By Holly Gustafson
I don’t know about your family, but our piety seems to slip a bit in the summer. In the absence of the routine that the school year provides, and with the increase in late bedtimes and overnight guests, we end up falling out of the habit of praying together as a family, and sometimes of praying at all. I’ve given up trying to maintain a summer prayer life that looks the same as the rest of the year, but over the years, our family has found different ways to live our faith during the more relaxed summer months. Here are some ideas for families with young and school-aged children, but all of these can be adapted for adults to do on their own.
Keep a gratitude journal (or guest book).
One year, I purchased a sketchbook (any unlined notebook or journal would work) and a fresh pack of markers, with the lofty intention of having each member of the family write or draw one thing that they were grateful every day. Of course, that did not happen. What did happen was that the kids totally forgot about the journal, until we had guests over. Then they pulled it out and insisted that the guests sign their name, and everyone – guests included – jotted down something for which they were grateful. It wasn’t the daily record of our summer that I had envisioned, but instead it turned into a guest book of gratitude that we still pull out and read now and then.
Make a summer rosary.
A few years ago, a friend gave me a little box with all the ingredients to make a rosary inside: string, beads, crucifix and medallion. The idea was that, if our family prayed one prayer every day and added the bead to our string, we would have a complete rosary by the end of the summer (and would have said at least one full rosary together as a family!). We never got around to doing this, and the beads still sit unstrung in the box, but one Hail Mary, Our Father, or Glory Be a day seems like an ambitious enough goal for our family this year, so we’ll be starting our summer rosary on the first day of holidays!
Make friends with a saint.
Last year when the relics of St. Francis Xavier came through our parish, I miraculously had had enough foresight to purchase a book on the saint about a month before the relics’ scheduled arrival. Every night that we could, we gathered together as a family and read a chapter from an age-appropriate book (we like the Vision Books). Sometimes we had to cut our reading time short because it was late or patience was thin (mine and/or the kids’), but sometimes they asked me to read another chapter. Choose a patron saint for your summer (or one for each of the summer months) and, as a family, get to know them, remembering to frequently ask for their intercession.
Go on a wonder walk.
If you do nothing else this summer, try cultivating the virtue of wonder, in yourself and your family. Haley Stewart, in her new book The Grace of Enough: Pursuing Less and Living More in a Throwaway Culture, describes wonder as “enchantment with God’s creation.” “To be able to wonder,” Stewart continues, “we must first take time to be attentive, to look up from our phones, and to notice God’s world.” Although the majority of my children are teenagers now, who seem to be more disenchanted than full of wonder these days, we still institute a mandatory phone-free family walk to watch the sunset every once in a while. There’s no preaching, or praying, or proselytizing: we just walk, and let the glory of summer evangelize our children, and ourselves.
Holly Gustafson lives with her husband, James, and their five children, in Regina, where they attend Christ the King Parish. Holly received her Masters in Linguistics at the University of Manitoba, and now pursues her love of language through art, writing, public speaking, and unsolicited grammatical advice. The best advice she ever received was from her spiritual friend, St. Faustina, who told her that when in doubt, “Always ask Love. It advises best.”
