Giving your life in service to God as a religious is something that was a lot more common in days gone by for young women. Maybe that is because children used to be exposed to religious in daily life more than they are now. Kids want to grow up to be people they know & admire. Every parish has a priest that little boys can look up to but not every parish has nuns or sisters! How can you foster vocations in your girls if you don't know any religious or have them near you? In a bit I am going to share with you some tips I think are helpful for this! At the bottom of this post you can read about the awesome kids rosary I am giving away.
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| Sisters of Mary of Kakamega |
5 Great Tips to Foster Vocations in Your Girls
1. Pray as a family and encourage your daughter to spend time in prayer alone...prayer journaling or spiritual reading. This is the most important tip because without a prayer life, God has to speak to you in more complicated less direct ways. When one's heart is in communion with God through prayer it's easy for Him to speak to you. The nudging of the Holy Spirit to pursue a certain vocation (be it married, religious, or the single life) will be more clear.
2. Read to your girls about the lives of religious saints.
3. Visit religious communities. If you don't have nuns or sisters at your parish you can plan a road trip to visit a religious community. You could even browse the internet and see if other parishes close by may have some religious teaching at a school our helping in the community. You can start your search here at the online Directory of Women's Religious Communities.
4. Check out the Molly McBride series of children's books and get them for your girls.
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| Molly McBride and the Purple Habit |
In the first Molly McBride book, Molly stubbornly refused to part with the purple nun’s habit her mother made for her—not even for her sister’s First Communion. “The idea for the book was inspired by a portrait I painted of one of my daughters dressed up in her purple habit!” says author-illustrator Jean Schoonover-Egolf. “Molly is a mix of both our daughters, and their relationship with the real Children of Mary sisters here in Central Ohio is similar to Molly McBride’s."
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| Molly McBride and the Plaid Jumper |
In the second book, Molly faces all the typical anxieties of starting school: making new friends; being away from her beloved wolf-pet, Francis, for the first time; and wearing that plaid jumper. But she overcomes those hurdles with the help of a new friend (a precious five-year old boy named Dominic who doesn’t want to give up his priest clothes!) and Father Matt, the pastor at her new school.
The moral of the story? Uniforms are important markers of our identity, but they’re not as important as our relationship with Jesus. (Watch for Jesus introducing his stuffed-animal lamb to Molly’s stuffed-animal wolf-pet in the new book!)
In addition to any lessons kids might take away from the book, Jean Schoonover-Egolf hopes the series promotes greater awareness of vocations.
5. Watch some you tube videos about the work & prayer life of religious. There are some great ones out there and I will list a couple for you that we love:
Passionsist nuns of Erlanger, Kentucky show how the bread that is used in Communion is made
Benedictine Nuns of Virginia Dale, Colorado run a 300 acre ranch
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| Purple Kids Rosary Giveaway |
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