Goal #4: Teaching Students to Pray as Jesus Did   
Mrs. Sue Clausen, St. John's School Principal

This continues a series of articles on the Archdiocesan Religion Standards, which are being interwoven throughout the religion curriculum of St. John's School and the parish's Faith Formation classes.

Teaching to Pray: Helping children to learn to pray the way Christ Jesus did through adoration, praise, thanksgiving, filial confidence, supplication, and awe. 

Did you learn to pray? I did because our family prayed before meals and before bedtime, prayed the Rosary during the months of October and May, prayed the Rosary in the car on long trips, and went to Mass, Benediction & Stations of the Cross together. We were a family who learned to pray individually and as a community. Both were important. We also went to the parish Catholic school two blocks away, as my parents felt they couldn't raise their children by themselves - they needed the assistance of the nuns and the Catholic school environment to raise good Catholic citizens. 

As I watch our young families today, they are also saying they need help in raising their children. The world's values do not match what they are trying to teach their children - they need help, support, and assistance in raising strong Catholics who will live responsibly in a world that promotes consumerism and tries to lure us into an "easy" way of living. It takes all of us to help children make good decisions, be responsible in their role as students, be contributing and thoughtful family members, and be prayerful in their daily lives centered in a belief in Jesus. 

THE FIRST COMPONENT OF STANDARD FOUR IS: 
Become familiar with the diverse forms and expressions of Christian prayer, with special attention to the Our Father, the prayer which Jesus taught His disciples and which is the model for all Christian prayer. 

Have you ever just taken the time to thoughtfully pray the Our Father? To slowly recite the words that Jesus taught us? This is a worthwhile exercise for us as adults. This is the prayer that summarizes the Gospel. In Kindergarten through 2^nd Grade, we seek to help our children develop a personal relationship with Jesus - seeing Him as a young boy, talking about Mary and Joseph and His role in their family, and how He grew up. We continue to build on this relationship by teaching the important prayers of the Church at all grade levels. These help our students have prayer as a true resource in their ordinary lives:

Our Father; Angel of God; Hail Mary; Glory Be; Act of Contrition; Apostles' Creed; Acts of Faith, Hope & Charity; etc.

THE SECOND COMPONENT OF STANDARD FOUR IS:
Experience and appreciate the richness of the Catholic Tradition of mysticism and contemplation. 

At each grade level, we use the "Good News," a publication that helps us prepare our students for Sunday Mass. We do this in a variety of ways: reading the Gospel and bringing to light how  children can use the Word in their daily lives; using real life situations and our imagination to think how we might act in a particular Gospel story; presenting a Gospel image for students to reflect upon. 

Our former pastor, Father Bill, frequently said that our imagination is often God speaking to us, so we call upon our imagination to help students share Jesus with others. Just as we have different ways of teaching content areas, there are ways to assist different students in developing their own prayer lives. 

THE THIRD COMPONENT OF STANDARD FOUR IS:
Develop a regular pattern of personal prayer and spiritual reflection, recognizing vocal prayer, meditation, and contemplative prayer as basic and fruitful practices in the life of a disciple of Jesus Christ. 

Our hope is to move students from praying as a community into their own regular and daily personal prayer. This is done by children developing a personal relationship with God - praising Him; asking Him to help us in our need; thanking Him in adoration; seeing and hearing adults talk about their prayer lives; and witnessing us leading grace-filled lives (or, at least trying to!).  Let our youngsters see that this does not mean a carefree life, but rather a life that is filled with a dependence on God for all things. We model this for our students in turning to prayer when we are troubled or in thanksgiving for daily blessings. Seeking God's presence and finding it in small ways is again a way to enlighten our children as they mature and encounter life's challenges and complications. 

THE FOURTH COMPONENT OF STANDARD FOUR IS: 
Engage in shared prayer with others, especially family prayer, as well as at parish meetings and in small communities of faith.

We begin our faculty, parent, advisory meetings, and all of our gatherings with prayer, and we begin our school day with prayer. We pray when we hear of a death or a tragedy in one of our families' lives. Again, a reliance on prayer in a supportive community can make a wonderful difference. We teach children about intercessions. We ask them to pray for each other - we ask them to pray for forgiveness and to pray for their enemies.  We also talk about how God answers their prayers. We do not always know or understand God's will, and this is part of the mystery of our faith. We try to model and teach children that to trust and to be steadfast in the mix of the complexities of the world is what we are called to do. 

THE FIFTH COMPONENT OF STANDARD FOUR IS: 
To recognize and encourage practices of popular piety and devotion that help believers express and strengthen their faith in Jesus Christ.

With Baptism, each of us becomes a blessing to others. We are each able to bless those around us. We give blessings to our students - we say, "God bless you." You, as parents, give blessings to your children - blessing them or signing their foreheads with a sign of the cross before they go to sleep, or as they go off to school, or when they are suffering from problems.  These are signs of faith for them. 

This is a standard that Archbishop Harry J. Flynn wishes us to incorporate in our faith formation experiences: in the school, in the parish, and in the home. The components of this standard  should be incorporated in the "curriculum" of every Catholic family. Prayer is a lifelong endeavor and ongoing conversation with Jesus Christ. Christian adults know of its power; so should our children.