What We ALL Need To Do To Share The Faith With Young People

“However, take care and be earnestly on your guard not to forget the things which your own eyes have seen, nor let them slip from your memory as long as you live, but teach them to your children and to your children’s children.”

Handing on our faith to young people is one of the greatest responsibilities given us as parents, grandparents, godparents, and as sons and daughters of God called to raise future generations of devoted disciples.

St. John Bosco once said, “Do you want to do a good deed? Teach the young! Do you want to do a holy thing? Teach the young! Truly, now and for the future, among holy things, this is the holiest.”

Our readings today obviously took root in St. John Bosco’s heart, as he dedicated his life to teaching the young, knowing the immense value to be found in planting seeds of faith in young hearts. Surely he is now among the “greatest in the Kingdom of heaven” for he “obeyed and taught these commandments.”

Is sharing our faith with our “children and our children’s children” a priority in our lives? How do we reprioritize becoming spiritual leaders for these young people?

This Lent, focus first on being Christ to them. Model Christ-like parenting, grandparenting, and mentorship, and your faith will automatically be more contagious. Your living witness will be your first and most influential teaching. That means being patient when you want to yell. Disciplining when you want to pretend you didn’t see that incident you just saw. Verbalizing gratitude instead of complaints. Letting your young ones see you pray and not just see you scroll on your phone. As many great spiritual leaders have told me: “the faith is more caught than taught.”

Then, teach your children (or grandchildren or young people at your parish). From the earliest age, give them good, true, and beautiful books to help plant the seeds of faith. Teach them how to pray. Pray with them. Pray for them.

Helping the young people in your life learn how to be in relationship with Jesus and follow Him, when strong cultural forces are trying to pull them away from faith, is the greatest gift you will ever give them.

Katie Warner is the author/editor of the First Faith Treasury and the prayer journals A Parent Who Prays and A Grandparent Who Prays. She shares resources for Catholic families at KatieWarner.com.