Have you ever thought of building a holy imagination in your child? I hadn't until about a year and a half ago.
We want our children to go to heaven - we want to go to heaven! As many of the saints and Doctors of the Church such as St. Alphonsus Liguori have said, prayer is necessary for salvation. Prayer enlightens our minds with the truths of God and it conforms our wills to God's Will. Christ told us that even if we profess His name but do not to His Father's Will, we will not enter into heaven (Matthew 7:21). Living our lives in accord with God's will is necessary to reach heaven and prayer is what directs us upon that way, among other important things.
Love of God and a life of prayer are the things one should desire their children to have. But one cannot have an adequate love of God if one does not pray though.
In being home with the children and now starting to homeschool, it's really important to me that all the things we do are ordered towards these two ends in some way.
Building a holy imagination in children is one of those things that lays a foundation for a life of prayer.
What is a holy imagination?
Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." (Philippians 4:8)
There are probably many definitions of what an imagination is, but my intent is not to be academic. When I refer to imagination, I simply mean the faculty of the mind which ponders, wonders, and reflects. St. Thomas Aquinas defines the imagination as a sort of "store house" in which to recall sense data that was received through the senses.
As the Lord speaks through His Word in Philippians 4:8, we should fill our minds with good, true, pure, and beautiful things. This encompasses anything from music to art to nature to movies to literature that reflects those attributes of God because anything that is pure, that is beautiful, that is true and good speaks to us of God and the things pretaining to Him. Think of how being atop of a mountain evokes a sense of beauty, awe and wonder, lifting one to higher things. This also means reading Scripture, deepening our faith through the Catechism and writings of the saints, looking at sacred art and listening to hymns and sacred music, etc......those things which speak more "directly" about God, I guess one could say.
We want to fill our children's minds with these things. And if we don't make it intentional to fill their minds with these things, then their minds will get filled mostly with junk coming from the world from base songs to movies and poorly written books exemplifying immoral things and the like. Building a holy imgaination needs to be intentional.
Why?
Because building a holy imagination is laying a foundation for prayer. In mental prayer, we meditate and reflect upon the things of God, attributes of God, and truths of our Christian faith. We ponder upon our Lord and various events in His life. St. Teresa of Avila said that this type of prayer - mental prayer or meditative prayer - is the gateway to higher forms of prayer and therefore greater union with God. This is what you are laying the foundation for in your child: Union with God.
Ways to build a holy imagination
Here are some ideas to lay that foundation for a life a prayer and a contemplative life in your child (and no, not a silent and still life as many people probably picture the word "contemplate" but a life which sees everything in God). It's not hard; this is something quite natural, especially due to the way God has already "hardwired" children.
1. Read aloud. I should finish that...read aloud good books. Classics. Classic picture books. Books with beautiful illustrations. There's also great newer picture books like the Otis series, Little Blue Truck, or another favorite of ours, Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site. I'm just going to refer you to Read Aloud Revival because Sarah has a wealth of information, links, and podcasts which discuss this and give great book recommendations. Check out the Read Aloud Revival Facebook page too. All in all, this is why I consider myself a bit of a "book snob" for my little kids. I'm trying to nurture their exposure and taste for beauty so that when they come across things like Monster High, they'll know ugliness when they see it. As you read aloud, they take in the beautiful language patterns and imagery and make it their own.
We also try to build up a collection of Catholic books; if you search, you can find some great pictures books, new and old. Maybe in the future I'll do a blog on my favorite Catholic books for kids. But we have quite a few books about the lives of the saints, our Lady, the life of our Lord, etc... We hope in time to build up a massive collection!
The Research behind Reading Aloud podcast (about a half hour long)
A University Professor's Perspective on Reading Aloud podcast (about a half hour)
Read Good Books. The End. podcast (about a half hour long)
CiRCE Institute has several speakers that talk on a range of subjects on cultivating wisdom and virtue through education and in the home.
