Raising Saints: Helping Kids Hear God's Voice

Today we are fielding two questions from Peter. He asks: Where is heaven? and Why can't we see Jesus?

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We are leading listeners through Lectio Divina, a prayerful reading and reflection, of the Road to Emmaus story in Luke's Gospel. Listen as we read the Gospel story and then take some time imagining the scene, prompting thoughts, questions and conversation with God through the story. This is part 1, to be continued in our next episode.

A question from Alexandra's son, John, age 8. He is curious about St. Thomas the Apostle. Why didn't he believe it when the other Apostles told him that Jesus had risen from the dead? This question led us to a discussion about the gift of faith.

Also, we introduced the idea of leading Lectio Divina for our listeners for the whole family to listen to together. Coming in our next episode, so stay tuned.

--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

The Sullivan kids join us today to discuss fasting for Lent. We bounce around some ideas and brainstorm with the kids. And we discuss keeping it simple and specific. Also, there's a non-sequitur in the middle in which Matthew, age 5, tells us all about what he ate for the day!

Today we answer a question from 5 year old, Nate, who asks: "Why is there not a picture of God, if He is the main character at St. Columba (Fr. Connolly's parish), in the pictures in the stained glass?"

So we discuss how we don't know what God the Father, the first person of the Holy Trinity, looks like, but that we do see Jesus, the second person of the Holy Trinity, represented in the stained glass and other artwork. And we talk about how we see Jesus present in the Eucharist also.

"Why do only men become priests?" is an often asked question of boys and girls alike. Fr. Connolly regularly gets asked for an explanation. To help us address this question, we are joined by guest Kimberly Cook.

Kimberly is a writer, podcaster, wife, mother and Catholic apologist, and joins us today to discuss her new book, Motherhood Redeemed, How Radical Feminism Betrayed Maternal Love. She gives us a good explanation of feminism, her own experience with feminism, a bit of her conversion story back to Catholicism. And we discuss the ideas of true femininity and masculinity as understood in Catholic teaching, which was a good launching point for us to discuss the roles of men and women within the church.

If you'd like to find out more about Kimberly, visit her website. You can find her book on Amazon or through TAN books.

We are joined today by a special guest, Patrick Sullivan (no relation to Alexandra), who runs a couple Catholic ministries, Evango and Me & My House. As a parent of 9, we thought he'd be a great help in answering today's question.

How do we help our kids develop their own prayer life, rather than prayer being another thing that parents put on their "to do" list?

Find out more about Patrick's ministries here:

Evango - resources for evangelization

Me & My House - geared toward Catholic parenting

Today we are brainstorming and sharing some ideas and suggestions for entering into Advent.

Today we are sharing some positivity - we discuss what are we thankful for during the time of Covid

Today is a heavier episode, and we are discussing a very important topic - how to help our young people and children so that they don't become a part of the growing group of "former Catholics." Specifically, we discuss the following questions:

How do we communicate to our children why they should stay in the church?

And if they do stay, how do they sustain their faith in the midst of a culture that is so hostile to religion?