“Dad…Mom, will you read me a story?”
On a recent evening, this question from our 8-year-old son—our youngest and a good reader on his own—was a reality check.
His question prompted the two of us to evaluate this fall. With each passing week, our days seem more and more stretched with appointments, errands, and keeping the kids on track with their online learning. Admittedly, we’ve lost some ground to the “culture of busy.” We realized that we need to take steps to recover the magic of reading aloud. We used to read aloud frequently, but somehow, it’s fallen by the wayside.
In the fourth week of each month, we focus on Family Culture, the 4th level of your Trinity House. “A house without books,” Cicero wrote, “is like a body without a soul.” We can extend his aphorism to suggest that homes in which family members read aloud are like healthy bodies with souls—and enchanted places where the family culture is taking root.
You probably have some favorite memories or examples of reading aloud. Here are a few of ours, which beckon us to recapture the power of this simple act:
The point is, something profound unfolds when family members put the dazzling videos aside and take up the spoken word. The inner life of the Trinity is interpersonal, self-giving, and communicative: and all three of these attributes are reflected in a family—which is, after all, an “icon of the Trinity”—that reads aloud. What’s more, when we do this, we deploy a powerful culture-building tool that offers deeper joy and better outcomes than the culture-weakening competitors of entertainment media and gaming. To name just a few:
In St. Augustine’s Confessions, he recounts an amazing moment that led to his conversion. He writes, “So was I speaking and weeping in the most bitter contrition of my heart, when, lo! I heard from a neighboring house a voice, as of boy or girl, I know not, chanting, and oft repeating, ‘Take up and read; Take up and read.’” He then pulled a book off his shelf on the life of St. Antony of Egypt, and his heart was moved as he read the words of Jesus, “Come, follow me.”
“Dad…Mom, will you read me a story?”
What a beautiful and powerful question.
Heaven in Your Home Toolkit
We really enjoyed a wide-ranging conversation with Lisa Hendey, an award-winning author, speaker, podcaster and missionary disciple—and we hope you will too! Here’s the 20-min. podcast interview. Topics we covered include: how we met, how your family can reflect the inner life of the Trinity, and the 5 levels and 5 “cornerstones” (including date night) of your Trinity House.
Wow. In this brief and powerful excerpt from The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction ($17.99 an Amazon), author Meghan Cox Gurdon writes, “We have everything to gain and no time to waste. In the tech era, we can all benefit from what reading aloud supplies, but with children, the need is urgent. Many young people are spending as many as nine hours a day with screens. They are surrounded by technology—it informs their world, it absorbs their attention, it commandeers their hands and eyes—and they need the adults in their lives to read books to them not despite that but because of it.”
Not too long ago, researchers at Barna came out with a fascinating study on “What Makes for a Spritually Vibrant Household?” One of the practices which they pointed to in spiritually vibrant homes is “spiritual conversations,” defined by the researchers as “talking about God and faith at least weekly all together.” Reading aloud to our kids or as a family is a springboard for these types of spiritual conversations.
“The Benefits of Reading Out Loud to Your Kids” by Jeremy Anderberg at the AOM blog includes a good summary of the research. He writes, “Create a book club culture at home. Rather than making reading simply another assignment, or forcing your kids to sit calmly while you read to them and explain the story, work to create a book club culture in your home.” Anderberg suggests a baseline: read aloud “~10 minutes a day, ~3 times a week.”
In “Reading Aloud to Someone Else is a Gift of Self and Presence,” Elizabeth Scalia at Aleteia turns our attention to the power of reading aloud to someone who is sick. “Reading to someone,” she writes, “is a different way of saying to them, ‘I am present and here for you.'”
Ready to get started on the Chronicles of Narnia but you don’t own it yet? Here’s a link to ordering it for under $20. While we’re at it, here’s The Lives of the Saints.
It’s not everyday that our country celebrates a new saint, so at 11 am (Eastern) this Saturday, Oct. 31st, we’re planning to go online to watch the beatification Mass of Father Michael McGivney, the founder of the Knights of Columbus. Soren is a proud Knight in our local Holy Family Council at St. John’s in Leesburg, and as you likely know, the Knights are tireless in strengthening the spiritual life of the family.
