Michael August - September 2013

keep your children’s innocence for as long as possible,

and making plenty of room for all the positive informa-

tion that you have prioritized, then you could never fail at

your task as a homeschooling parent !

Our Catholic Catechism states in this way

The Pri-

mordial Parental Responsibility.

(2221-2222)

The pro-

creation of children brings about the duty of their moral

and spiritual formation. Therefore, the parents’ right and

duty to educate children is primordial and inalienable.

Parents must see their children as children of God and

educate them in God’s law.

2223.

Parents have the

first responsibility for the education of their chil-

dren.

They bear witness to this responsibility by creating

a home where tenderness, forgiveness, respect, fidel-

ity, and disinterested service are the rule. The home is

well suited for education in the virtues. This requires an

apprenticeship in self-denial, sound judgment, and self-

mastery-- the preconditions of all true freedom. Parents

should teach their children to subordinate the “material

and instinctual dimensions to interior and spiritual ones.”

Parents have a grave responsibility to give good

example to their children. By knowing how to ac-

knowledge their own failings to their children, par-

ents will be better able to guide and correct them.

The Catechism therefore unmistakably confirms

that not only do we have the right to educate our chil-

dren but that we are encouraged to do so. One of the

best parts of homeschooling in my experience is that

every day I am given the opportunity to try, even to fail

but also to succeed in my vocation as a mother. I am not

limited to the amount of time before they leave to go to

school somewhere else, and the amount of time I would

have with them after school in between homework and

dinner and bedtime. I have morning, noon, and night to

try, fail, apologize and succeed in my self-giving love for

my children. Mother Teresa of Calcutta said,

“It is very

important that children learn from their fathers and

mothers how to love on another — not in the school,

not from the teacher, but from you. It is very im-

portant that you share with your children the joy of

that smile. There will be misunderstandings; every

family has its cross, its suffering. Always be the first

to forgive with a smile. Be cheerful, be happy.”

Prayer, prudence and patience

It is true that homeschooling is not for everyone;

some of us have some really great options to keep our

children in a healthy Catholic environment with great

educational standards. But if you are feeling that home-

schooling may be the only option for your family, or if you

feel called to homeschool your children, there are a few

things that I would recommend that you do first:

1. Pray

with fervency ! Receive the sacraments

often; you will need the graces for the tidal wave of con-

cerns and questions that will come your way. Discuss

your goals and priorities with your spouse so that you

can receive the support you will need, even if he may not

yet have fully educated himself about homeschooling.

2. Read !

There are some really great books, espe-

cially Catholic ones on the subject of homeschooling.

Reading even just a few pages will put your heart at

ease and will help you to see if this venture is for you

and your family. There must be hundreds of really great

books on this subject but I do have a few suggestions

and I have also included a wonderful parenting book:

Parenting With Grace

by Gregory K. Popcak and

Lisa Popcak (Highly recommend)

Catholic Homeschool Treasury: Nurturing Chil-

dren’s Love for Learning

by Rachel Mackson and Mau-

reen Wittmann

Catholic Education: Homeward Bound – Useful

Guide to Catholic Home Schooling

by Kimberly Hahn

and Mary Hasson

Catholic Home Schooling

by Mary Kay Clark

3. Speak prudently

to others and be realistic with

yourself. Get excited, be motivated and put all you’ve

learned into action ! But…also be open to what it is that

God wants for you and for your family. There is a rea-

son why He has called you to homeschool, be it for one

child, or for all your children, for one year, or for many

years, just remember that it is your vocation. You will

need self-discipline, self-motivation and, let’s face it, a

lot of hard work, but once you open your heart to the

idea of homeschooling, it is then that you will begin to

see how incredibly blessed your family will be from it.

4. Have Patience

with yourself, your spouse and

your children. When the time comes to jump in with both

feet it may seem as though you may not be cut out for

the job. You are, I promise! God gave these children to

you and he will give you the graces too. I have my own

“#3 rule of thumb”

three

o’clock you’re ready for the day to be

done and have some tea.

three

weeks you finally feel like you’ve got the

hang of things.

three

months you need a break (Christmas).

In another

three

months you’re ready to be better

(Lent).

In another

three

months you’re ready for a

change of pace (summer).

By the

third

year you really feel like you know

what you are doing and so do your kids.

And best of all, when all else fails:

You have

the Holy Trinity

to call upon for help.

Above all though, trust in Our Lord and in His ability

to provide for ALL your needs, whether physical, mental

or spiritual. He is there for you, especially when you are

trying to do His Holy Will. God bless you, and until next

time I will be praying for you and for whatever upcoming

adventure Our Lord has in His design for you.

