I’m really tempted to open by saying that this episode it is about teaching your children how to die. Now I’m not saying that; all I’m saying is that I thought about saying that so you know it was an option. Why might I have said that? Because, as my guest will share, guiding your children toward the rest and surrender of sleep is, in the grand view, a preparation for death, and even more, of placing your whole self into the hands of God.

 So maybe I should start again by saying this episode is about teaching your children to place themselves into the hands of God. That sounds nicer. It is also true because this episode is about introducing children to the basic rhythm of the Church’s night prayer, known as compline. And my guest has written for us a profoundly abbreviated and developmentally appropriate little book for just that purpose. 

My friend Bo Bonner is a teacher, speaker, radio host, poet, husband of one and father of five, but he is also a Benedictine Oblate at Clear Creek Abbey in Oklahoma. What he and his artist collaborate have created is a book for children to pray with that brings them into the wisdom and the discipline of Church’s life, as it is mostly subtly and brilliantly expressed in the monastery, in the keeping of liturgical hours. That’s what this episode is about … but it is also really does have to do with teaching your children how to die because it is shaping them in how to live in Christ.

Follow-up Resources:

• A Very Little Office of Compline: Night Prayer for Children, by Bo Bonner, illustrated by Gwyneth Thompson-Briggs
• “You Gotta Confront What You Are!” by Travis Lacy, article via Church Life Journal
• The Church Communications Ecology Program (CCEP) from the McGrath Institute for Church Life, where Bo was a participant in 2022

Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.