Our thanks to The Coming Home Network International, which featured our Heaven in Your Home Letter from last week (remembering Tom Howard) on their 25K+ Facebook page.
Enjoying the weekly Heaven in Your Home Letter in your inbox? Share it with a friend and encourage them to sign up to receive this weekly boost of inspiration and practical tools! Signing up takes just a few seconds at www.trinityhousecommunity.org.
Workshop Tomorrow…It’s Not Too Late to Reserve Your Spot or Recommend This to a Friend!
Haven’t had the chance yet to participate in our Heaven in Your Home Workshop? Or are you in need of a refresh? Sign up here for our next livestream workshop tomorrow, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 8-9:30 p.m. (EST), streamed live from Trinity House Cafe.
Testimonial
“Congratulations upon celebrating your 6th anniversary [of Trinity House Cafe]. I am impressed with your sense of purpose, especially the concept of having an active faith community directly involved in community outreach and service. This is a wonderful concept that needs to be shared elsewhere. Thank you and best wishes in the coming years for continued growth and service.” – Thomas O’Mahoney, Ph.D., Columbus, Ohio
Please Join Us In Prayer
On a recent evening, this question from our 8-year-old son—our youngest and a good reader on his own—was a reality check.
His question prompted the two of us to evaluate this fall. With each passing week, our days seem more and more stretched with appointments, errands, and keeping the kids on track with their online learning. Admittedly, we’ve lost some ground to the “culture of busy.” We realized that we need to take steps to recover the magic of reading aloud. We used to read aloud frequently, but somehow, it’s fallen by the wayside.
In the fourth week of each month, we focus on Family Culture, the 4th level of your Trinity House. “A house without books,” Cicero wrote, “is like a body without a soul.” We can extend his aphorism to suggest that homes in which family members read aloud are like healthy bodies with souls—and enchanted places where the family culture is taking root.
You probably have some favorite memories or examples of reading aloud. Here are a few of ours, which beckon us to recapture the power of this simple act:
- Ever’s dad, a voracious reader, would often read a newspaper article or book out loud to the kids and Ever’s mom at the kitchen table. The sound of his voice conveyed warmth, love and security to Ever and her siblings, and was like a magnet to them.
- In one of Soren’s favorite books from childhood, Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, the main character’s mom reads one page of Shakespeare and one page from the Bible to her every night before putting her to bed.
- A friend of ours and dad of 3 young kids shared with us recently that he is almost finished reading C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia out loud to them. “They love it, and we’re all having such a great time together as a family!” he told us with a beaming smile and excitement in his voice.
- We recently read that Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990), a British writer who converted to Christianity following his encounters with Mother Teresa, took turns with his wife Kitty reading aloud to each another. Especially in their later years, they liked to read Dickens and Jane Austen as they drank their after-dinner tea. We haven’t done this yet, but are drawn to their cultured and affectionate example.
The point is, something profound unfolds when family members put the dazzling videos aside and take up the spoken word. The inner life of the Trinity is interpersonal, self-giving, and communicative: and all three of these attributes are reflected in a family—which is, after all, an “icon of the Trinity”—that reads aloud. What’s more, when we do this, we deploy a powerful culture-building tool that offers deeper joy and better outcomes than the culture-weakening competitors of entertainment media and gaming. To name just a few:
- Children whose parents read aloud to them have stronger emotional attachment to their parents and higher self-confidence.
- Children in homes where parents read to them have better academic performance.
- Children are more likely to embrace the faith in adulthood if they are raised in a home in which the parents talk openly about the faith (and reading aloud is a natural bridge to these conversations).
In St. Augustine’s Confessions, he recounts an amazing moment that led to his conversion. He writes, “So was I speaking and weeping in the most bitter contrition of my heart, when, lo! I heard from a neighboring house a voice, as of boy or girl, I know not, chanting, and oft repeating, ‘Take up and read; Take up and read.’” He then pulled a book off his shelf on the life of St. Antony of Egypt, and his heart was moved as he read the words of Jesus, “Come, follow me.”
“Dad…Mom, will you read me a story?”
What a beautiful and powerful question.
