Help Your Child to See Design in the Tempo of Daily Life

Painting by Alfredo Rodriguez

by Mary Reed Newland, How to Raise Good Catholic Children

Working in many art forms, using talent easily and spontaneously, finding that their creations are respected and useful, slowly children cross the bridge that connects art and work, and bring their sense of creating to bear on the more subtle arts of daily life.

They discover that setting a table — or hanging the wash, folding the sheets, planting the garden — can be a design.

They discover the rhythm for kneading dough, milking a goat, hammering a nail, rocking the baby. There’s a pace for raking, another for sweeping. There’s a pattern for scrubbing the floor, another for ironing a dress.

Kneeling to comfort a child is a reverence, as genuflecting. Praying out loud together is a harmony, just whispering together while the baby sleeps.

Walking with pails of water for the goats is measured and careful; walking back from Holy Communion has another measure.

These things children learn instinctively, but with more alacrity and with willingness to discover the beauty and satisfaction in ordinary acts if they have had many experiences exploring with their own creativeness.

No one is really “all thumbs.” Everyone has special gifts that set him apart from his fellows and make him a special person. But many times they’re never discovered.

It’s not work that’s ugly, nor working that’s unendurable, but the wrong work with the wrong person attempting it that can make it seem ugly and unendurable.

Creative artists we must have, and God provides them abundantly in every generation, but the others are no less creative for the practicality of their arts. And the gifts given to these are no less special; they must be sought just as carefully.

Creativity can be found in all types of work. We’ve committed many sins against man’s creativeness with our modern snobbery about work. We’ve accepted a norm for work that’s based on reward, approval, and selfish gain rather than on motive, integrity, and creative service.

We’ve become confused; we esteem work that’s respected rather than work that’s respectable. Horror is the reaction of most parents to whom it’s suggested that domestic service is appropriate work and training for a young girl looking forward to marriage.

It does not occur to such parents that the creative arts she would practice in so-called menial employment are the same arts she’ll practice (with greater grace for her training) when she’s a wife and mother.

How does sending her to work in a factory, to file papers and stack cards in an office, train her in the art of homemaking? This is how far we have strayed from the recognition and understanding of creativeness.

We respect people for the creativeness of their hobbies, not their lives, and admire the successful fellows who work creatively in wood or paint or whatever on their weekends, more than carpenters, plumbers, and farmers, who work creatively all week along.

For Christian parents who want to help their children find their whole usefulness, how to use their whole lives — not just certain departments— creatively in the service of God, these points need thinking out.

People are not haphazardly created with a dash of this and that added for interest by a Creator who dabbles in variations on the same old theme. Each one was made to serve Him in a special way.

The discovery of how begins when they’re very little and learn to make visible and tangible their own ideas, formed by the knowledge of God, His love for them, and the truths Christ teaches.

In your living room and bedrooms, you should have at least one symbol of your faith–a statue of the Savior and the Blessed Mother, a crucifix, pictures which bring to mind events in the life of Our Lord. -Rev. George Kelly, 1950’s

The Guiding Light

Mary and Tommy are excited about their visit to the seashore where Grandpa and Grandma take care of the lighthouse. Their visit is filled with many fun times at the seaside, along with an adventure where their quick thinking and prayerful attitude is called upon! Set in poetic rhyme, this book is a good lesson on the value of prayer in Catholic family life.

Catholic Hearth Stories are tales filled with traditional, old-fashioned values. They are about everyday situations in the life of a Catholic family…Tales about home, friends, fun, sacrifice, prayer, etc. These are full-color books sure to capture the heart of your children.

This book is 23 pages of full-color pictures that tell a lovely Catholic story. The ages it is appropriate for are approximately 2-10 years. Older children will also enjoy it and will appreciate the detail in the illustrations…it is a lovely book for all!

Available here.

You can get the whole set of Catholic Hearth Stories here.

For more than 50 years, the titles from the Confraternity of the Precious Blood have nourished the soul. Millions of readers have found in these treasured books a source of inspiration and grace.

Conveniently sized for pocket, palm, or purse, these little devotionals are treasures of wisdom and consolation. Available for the first time in a beautifully box packaged set, these are to be kept close at hand, to provide spiritual refreshment throughout the day and a gentle call to grow closer to God.

Available here.

A definitive life of one of the greatest Saints of the church and one of the most appealing women of all time by a master writer. Immensely sane, witty, intelligent, charming and courageous, she is the reformer of the Order of Mt. Carmel, founder of many convents and monasteries, and is universally considered the greatest mystical writer of the Church, for which she was declared “Doctor of the Church.” A life filled with delight, surprises and love of God!

Available here.

This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support.