Fairy Tales and the Moral Imagination by Andrew Pudewa
2. Listen to audiobooks. When there's no pictures to look at, it exercises your imagination. It's great to listen to these in the car; Joey usually listens to about 15-20 minutes during his rest time. I know Audible is a popular place to purchase audiobooks because the books are often recorded by professional actors; we usually use Youtube or Librivox for now since it's free. Hopefully an Audible membership is in the future! We also are building up a little collection of Holy Heroes stories for children. They're great professionally-recorded stories about the saints. Our children enjoy them and they do a great job at relating the lives of the saints. I've also done a lot of searching around for Catholic children's audiobooks which do a wonderful job at teaching the faith in a story form. The kids love the Angel Food series; it's a series of short stories that portray various truths of our faith in a delightful, storytelling way for children.
For Parents who Don't like Reading Aloud podcast (about 30 minutes)
How Illustrations nourish the imagination - a podcast (30 min)
3. Read the lives of the saints. Simple enough. Read books about the saints to your children or play an audiobook. Celebrate a saint's feast day who is special to you and your children and talk about what made them such a noble witness to God. Sometimes, they'll act out what they hear. Oh how John-Paul loves to be St. Michael, telling us he's crushing the devil! The holy imagination at work!
4. Memorize Scripture, hymns, poetry, etc... This is why I love morning time. Because I look at what's important in our family culture and the things I really want my kids to take away for the day and incorporate it here. Their mind is furnished with a Scripture verse that gets memorized as it's repeated daily; the same for the hymn we sing and the poem we read. It all goes in the memory bank. Just by simple daily repetition, they memorize it within a few weeks. Again, I think I'll have to write a separate post in the future on why I love doing morning time. For now, here's a great couple links. Cindy Rollins does an excellent job of explaining its purpose the home and how it can be beneficial to your family culture, as it was hers.
Memorization and the Soul by Brandy Vencel
Furnishing the Mind with Andrew Pudewa
The Long Haul: On Morning Time by Cindy Rollins - an excellent and inspiring talk. Guaranteed you'll want to start doing this tomorrow after you listen to her!
Your Morning Basket - A whole podcast series on Morning Time and various topics pertaining to it, hosted by Pam Barnhill.
Choosing what is Best - Choosing the best and beautiful for your Morning Time.
5. Listen to sacred music or classical music. You don't have to do it to the point of exhaustion, but at least to familiarity. There is something transcendental about these genres of music. It lifts our hearts and minds from earthly and worldly things and moves us to ponder greater and higher things. I try to play frequently enough either classical music, sacred choral music, or Gregorian chant. Chant music is beautiful to listen to, especially during times of prayer or on the way to Mass. It's peaceful to also sporadically play it at home as well. At home during this Advent season right now, it's typically Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker on Youtube and Advent at Ephesus by the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of the Apostles. Their voices truly sound heavenly!
6. Choose wholesome and good movies and shows. Yes, we watch Toy Story, Epic, Frozen, Tangled and all those types of kids' movies! They're cute and enjoyable. The kids liked the movie Babe and The Velveteen Rabbit. But they also like more explicitly Catholic cartoons and shows too. There's not a huge selection our there, but there are definitely some good ones if you looks. The Brother Francis series is a good one. Another good series is the CCC cartoons. I wish they'd make more of these! They seem to have the 11 or so, and then it's like they stopped. Comments? We also like to google cast the kids shows from EWTN kids online. Our kids love The Friar and My Catholic Family. I'd really like to slowly accumulate some of these DVDs for our kids too. They do an excellent job at presenting stories from the Bible and the lives of the saints in real, concrete ways.
I came across this blog article, How to Form the Moral Imagination of Your Child, which presented these great principles in choosing what shows and books to watch or read:
Does the movie/show/book confuse the moral order?
Does good conquer evil?
And, if sin and evil is portrayed, is it ugly and non-desirable?
Great questions to ask when choosing what to expose your child to. I honestly can't stand some of these Disney shows that present the young 12 year old as a snarky, know-it-all who complains and whines when their parents ask something of them or contradict their desires. If we wonder why our children have an attitude, yes it may be partly because of their fallen nature, but what shows are we letting them watch where such an attitude may be cast in an attractive light, desireable to imitate?
