Michael August - September 2013

A child’s innocence is a “straight shot” to Heaven

“The future of the world and the Church

passes through the family.” – Pope John Paul II

by April Helenek

I sat in the church pew listening for something to

inspire me regarding my vocation as a homeschooling

mother and wife. As I received the Gospel reading, I heard

Jesus say to Simon,

“Put out into deep water and lower

your nets for a catch.” Simon said in reply, “Master,

we have worked hard all night and have caught noth-

ing, but at your command I will lower the nets.” When

they had done this, they caught a great number of

fish and their nets were tearing.”

(Luke 5:4-6.

)

Simon falls to his knees realizing his sinfulness in his

doubt of our Lord.

“Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be

afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” When

they brought their boats to the shore, they left every-

thing and followed him.’”

(Luke 5:10-11.)

I was awestruck at the gift I had

just received. “Isn’t this exactly what

we do when we are “called” to some-

thing by God? ”, I thought to myself.

It’s hard to see the fruits before the

seed is planted but when we obey

God’s call, albeit hard as it is, God

produces enough fruit to “fill our boat

to overflowing”. The call to homes-

chool our children, was NOT an easy

decision for my family. I was almost

finished with my nursing degree and

we were living on only one income.

We already had three children and

were in financial turmoil, facing

bankruptcy, and neither my husband

Jae nor I knew the first thing about

homeschooling. But we could see

that God had given us these children

to guide and nurture into whatever it

was that He was calling them to, and

this, despite our own “foggy” vision.

I vividly remember one day sit-

ting on my fireplace hearth talking

with my husband. I was crying, petrified at this idea of

following a call that I was feeling in my heart, to begin

educating my oldest at home. Society had nurtured me

into needing it, and if I were to take my children out of

the system, then who would I fall back on? Jae, thank-

fully, had much more peace about the idea than I did and

comforted me by reminding me that it was perfectly fine to

give homeschooling a try for a year, and if we found that

this was not our calling, then we could enroll our children

in a school in the fall. Jae’s peaceful and rational think-

ing enabled me to recognize our Lord’s loving and patient

urgings, and that I was not alone in this venture. Jae had

come to know something about God that I didn’t know, at

least not yet anyway…

A few years prior, our oldest daughter Piper had been

hospitalized because of a five day old ruptured appendix

that had gone undetected. Misdiagnosed as the flu, she

was knocking on death’s door. (S

ee story in MICHAEL,

March/April 2013, p. 28-30.

) My husband Jae, who had

not been raised in the Faith, was now on his knees, and

during one of the darker moments of this very frightening

ordeal he had a conversation with God, desperate to save

our child. Jae made a true heart felt “pact” with God, “bar-

gaining” with Him that if He allowed Piper to live, then he

would offer his own life in return. When Piper later walked

out of that hospital, literally leaving the doctors scratch-

ing their heads, Jae was secretly preparing his heart to

meet his end of his “bargain” with

God. He had not told me anything of

this and suffered silently for months.

Finally one day he spoke to me, and

realizing what he was going through

we went for spiritual direction. Jae

came to understand that God does

not operate in the way we humans

do. God had definitely heard Jae’s

prayer and it was his faith that God

had rewarded. All we needed to do

was to thank Him and to be grateful

for this wonderful gift of Piper’s heal-

ing which was just one more sign of

God’s great love for us. Only recent-

ly, however, I have come to realize

that Jae had kept up his part of the

bargain! Jae did give his life for an-

other on that day, and as head of this

family he gave mine and all of our

children’s lives as well. In the next

few years following Piper’s recovery

Jae and I have continued to grow in

our faith and trust in God. Together

we have gone through an incredible

conversion which continues to this day and have been

blessed in the recognition that in having obeyed the ur-

gings of the Holy Spirit in accepting the responsibility to

teach our children at home, not only academics but most

especially their faith and the catechism as well, we are

all able to grow together in faith and see Christ’s love for

our family.

