Discovering God Together (Sophia Institute Press)

Raising faithful Catholic children in today's generation is a challenging task for even the best parents. The amount of evil in the world is more visible and more accessible than previous generations. Due to the importance of this subject, Dr. Gregory Popcak and his wife Lisa have written a book entitled Discovering God Together. The book begins with an invitation, to not only pass on the Faith to your children, but to also deepen your faith in the process. It then proceeds to list the "Five Marks of a Faithful Family." They are as follows:

1. Catholic families worship together.
2. Catholic families pray together.
3. Catholic families are called to intimacy.
4. Catholic families put family first.
5. The Catholic family is a witness and a sign.

The rest of the chapters in Part One provide you with a general overview. Chapters walk us through the importance of rituals and routines, including ones for work, play, talk, and prayer. There is also a chapter on walking your children through the stages of faith, which go all the way from birth to late adulthood. Part Two of the book focuses a lot on prayer life and how to develop one as a family and also for your children. In this section of the book, there is also a chapter which speaks specifically to fathers )and mothers as well to some degree). There were some statistics in this chapter that were both eye-opening and sobering. It is the father more than the mother that will ultimately determine if their children grow up to become practicing Catholics. That's a lot of responsibility! The last part of the book focuses primarily on the Sacraments and has chapters for Baptism, the Eucharist, Confirmation, and Confession. There is also a chapter on parish life and its importance that I believe parents and priests could both benefit from reading.

The book is an easy and practical read by respected Catholic authors who know a thing or two about parenting. What I like best about this book is it is like there is a workbook built into it. There are reflection questions, a test to take, and some lines to fill out for brainstorming ideas. This is a valuable read for parents at any stage of the journey, but I would definitely recommend it most of all for new parents, because it is never too early to instill a love of God and the Church in your children.

This book was provided to me for free by Sophia Institute Press in exchange for an honest review. If you found this review helpful, please click here and hit Yes!