Faith Formation Begins at Home

"Beauty will save the world." Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Four of my daughters sing in the Catholic Youth Choir in our city. The magician, I mean, director, has the uncanny ability to take my four older children (ages 10-15) and make them sound like angels. Having watched The Sound of Music at least 300 times in my childhood, plus spending years in choir and band, I always hoped my children would love music. I didn't realize they would all surpass my talents before they were ten years old. We may or may not have had to make rules about the nice way to tell Mom that she is flat, sharp, or inadvertently changed key again. Music education has so many benefits which include the development of discipline and teamwork, not to mention fine motor skills,  brain development , and even some seemingly unrelated skills. Until he heard my children hammering out a piece in the back room before performing for my parents, my husband commented that he had no idea that choral singing was a c...

Gorgeous babies always stop me in my tracks. Big eyes, adorable smiles, and curly locks usually do me in. Babies also have that fantastic quality of holding your gaze longer than would be socially-acceptable with another adult, and they often look at you as though you are the most interesting person in the world. Babies make us feel like the world is an amazing place and everyone loves everybody. No wonder it is so natural for us to heap heartfelt acclamations of praise on the little darlings. Twice lately, after telling a couple of parents that their adorable babies had stolen my heart, the parents shared with me a great concern that their child will become vain or equate her value only with her looks because of how often she is told how beautiful she is. "I try to tell her she's smart, too." While I have no doubt that their one-year-olds were both geniuses, I tried to help allay their concerns that always telling their child how beautiful she is might somehow turn h...