7. Read Scripture to them. Read a little from a children's Bible each day. Even if it's just a paragraph or two. We use The Catholic Children's Illustrated Bible, but I'm really wanting to get the Golden Children's Bible for various reasons I've been researching. Yes, again, I'm a book snob when it comes to Catholic books too. Read it slowly and pause upon certain imagery to let them wonder it in their minds.
8. Let them play, wonder, and ask questions! Simple enough. Yes, play, play, play, especially when they're young! Free play is a beautiful thing for a child. The more they play (and I'm not talking about video games, ipads and computers), the more they use their imagination. The more a child uses their imagination, the more it expands their capacity to reflect and ponder and yes...meditate in prayer. (I hope to write a blog post on teaching children meditation soon in the future). Having a costume box isn't just for Halloween. Ours gets used all year around! I really love the idea of costumes (although I used to be aloof of it before) because not only does it take creativity but it also allows the child to almost "enter into" whatever they're acting out and imagining. This is precisely what happens when we meditate in prayer; we take the meditation into our being and soul and allow it transform us into Christ. (Again, I hope to write more upon this in the future). It doesn't take long after reading the book Gingerbread Pirates that the kids get dressed up as pirates with their swords and begin their play! It's great to do this with Bible stories as well, the lives of the saints or "playing Mass."
Just after acting out the story of the Nativity.
Starring Ronan as the Baby Jesus...
...And Teresa as the Blessed Virgin Mary and John-Paul as the Innkeeper...
...and Joseph as St. Joseph, who is now building the manger.
And I know sometimes it's tough to pause on those walks to Wawa when your child stops every fifteen feet to look at a flower, leaf or rock and wonder at its beauty and how "neat" it is, but it's worth practicing that mortification for many reasons. Sometimes, I need to remind myself of what's more important at times. This natural gift of wonder children have needs to be nurtured so that it carries right into their spiritual life of being in awe and wonder of the amazing things of God. The same goes with their curiosity; they ask to have a better understanding of things and have a clearer picture. Again, another moritification for me because it can be hard at times, especially when they're going through the "why" stage. Patience is a virtue needed here!
Finding Allies in the Imagination - a podcast, about 30 min
Another great site is Story Warren: Allies in Imagination; here's their description: "Story Warren exists to serve you as you foster a holy imagination in the children you love."
9. Limit media usage. Too much screen and media exposure dulls the imagination and evokes more boredom in our children. I'm convinced of it. Although I really do not have concrete scientific evidence to offer in support of this claim because I haven't research it personally, I'm pretty convinced that if you looked more into it, we could see the damage it does to free play and imagination. I am stating this from more of a spiritual perspective though. And again, I'm sure there's more learned spiritual authors out there who could offer more support. Actually, I could refer you to psychologist Dr. Ray Guarendi and Catholic author Teresa Tomeo who wrote a book called Noise: How our media-saturated culture dominates lives and dismantles families. I read it a long time ago, but was very blown away by her solid research and spiritual insight about the subject.
Geez Jess, aren't you overdoing it? Just let them enjoy Disney!
We do!
But it's more important to also familiarize our children from the time when they're young with the things of God - the sights, sounds and senses from pictures to music to art to books, etc..- to point them toward heaven and what is good, true, and beautiful. Building a holy imagination helps lay a foundation for their prayer life so that hopefully (and do we ever hope and pray!) as they mature and grow, the imaginative faculties of their soul will have an effect on their own prayer and meditation in a good way, through and only by God's grace.
Creation of Adam by Michaelangelo
Yes, it's all God's grace in the end and what we do as parents in cooperating with the graces God gives us to teach our children and nuture a prayer life in them. It won't happen overnight, they will have many struggles and battles, but being that we have many years to lay the foundation and give them the tools they need, it is hopeful so long as we are faithful and perserver in prayer. God's Will be done.
So let us imitate and ask for the faith of our Lady, of whom Elizabeth spoke: "Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled." (Luke 1:45)
""Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he gets old he shall never depart from it."
~ Proverbs 22:6