I've written a previous post about what mental prayer is, why it's important to teach it to our children, and various remote preparations we can do to pave the way for deeper prayer in our children. In it, I also give a handful of reasons why it's best to begin training them in this even from when they're very young. So, given that, I will not do any background explaining so as to not be redundant.
Let's get to the nitty-gritty!
8 Ways to teach your children how to meditate
Just to reiterate, when I speak of meditation, I am not referring to some kind of "humming" or any kind of eastern religion's form of meditation, as some might picture the word meditate. I am speaking in the context of Christian prayer. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Christian meditation "engages thought, imagination, emotion, and desire" in prayer (CCC #2708). Your faith cannot live without prayer. If we want our childrens' faith to survive in this cut-throat culture and thrive, they need to learn how to pray. If we want them to be in heaven one day, they need to learn how to pray. So here's some ways to teach young children.
1. Have them narrate a Bible story or saint story back to you.
There are many ways for them to narrate it back to you. Verbally by telling it back, by drawing a picture of something from the story, etc... The blog Simply Charlotte Mason has various suggestion for a "narration jar;" There is a bunch of creative ideas for ways to do this. I won't get into all the technical and academic talk about the benefits of narrating things, but in short, it helps the child internalize the story and take it within themselves. This is advantageous for prayer when we meditate and reflect upon the life of Christ, the saints, or truths and virtues! (P.s. Narrating doesn't have to be formal like it might sound!)
Some ways for them to ponder and "internalize" the story:
- Re-draw a scene from the story
- Use playdough and make a sculpture of something from the story
- Act it out
- Interview the person/saint from the story
- Make and use puppets to reinact
- Have them build the scenery or stage from the story or other things from the story using legos, blocks, etc...
The link I provided above has more suggestions.
2. Do a guided meditation with them.
I will link to Connie Rossini's blog post from Contemplative Homeschool, who has examples of a few guided meditations she has done with her children as well as other ways she encourages prayer in her four boys.
I find it best right now to do a guided meditation with our two oldest boys at night right before bedtime. They lay in their bunks beds while I read the Bible story. I'll perhaps do a future post on what our meditative prayer looks like, but typically it expands upon their five sense making it very picturesque for their minds or takes an Ignatian route of spirituality by having them place themselves in the story. Or I'll just pause at various points during the reading and let the words of Scripture "do the work." We unite it with simple, little prayers that reflect the story and what the Lord may have us learn from it.
3. Build a holy imagination in them.
Father John-Paul blessing Teresa
I wrote a blog post recently about this where you can read further what I mean. But building a holy imagination helps lay a foundation for prayer because it involves meditating and using your mind to create mental pictures and "scenes."
4. Spend time looking at sacred art.
I enjoy doing this because I never realized how beautiful some of the pictures are and how profound some of them are. Now, with young children, this isn't something exhaustive. It's taking a mere 5 minutes or so to let them wonderand delight at it and point things out. You may go about it by asking questions, "What do you see such-and-such doing?" "I wonder why he's doing that?" It's nice to "wonder" at it with them because it becomes something you do together rather than a teacher-student type approach (although we are teaching them how to pray by building mental habits through this). Plus, they will get more into it that way. Every second doesn't have to be filled with questions; let silence be predominant and pause for a few seconds after they point something out or say something. More often than not, they'll have something else to follow up with. Let it be gentle and enjoyable with little ones. Storytime may be a point to pull out a picture; it could be a part of your family prayer time too; or if you have one-on-one time with someone (like I do with Joseph while the others are napping), that may be a good opportunity as well.
There is a wealth of sacred art paintings you can print out from the internet. Build a collection in time, print out a few each month on cardstock (I usually do it a postcard size). Laminating them helps ensure their durability. We have a little box full of pictures and holy cards for them to look through and choose from. If possible, one should have a couple hanging in their home too.
5. Listen to audio stories and an audio Bible.
I don't have too much more to elaborate here with!
6. Memorize hymns and sing them.
Singing is always good for little children. Perhaps each month you could pick a new hymn for you to memorize, even as a family. Sing it during family prayer or another communal time of the day. Repetition will engrain it in their memories and give them something beautiful to store in their memory to use as a reference for their own prayer. Since these hymns are beautiful ways of expressing truths of our faith and our love for God, it will lay a beautiful foundation for them to ponder whatever might draw their attention from that hymn both now and in the future. Conni Rossini has a wonderful post on singing the Rosary with children.
7. Read to them and let them look through Catholic books and the Bible.
We have a couple special spots we keep our religious books and the kids know where to go. Now, usually they don't gravitate toward it on their own (because they're away on a shelf or in a drawer and they forget about it - unles I pull it out), so it might help to select a few to strategically keep out in sight and then switch them out with others every couple weeks...whatever works. But again, the stories and pictures create something for them to think about (or aka "meditate upon"). I'll have to do a blog post soon with some of our favorite Catholic books.
The New St. Joseph First Communion Catechism (a favorite of all of us)
Jesus, Make Me Worthy has beautiful pictoral explanations
8. Remind them when you pray with them to use their imagination about the story, a mystery of the Rosary, etc... and "think in their hearts" of Jesus. Then, encourage them to "give Jesus a big hug with your heart" or "tell Him you love Him" etc...
This is the essence of the beginning of mental prayer: meditating (aka "thinking in your heart") and then moving to loving (aka "giving Jesus a hug with your heart" in kids' terms). According to the book The Ways of Mental Prayer, our mere meditation and thinking of things is not the actual praying part at all (and it therefore not really interiorly transforming us) but it is a vehicle which moves us towards prayer. The transformation of our soul happens when we, as a result of our meditation, spend time pouring out from our hearts acts of love, praise, thanks, and adoration of the Lord, as well as asking Him for our needs and the needs of others. This is the essence of prayer which will bear fruit. A mere intellectual exercise is not prayer.
It comes quite natural to children...
This is the beauty about all of these suggestions: That your children don't even realize that through all these various ways that what they're actually doing is building a habit of meditation necessary for our growth in perfection and love of the Lord! This is a wonderful thing! It's effortlessly building the habit of mental prayer and quite Providentially, happens in a very natural way for children with where they are at developmentally as well: That time of enhanced wonder, awe, questions, and imagination. Praise God. Children are meant to pray! These habits, carried through adulthood, will only move them further in advancement of prayer if they keep at it and learn more of the spiritual life from solid, orthodox Catholic theology (otherwise, you might get new-agey stuff sprinkled in if you're not careful and that's a path we don't want to lead our children down).
I hope these suggestions help. I am no expert at all and our children are all young, but prayer is the number one thing we want to teach our children because it is from prayer that springs forth a greater love of God and others and an eternal destination of heaven (we hope!). So, we'll see. All we can do as parents is pray, ask for our needs, and be faithful to the graces God sends our way. Then, we leave the rest of the work to the Holy Spirit!