Parents challenged to create new generation of saints

By Canadian Catholic News
Ottawa

"Families, where are the saints of the third millennium?"

That question forms the title of the Catholic Organization for Life and Family's (COLF) annual message to families for 2007, challenging families to pass the faith on to the next generation.

The eight-page leaflet describes introducing children to the love of Love as a "marvellous adventure" and offers practical suggestions on how to introduce children to a relationship with Jesus Christ and to prayerful communication with him.

For example, it suggests some ways prayer can be easily introduced to children, such as praying for "those we pass by on the street, for the injured person who is being taken by ambulance," and incorporating simple, spontaneous prayer into mundane trips to the supermarket or on family hikes.

It suggests children can be given a personal journal while on holidays in which they can write or draw, "telling Jesus about the adventures of the day."

The leaflet urges parents to show Christ's love by example and encourages families to participate in the Sunday Eucharist.

COLF also encourages parents whose children have rejected the faith, citing the example of St. Monica, who prayed 20 years for her son St. Augustine's conversion.

The leaflet can be viewed and ordered through COLF's website at www.colf.ca; by email at colf@colf.ca; and by telephone at (613) 241-9461 ext. 161.

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