Keep Your Kids Catholic

Sharing your faith with small children to articles on how to love adult children who leaave the Church, here is tested pastoral wisdom for raising your kids Catholic.

"This book is about how American religious parents approach the handing on of their religious practices and beliefs to their children. We know a lot about the importance of parents in faith transmission and factors that influence its effectiveness. But we know much less about the actual beliefs, feelings, and activities of the parents themselves when it comes to the intergenerational transmission of religious faith and practice"--

Many Catholic parents are tempted to leave the religious education and spiritual formation of their children up to their parish or Catholic school. Professional catechist, popular blogger, and father of two, Marc Cardaronella has a passionate plea for those parents: be your child’s primary educator in the faith by what you do and say. This practical guide gives parents what they need to be a bigger partner in handing on the faith to their children by creating a faith-nurturing environment at home. When Marc Cardaronella started his job as a catechist, he could empathize with parents who came to him to talk about how their now-grown children had left the Church because he had been there: Despite years of religious education and regular Mass attendance, Cardaronella never really practiced his faith. He fell away from the Church right after his Confirmation and stayed away for twenty years. Now it’s his mission to equip families like yours to hand on your faith. His passionate message is that the kind of faith formation children need is not taught in standard religious education classes and probably never will be. Cardaronella is on a quest to help you fill the gaps by first strengthening your own faith—opening your heart to God, practicing trust, clearing away obstacles to God’s grace, and creating regular prayer and study routines at home. He gives you the tools to pass that faith on to your kids and make it stick by teaching you how to pray with your children consistently, about adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, the power of the Examen prayer, and how to motivate your kids to be engaged in parish life and Christian outreach. Keep Your Kids Catholic offers equal shares of inspiration, challenge, and practical advice. Each chapter includes Reflect, Pray, and Live sections to help you integrate Cardaronella’s message into family life.

How do you walk with your children during times of struggle and crisis? Do you feel as if nothing you do will be enough? In Mary's Way, a heartfelt book for moms who struggle to guide children through the various stages of their lives, Catholic speaker and teacher Judy Landrieu Klein shows how her own crisis of faith helped her release her children to the care of the Blessed Mother. In doing so, Klein shows you how to find the love, joy, and peace of Our Lord as you surrender your will to him. Judy Landrieu Klein struggled with her faith as she lived through her son’s near-fatal addiction to drugs and her daughter’s painful anxiety. She discovered she couldn’t handle the relentless pressure of life not measuring up to her expectations and it was eating away at her family. Klein considered Mary’s reaction to the events in the life of Jesus. She meditated on Mary’s fiat and her prayer of total surrender to God’s will and saw how this act of obedience carried on throughout Mary’s life as she witnessed the life of her son. As Klein focused on her devotion to the Blessed Mother, her life and faith were transformed. In Mary’s Way, Klein reflects on the Annunciation and describes her own to struggle to embrace the will of God by surrendering control of her family planning. She meditates on Mary’s powerlessness during the Crucifixion, finding a place of calming surrender during her own son’s escalating battle with addiction. Klein shows how you can become a more powerful intercessor for yourself and your children. When you finish reading this book, you’ll find yourself turning to Mary and surrendering yourself and your children more fully to God.

A comprehensive guide to help you determine why your child left the Church and how to bring them back.

A practical guide to detecting whether your child is being recruited out of the Faith and intervene to bring them back. It includes steps that you can take to make it more difficult for these "wolves" to "sheep-steel" your children, and how to re-start the conversations if they have already left.