Dear Friend,

To hear this letter read by Ever, click here.

This month marks the 40^th anniversary of Pope St. John Paul II’s landmark apostolic exhortation “On the Role of the Family in the Modern World,” or Familiaris Consortio. Anniversaries come and go. We’re all so busy. And we might be forgiven if this particular one slipped by with scarcely a thought.

But as we reread Familiaris Consortio in preparation for an upcoming podcast interview, we were reminded of just how powerful, inspiring, and relevant the messages of this exhortation are for today. 

Written in the early 80s as the first wave of the divorce culture swept our country, the booklet is prophetic, with so many nuggets of wisdom and inspiration that jump off the page. In this first week of the month, as we focus on Faith Life (Level 1 of our Trinity Houses), we’d like to draw your attention to five big takeaways on family prayer.

We’ve included the words of St. John Paul II in these takeaways, and invite you to take them to prayer this week. Allow them to sink in, not through a quick read, but by prayerful meditation and even an examination of conscience.

1. Lead by Example. “Only by praying together with their children can a father and mother—exercising their royal priesthood—penetrate the innermost depths of their children’s hearts and leave an impression that the future events in their lives will not be able to efface” (60).

2. Focus on Your Family’s “Suitable Moments” for Prayer. Wondering what to pray for? John Paul II provides a beautiful list that can inspire us to renew our practice of daily family prayer: “Joys and sorrows, hopes and disappointments, births and birthday celebrations, wedding anniversaries of parents, departures, separations and homecomings, important and far-reaching decisions, the death of those who are dear, etc.—all of these mark God’s loving intervention in the family’s history. They should be seen as suitable moments for thanksgiving, for petition, for trusting abandonment of the family into the hands of their common Father in heaven” (61).

3. Realize Your Family’s Dignity and Responsibility as a Domestic Church. With so much coming at us, it’s easy to lose sight of these essential qualities of the Christian family! But St. John Paul II reminds us of the power of prayer. “The dignity and responsibility of the Christian family as the domestic Church can be achieved only with God’s unceasing aid, which will surely be granted if it is humbly and trustingly petitioned in prayer” (59).

4. Pray the Rosary. A “great variety of forms” of prayer are mentioned in the exhortation, including “reading and meditating on the word of God,” “grace before and after meals,” “devotion and consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.” But John Paul II highlights the Rosary: “There is no doubt that…the rosary should be considered as one of the best and most efficacious prayers in common that the Christian family is invited to recite” (61).

5. Build Up the Church with Fidelity to Family Prayer. While our faith is not an equation, John Paul II suggests there is a relationship of “direct proportion” between a family’s prayer and their participation in the mission of the Church: “Thus the Christian family’s actual participation in the Church’s life and mission is in direct proportion to the fidelity and intensity of the prayer with which it is united with the fruitful vine that is Christ the Lord” (62).

There are so many ways that we parents strive to bring peace to our homes. We provide for our children materially in countless ways. We do our best to create a peaceful and beautiful environment. We seek out counseling or assistance for our children if they are struggling.

But we can’t forget that our homes are a “domestic church,” a “Trinity House,” in which common prayer should be, well, common. Of all the ways to bring peace into our homes while building up the Church at the same time, our simple fidelity to common family prayer is the proven #1 means.

“Your example of honesty in thought and action,” said Pope St. Paul VI to parents, in a passage quoted by John Paul II in the exhortation, “joined to some common prayer, is a lesson for life, an act of worship of singular value. In this way you bring peace to your homes: Pax huic domui. Remember it is thus that you build up the Church.”

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P.S. Family prayer can challenging! What’s working for your family’s common prayer times? We’d love to hear. In next week’s Heaven in Your Home Letter, we’ll share your ideas in the PS as a way of building up our growing Trinity House Community. Just send your idea to us at sjohnson@trinityhousecommunity.org.  

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P.P.S. And thanks for your feedback and ideas on last week’s Car Culture 101 post! We shared 6 ideas for families to consider to make the most of time together in the car, and we hope these additional ideas—shared by your fellow Letters subscribers—will inspire you:  

> “Our family likes to listen to quality audiobooks—such as Lord of the Rings or All Creatures Great and Small—on car rides. It’s a break from screens, exposes our kids to good literature, and gives us a shared experience. Additionally, we make a point to pray for the souls in purgatory whenever we drive by a  cemetery. It’s become a bit of a competition amongst the kids to see who can spot a cemetery first!” – Ann Waterman 

> “Singing Alleluia and the Salve Regina!” – Derick Josey

> “Having grown up in Manhattan, our family never had ‘car time.’ Bringing my own kids up in suburban Connecticut, I realized that the time in the car with kids can be used for prayer (rosary), listening to sacred music, talking about school, friends, issues and fears, and instruction on driving years before the kids take the road test.” – Brian Caulfield

> “What you can’t accomplish at the dinner table, you can reserve for drive time . . . discussion items.” – David Carlson

> “When I was driving our kids to school 40 minutes away, we listened to many good books. It’s a great way to expose kids to books that are maybe too challenging to read themselves, or that they just don’t want to read themselves. We’ve had some great conversations, and common points of reference generated this way.” – Molly Judge Rosa

> “When someone is in the car with me, it’s a chance to have them ‘captive’ for a bit.. We’ve definitely had some good talks in the car. Also, the Bible in a Year podcast with Fr. Mike Schmitz.” – Paul Flynn