Blessed Pope John Paul the Great in his letter

Fam-

ilaris Consortio

, on November 22, 1981 said, “

The parents

have been appointed by God Himself as the first and

principal educators of their children… their right is

completely inalienable”

, and Pope Benedict XVI speak-

ing in Croatia, June 5, 2011 stated,

“Parents commit

yourselves always to teach your children to pray, and

pray with them; draw them close to the Sacraments,

especially to the Eucharist, ... introduce them to the

life of the Church; in the intimacy of the home do not

be afraid to read the sacred Scriptures, illuminating

family life with the light of faith and praising God as

Father. Be like a little Upper Room, like that of Mary

and the disciples, in which to live unity, communion

and prayer ! ”

Therefore every family has this opportun-

ity to participate in their own “Domestic Church” and in

Christ’s mission as priest, prophet and king.

As Priest

; we share through the reception of the

sacraments, most especially the Holy Eucharist and the

Sacrament of reconciliation. We are called to the com-

munity of prayer, and most fruitfully through the family

recitation of the Most Holy Rosary. We are also called to

offer spiritual sacrifices to Our Lord with the work we do

on a daily bases

As Prophet

; we are called to “welcome and an-

nounce” the Gospel message. We are meant to put the

Gospel message into practice in our homes and then

carry it out to the world, mostly by our example, works

and our love of others. As Pope John Paul II mentioned

in an address in 1979:

“The future of evangelization in

great part depends on the Church of the home”

As King

; the family is called to follow the second

half of the greatest commandment “love your neighbor”.

We are called to serve. We are able to teach our children

to help others in need even if just through “hospitality”.

As busy families we may wonder how we could real-

istically live out Christ’s mission of priest, prophet and

king, but as homeschoolers we have the ability to design

our own schedule, placing our priorities as Catholics

first. We are able to monitor what influences our chil-

dren. We know their friends, we can hand pick their activ-

ities…ultimately, as homeschoolers we have the freedom

to ensure that our family fulfills Christ’s desire and plan for

us to live as priests, prophets and kings.

There is no denying today the unyielding attack on the

family. At this point in our history it would seem that there

are not many safe places for our children’s influential de-

veloping brains, but there is still the home. When Jae and

I had finally made the decision to give homeschooling a

try, I began devouring books on the subject. One lovely

book was called the

Catholic Homeschool Treasury: Nur-

turing Children’s Love for Learning

, by Rachel Mackson

and Maureen Wittman, which has stories of parents just

like Jae and myself who went through the same doubts

we did. One father’s story really touched Jae in a way

that he is now unmovable in his convictions to support

me in homeschooling our children. The father in the story

goes on to talk about the reality of keeping our children

at home and the amount of influence we can have over

their physical and spiritual development. He also pointed

out the wonderful reality that in not being exposed to the

world at such a young developmental age, their inno-

cence could be safeguarded for much longer. We would

have more opportunity to teach them about our Lord with-

out the world getting to them first. A child’s innocence is

a straight shot to heaven ! That is why in Matthew 18:3:

he says,

“Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and be-

come like children, you will never enter the kingdom

of heaven.”

Saint Therese, the Little Flower was inspired

by this bible verse realizing, “

there is no need for me to

grow up: I must stay little and become less and less.”

And if she needed to stay “little” in order to get to heaven,

then why do our children need to grow up so fast ?

As a parent swimming against this tidal wave of re-

sponsibilities: raising children, disciplining children, instil-

ling faith in our children, etc., the idea of adding the task of

homeschooling to that list can seem incredibly crippling.

The beauty though about homeschooling is that every

other distracting obligation gets immediately taken out of

the picture and is only added in as you see fit. If you went

into homeschooling your children with a goal in mind to

“

The disciples came to Jesus and said, ‘Who

then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’

And He called a child to Himself and set him

before them, and said, ‘Truly I say to you,

unless you are converted and become like

children, you will not enter the kingdom of

heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as

this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom

of heaven. And whoever receives one such

child in My name receives Me; but whoever

causes one of these little ones who believe

in Me to stumble, it would be better for him

to have a heavy millstone hung around his

neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the

sea.’” (Matthew 18:1-6)

The Helenek family

MICHAEL August/September 2013