"Talking to Our Children About Faith" - Faith Formation with First Communion Parents
- faithonfireireland
- May 27
- 3 min read
The feedback from parents at the end of a recent faith formation series led by Faith on Fire was encouraging, to say the least!
"It was good to talk with other parents about stuff you would normally never talk about: where God is in our lives, talking to our children about faith and praying with them" said one parent.
Another wrote,"this was a great opportunity to reconnect spiritually. I really enjoyed the sessions and feel there is a lot I can take away and apply in my daily life and with my family. Thank you!"
The four part series, led by Faith on Fire team members, Joe Bridges and Patricia McNally, offered parents of First Communion children in the parish support for their own faith, an opportunity to revisit traditions of faith from their own childhood, and crucially, to share ways of passing the faith on to their own children in turn.
"I will start to make more of a conscious effort to introduce conversations about God in my home going forward. This was really important in my family as a child."
As one parent said "it was a totally different approach to preparing for my daughter's First Communion." The topics covered over the four evenings included "Who is Jesus?", a look at what exactly the Mass is - and the power of prayer.
In the evening on Prayer, Joe led the group in an experience of praying using well known stories from the Bible - a kind of Lectio Divina. Afterwards he teased out with the parents ways of using that same model to pray at home - and how to adapt the method for prayer with even their youngest children.
"What I take away from the evenings is the importance of prayer in a family: we probably need to focus on it more in our everyday lives and teach our children more about Jesus."
This 'bringing it back home' with practical and easy to use ideas is an integral part of what we do at Faith on Fire. And it was something the parents appreciated a lot. "I will start to make more of a conscious effort to introduce - or re-introduce - conversations about God in my home going forward. This was really important in my family as a child." one father told us.
Many of the parents commented on the encouragement the four evenings gave them to bring prayer and faith into their daily routine with their children: "What I take away from the evenings is the importance of prayer in a family: we probably need to focus on it more in our everyday lives and teach our children more about Jesus."
"It was a great opportunity to reconnect spiritually. I really enjoyed the sessions and feel there is a lot I can take away and apply in my daily life and with my family. Thank you!"
We were very pleased too that the priest who invited the Faith on Fire team in to work with the parents told us on the final night that he felt it couldn't have gone better. He's hoping to expand this now to more parishes in his pastoral area next year. We looking forward to developing a great relationship in the future, helping to fan the flame of faith!
Get in touch with us today if you'd like Faith on Fire to work with parents, with people involved in various ministries in the parish, or with the whole parish. Our mission is to help people across Ireland grow in a loving and personal friendship with Christ!
For more information drop us an email to contact@faithonfire.ie, send us a WhatsApp message: +353 87 348 6485 or click the button 👇 .
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