Faith, order, responsibility, and celebration within the family are the cornerstones of strong Catholic family life. They are not things that you can buy or trends that come and go. Rather, they are foundational principles from which people – especially your children – can flourish and become who God wants them to be.

Faith

Faith is the first cornerstone of providing the best. We want to highlight two basic ways to make God’s presence come alive in your family. There are two basic ways to make God’s presence come alive in your home. The first is to look for the visible presence of God in and around your home. Look for sacred art like pictures of saint and icons, crucifixes and statues, wall hangings of bible verses, the placement of your family bible. Are these items present? Or did you have to literally have to search to find them? We encourage you to find as many ways as possible to enhance your home’s atmosphere with the beauty of God in your décor. The goal is to surround your child with God’s love and with examples of the faith.

The second way to make God’s presence come alive is through your personal actions. The most important faith development tool at your disposal is your own powerful example. Your children have and will continue to watch how you include faith into your day. Do your children see you pray or read the bible? Do they see you make choices based on Catholic morality? Have they ever been blessed by you? How often do you pray with and for them? Do they see that you are happy to be Catholic? Your joyful and humble witness to the Catholic faith really matters because it introduces your children to the mystery of God who created everything that is right and good.

Order

The second corner stone of providing the best is order. Order within the home provides consistency and security. It takes the form of routines that provide the framework for the activities that help the family to flourish and live in harmony. A well structured order let’s each family member know what is expected and provides the time needed to meet those expectations.

Responsibility

Responsibility is a likely outcome of an orderly home and it is the third cornerstone of providing the best. Order in the home begins by requiring each child to pull his or her own weight within the family. Thus, after creating your list of tasks, it is time to assign the tasks to your family members. Children and parents should both have a list of developmentally appropriate household chores for which they are responsible. Each child should be shown how each task contributes to the common good of the family. When the chore is complete, the home maintains its order and all is good. Likewise, when a chore is done poorly or ignored, the order and the family suffer.

Celebration

Order and responsibility lead to an appreciation for interdependence – a sense that pulling together adds vigor and strength to the entire family. And this sense of community is the purpose for celebration and the final cornerstone of providing the best.  Celebration gives rise to joy. It is an act of love that is irresistible because it recognizes the worth of those involved. Acts of celebration can be as small as a tender hug or as large as an extravagant meal served on the best tableware. They can include special recognitions of accomplishments like finishing an academic quarter or the beginning of a season of the year. They can be anticipated like birthdays and special anniversaries or they can be spontaneous like the loss of a tooth or the arrival of a great piece of news. No matter the extent, celebration reminds everyone that they are a part of the whole – that they are worthy as a person. This recognition creates the desire to be the best and do what is right.

Providing the best for one’s family begins and ends with the creation of an intimate community of love and life upon the visible cornerstones of faith, order, responsibility and celebration. When these are present, each person knows they belong and are needed. Thus, life can be joyful and love can be generous. What could possibly be better than that?