April Helenek

April and her husband Jae reside in Massachusetts

where they homeschool their four children. April is the

founder of the St. Lucy’s Homeschool Adventure Group,

which enriches the lives of over forty homeschooling

children.

Fr. Bevil Bramwell, OMI

As our moral environment becomes more challen-

ging, Catholics shouldn’t be caught flat-footed. John Paul

II said that in Christianity: “Our spirit is set in one direc-

tion, the only direction for our intellect, will and heart is

towards Christ our Redeemer, towards Christ, the Re-

deemer of man. We wish to look towards him-because

there is salvation in no one else but him, the Son of God-

repeating what Peter said: ‘Lord, to whom shall we go?

You have the words of eternal life’”

To develop Christ as the focus of mind and heart in

the face of so many contrary ideas we need various tools,

both to keep our focus on Christ and to stiffen our resolve

as we bear the cost of that focus. Praying the Rosary

frequently does both.

As you know, in the Rosary we pon-

der the different events in Jesus’ life

from the Joyful Mysteries to the Glori-

ous Mysteries. But why focus on Christ ?

John Paul II says that “through all levels

of... self-awareness, and through all the

fields of activity in which the Church ex-

presses, finds and confirms herself, we

must constantly aim at him ‘who is the

head’, ‘through whom are all things and

through whom we exist’, who is both ‘the

way, and the truth’ and ‘the resurrection

and the life’, seeing whom, we see the

Father’, and who had to go away from

us that is, by his death on the Cross and

then by his Ascension into heaven – in

order that the Counselor should come to

us and should keep coming to us as the

Spirit of truth.”

This is how we become beacons of clarity in a world

living in a moral fog.

The Rosary’s two main prayers are the Hail Mary and

the Our Father. The Hail Mary captures the words of her

cousin Elizabeth when she met the pregnant Mary. In

this prayer, we ask Mary to intercede for us. We do this

because as John Paul II explained: “The Blessed Virgin

Mary continues to ‘go before’ the People of God. Her ex-

ceptional pilgrimage of faith represents a constant point

of reference for the Church, for individuals and for com-

munities, for peoples and nations and, in a sense, for all

humanity. It is indeed difficult to encompass and measure

its range.”

She accompanies her son and helps us to do the

same.

Mary can help us to truly appreciate what the myster-

ies of Jesus’ life mean. His is the perfect human life and

so it becomes the foundation of our perfection as human

beings. The Second Vatican Council explained that: “All

men are called to this union with Christ, who is the light of

the world, from whom we go forth, through whom we live,

and toward whom our whole life strains.” (

Lumen Gen-

tium

3.)

In fact in the same document, we read: “Christ Jesus,

since he wills to continue his witness and service also

through the laity, vivifies them in this Spirit and increas-

ingly urges them on to every good and perfect work.”

(

Lumen Gentium

34.)

This is how a life in Christ unfolds day by day. In

some form or other, we live through all of the mysteries of

his life. However we constantly need to be reminded that

Christ is more real than the attractions and distractions

around us. As the threats and the darkness gather, Christ

is with us, the Christ of the Rosary and not the Christ con-

cocted by some modern politician or theologian.

Then we also pray the Our Father.

When John Paul II wrote about the divine

Father, he considered Him as the Father

of Mercies. Part of John Paul’s study con-

sists of a reflection on the Parable of the

Prodigal Son in which Christ’s image of the

Divine Father begins to unfold.

It is the Father who gives us the “dig-

nity as a son in his father's house.” (Yes

“son” but that is a whole story on its own.)

This dignity comes from living out the will

of the Father as Jesus does. We pray “thy

will be done” every time we pray the Our

Father.

The mention of the Father opens a

whole world of meaning for us. In John

Paul II’s words: “The conduct of the fath-

er in the parable and his whole behavior,

which manifests his internal attitude, enables us to redis-

cover the individual threads of the Old Testament vision

of mercy in a synthesis which is totally new, full of simpli-

city and depth.”

So pronouncing the words of the Our Father leads us

to the glorious father of the parable where: “The father of

the prodigal son is faithful to his fatherhood, faithful to the

love that he had always lavished on his son.” (John Paul

II.) And we are all his adopted sons in Christ.

Pope John Paul II prayed the rosary several times

a day and now Pope Francis does the same. They both

might be considered to have reasonably busy lives. Sure-

ly we can do no less, and in these times, especially with

our families.

Fr. Bevil Bramwell is a member of Oblates of Mary

Immaculate and is Undergraduate Dean at Catholic

Distance University. He has published Laity: Beautiful,

Good and True and The World of the Sacraments.

This column first appeared on the site The Catholic

Thing

(www.thecatholicthing.org

rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.

The Rosary as Survival Manual

MICHAEL August/September 2013