Forming The Spirituality Of Children

As children grow and develop, it is the privilege of both parents and the church to foster their spiritual sensitivity. This article describes how both the life of the home and public worship are vitally important in this process. This article is written from a formal liturgical perspective, but can easily be applied in every worship tradition. A Religious Home Our first task is to learn how to maintain religious homes, homes which cherish and nurture the religious dimension of life, instead of denying or ignoring it. By religious, I mean that answer to the human need to concur on a set of symbols and rituals which create order, give identity, and provide motivation. More and more people are being raised to ignore this dimension of their lives, to deny the need for symbol, and to survive somehow without order, identity, and motivation. Thus in the first place, the home must be a religious place. Are meals shared in common? Are there rituals particular to the needs and strengths of …