Heaven in Your Home Toolkit
We really enjoyed a wide-ranging conversation with Lisa Hendey, an award-winning author, speaker, podcaster and missionary disciple—and we hope you will too! Here’s the 20-min. podcast interview. Topics we covered include: how we met, how your family can reflect the inner life of the Trinity, and the 5 levels and 5 “cornerstones” (including date night) of your Trinity House.
Wow. In this brief and powerful excerpt from The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction ($17.99 an Amazon), author Meghan Cox Gurdon writes, “We have everything to gain and no time to waste. In the tech era, we can all benefit from what reading aloud supplies, but with children, the need is urgent. Many young people are spending as many as nine hours a day with screens. They are surrounded by technology—it informs their world, it absorbs their attention, it commandeers their hands and eyes—and they need the adults in their lives to read books to them not despite that but because of it.”
Not too long ago, researchers at Barna came out with a fascinating study on “What Makes for a Spritually Vibrant Household?” One of the practices which they pointed to in spiritually vibrant homes is “spiritual conversations,” defined by the researchers as “talking about God and faith at least weekly all together.” Reading aloud to our kids or as a family is a springboard for these types of spiritual conversations.
“The Benefits of Reading Out Loud to Your Kids” by Jeremy Anderberg at the AOM blog includes a good summary of the research. He writes, “Create a book club culture at home. Rather than making reading simply another assignment, or forcing your kids to sit calmly while you read to them and explain the story, work to create a book club culture in your home.” Anderberg suggests a baseline: read aloud “~10 minutes a day, ~3 times a week.”
In “Reading Aloud to Someone Else is a Gift of Self and Presence,” Elizabeth Scalia at Aleteia turns our attention to the power of reading aloud to someone who is sick. “Reading to someone,” she writes, “is a different way of saying to them, ‘I am present and here for you.'”
Ready to get started on the Chronicles of Narnia but you don’t own it yet? Here’s a link to ordering it for under $20. While we’re at it, here’s The Lives of the Saints.
It’s not everyday that our country celebrates a new saint, so at 11 am (Eastern) this Saturday, Oct. 31st, we’re planning to go online to watch the beatification Mass of Father Michael McGivney, the founder of the Knights of Columbus. Soren is a proud Knight in our local Holy Family Council at St. John’s in Leesburg, and as you likely know, the Knights are tireless in strengthening the spiritual life of the family.
Our thanks to The Coming Home Network International, which featured our Heaven in Your Home Letter from last week (remembering Tom Howard) on their 25K+ Facebook page.
Enjoying the weekly Heaven in Your Home Letter in your inbox? Share it with a friend and encourage them to sign up to receive this weekly boost of inspiration and practical tools! Signing up takes just a few seconds at www.trinityhousecommunity.org.
Workshop Tomorrow…It’s Not Too Late to Reserve Your Spot or Recommend This to a Friend!
Haven’t had the chance yet to participate in our Heaven in Your Home Workshop? Or are you in need of a refresh? Sign up here for our next livestream workshop tomorrow, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 8-9:30 p.m. (EST), streamed live from Trinity House Cafe.
Testimonial
“Congratulations upon celebrating your 6th anniversary [of Trinity House Cafe]. I am impressed with your sense of purpose, especially the concept of having an active faith community directly involved in community outreach and service. This is a wonderful concept that needs to be shared elsewhere. Thank you and best wishes in the coming years for continued growth and service.” – Thomas O’Mahoney, Ph.D., Columbus, Ohio
Please Join Us In Prayer
- For the upcoming election, for our nation, and for wisdom for all public officials (cf. 2020 Election Novena and Prayer Before an Election, from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops);
- For healing for those struggling with COVID-19, and for strength and safety for all medical personnel;
- For forgiveness for the times when we have failed to love and respect one another, and for healing from racism;
- For all students, that they might grow in wisdom, age and grace in this academic year;
- For the staff and ministry of Trinity House Cafe, and all Heaven in Your Home Workshop participants;
- For all parents, that they may be refreshed and renewed on a daily basis by the Lord in prayer, as they seek to lead their families through the uncertainties of this time.
In Christ,Soren & Ever Johnson
Founders & Directors
Trinity House Community
Making Home a Little Taste of Heaven
