answer any questions, and ask them to commit to the plan (sometimes picking from among options).  At the beginning of the next session, families are encouraged to report back on their home activities for the week.

At Home Webpage

The handouts direct families to the At Home webpage for that week.  These pages--which work on computers, phones, and tablets--coach them through their action plan and give them more engaging information.  We encourage catechists to send an email during the week with the direct link to the page as a reminder, and in case the family misplaces their handout.

Online Videos

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a million.  Our At Home webpages include fun and informative short videos from a variety of sources.  Some are for the whole family, and others are for parents. Families really watch these and learn more!

Digging Deeper

The website provides opportunities for parents to learn more based on their own needs.  For example, while some may be familiar with navigating their Bible, others may be embarrassed to even admit that they rarely open theirs. We provide a video for them to get up to speed.  We also provide many links for families to dig deeper based on their interests.  We want learning about faith to be fun, and maybe even a little bit addictive!

Household Goals

We focus on three types of at-home goals.  First is reinforcing and deepening learning from the sessions, including theological topics.  Second is building specific faith practices within the home, such as prayer, Scripture reading, and faith-sharing.  Third is supporting families in being loving Christian households, by having supper together, reaching out to those in need. Families really want to do these things, but they need encouragement and support.

Just Doing It

Where are parents called to form their children in faith?  A little bit inside the parish walls, but almost all at home and in the situations of daily life!  We can talk about this all we want, but the key is getting parents actually doing this in their homes (even if it's a little awkward at first) and taking ownership of their role.  For the many parents who have already started down this road, 

Support to Last a Lifetime

We want motivate parents to form their own children, but we also want to offer them a resource center and community where they can learn more and find answers to their questions as they come up.  That is what we are "growing" at GrowingUpCatholic.com, which we introduce through the At Home pages.