If we only had known! Always seek God’s attention

    My title may sound a little strange. However, I am certain all of us have used that phrase from time to time.
    You probably are asking, where is he going with this? Well, I will try to explain, hopefully even make some sense.
    Having raised three children – and thinking my wife and I must have done a fairly good job with that task – there are times the children relate incidents to us that went bad for them, and yet they never even told us. After hearing these stories, I often reflect that we could have done more to assure “things” didn’t happen.
    Now we are coming to my point: What do you most want for your family, especially your children? I am hoping your answer will be for your family to be a holy family and your children to grow in a deep relationship with Jesus Christ.
    In my opinion, the only way this occurs is by paying attention to this goal over and above the routines and demands of our regular lives. The importance of adopting such a perspective will be to predispose our children and family to continually seek God’s attention. God’s attention is constantly being challenged by the world’s attention. Not surprisingly, the world seems to win that contest. So how can this change?
    St. Therese of the Child Jesus, the “Little Flower,” urged all to follow “the little way.” Here was a little girl, fully engaged with her God, willing to place herself in service to God in a special way at a very young age. She died at the age of 24, proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Pope John Paul II in 1997. A cloistered Carmelite nun becomes a Doctor of the Church because she paid attention to the “little things of life” with Christ as her main priority.
    Our society has grown crass and indifferent. The only person who matters is self. As a result, respect, honor and kindness have been replaced by arrogance, disregard and rejection. God has been taken out of the public eye, worship has been relegated to once a week – if nothing better is happening – and parents have become too consumed with work and hobbies to spend quality time with children and family.
    It’s time to reverse this trend, not focusing on all people, but focusing on one’s own family.
    It’s time for each family to plug prayer, eating together at the table minus TV and instructing our children to be polite, respectful and honorable. Bringing God into our family life on a daily basis – not segmented, but fully integrated into each of their lives – empowers them to develop a real relationship with Christ. Each member can hold others in the family accountable for living as Christ has taught.
    Jesus is with each family always. If we saw all those things asked of us by Christ himself, I can’t help but think we would respond differently than we do now with others. I can’t help but think we would perform those tasks even better than we normally do. Being asked by Christ to take care of our brothers and sisters, wash the dishes, fold the clothes, vacuum the floors would have such an impact, we may even enjoy the tasks as we did them to the best of our ability. We would be so proud that Christ asked us, not just some normal person.
    The “Little Way” of St. Therese actually is something each of us can imitate. We are all called to do the ordinary of our lives in extraordinary ways. God asks this of us. St. Therese did respond that way, the little way, constantly.
    “If only we had known.” Now we do!
    Deacon Dave Farinelli is coordinator of marriage preparation and enrichment for the archdiocesan Family Life Apostolate.