Wife, Mother, Catechist

I’ve been a wife for almost 34 years. I’ve been a mother almost as long. Catechist? I was prepared to say 13-14 years but then I stopped because that wasn’t correct. I’ve been a catechist about as long as I’ve been a mother. With my first child and all the other beautiful babies that followed, I found it very important that they make a connection with Jesus as friend. Certainly, the Rites of Baptism tell us that parents are the primary educators of their child(ren). But was I paying attention to that during the baptism? Of course not! I was 24, had a wonderful husband and a beautiful baby boy. All I could do was gaze in awe at that four-week-old miracle. Yet for some reason (probably the example of my father and grandmothers) I knew those babies had to know about Jesus. I can’t honestly say that I taught them their prayers when they were very little but they did recognize Jesus: on the cross, in a picture, a statue, in the nativity scene at home and in the crèche in church and they knew who Mary was.

When my oldest was about four or so, a friend introduced me to music cassettes (no MP3s back then) of “Psalty, the Singing Songbook” (Psalty, Psalter songbook, get it?). There was a story that threaded through the whole cassette and the music was upbeat. The first song on the first cassette was titled “Time to Praise the Lord” or something like that. At least once a week one of the kids would ask me to “praise the Lord.” On went the cassette and off they went marching to the music and, for the most part, singing along with Psalty and the kids. I can still remember the refrain from that song. Then came school and religious education and formal prayers and later youth ministry. We spoke about that at home and my husband and I did our best to “practice what we preached.”

They’re all grown now and gone. Of the four, two of them go to church on a regular/semi-regular basis.  But my work as mother and catechist is not finished. I still do my best to lead by example and when I can, I bring God into the topic of discussion. I have no illusions. As a wife, mother and catechist I have made many mistakes and on occasion, I have been an outright failure. However, God knows my heart and I pray often that He will take the lemons that have been created by my mistakes and failures and make lemonade. I pray too that with whatever mustard seed of faith that has been planted in my children and in-laws, God will take those seeds and make them grow into strong adult faith. So in the end, I assure my family of my love and prayers and do my best to emulate St. Francis to “preach the Gospel always [and] when necessary, use words.”

By Judy Michaud