Spiritual Life
Family Prayer in the Domestic Church
Family prayer · The common practice of the whole Church tradition
The daily prayer of a household together — the family understood as the domestic church, and the parents as the first teachers of prayer to their children by praying in front of them and not only over them.
Instructions
Fix two moments the whole household keeps, and keep them at the same time each day: a short morning prayer and a longer evening prayer. Make the form simple and unchanging, so the youngest can join and everyone knows it by heart — the Sign of the Cross, the Our Father, the Hail Mary, the Glory Be, the prayer to the Guardian Angel, and then intercessions for named people, living and dead. Say grace before and after meals aloud, including in company. Add a decade of the Rosary rather than five decades if five will not survive; length is not the virtue here. Mark the liturgical year at home, because children learn the faith through the senses: the Advent wreath, ashes on Ash Wednesday, the crucifix covered in Passiontide, blessed candles at Candlemas, the crib at Christmas, holy water at the door. Read the Sunday Gospel together before Sunday. Let the children lead parts of it and choose some of the intentions. And let them see the parents praying alone as well — the Catechism calls the Christian family the first place of education in prayer, and the lesson is carried chiefly by example.
Background
Lumen Gentium calls the family the domestic church; Familiaris Consortio devotes a substantial section to family prayer and to parents as the first educators of their children in faith. Amoris Laetitia takes up the same subject in its treatment of the spirituality of the family.
Practice kind
Family
Tradition
The common practice of the whole Church
Duration
About 10 minutes
Frequency
Daily, morning and evening
Content subtype
family