TEACHING CHILDREN TO PRAY:

If it was ever necessary to urge that children be formed in the art of prayer, it is so today. Most men nowadays have forgotten how to pray. Vast and almost unheard of progress in the natural sciences and technology seems to have made the practice of prayer superfluous. The rhythm of modern life is so fast that no time is left for prayer. Even those who wish to pray are scarcely able to find enough quiet - a pre-requisite of all commerce with God in prayer. A further great obstacle to prayer is the materialism which penetrates our whole life and, since it ignores all that touches the life of the spirit, removes the" taste" for prayer. Finally many are kept away from prayer by ignorance, by a false or perverse idea of God. They do not see the need to honour Him or to ask anything of Him.

Therefore teaching prayer is one of the essentials of religious instruction. And so it has a special importance in the educational program of the Crusade.

1. FUNDAMENTAL CONSIDERATION:

To teach and to learn the art of praying is a matter of faith and practice rather than a question of psychological dexterity or method. For prayer is nothing other than holding familiar con­verse with God. But our entering into conversation, our manner of speaking with Christ and God, and the extent to which this divine intercourse affects us depend in the first place on our faith. The smaller 'and weaker our faith is, the less we will pray. The deeper and more lively our faith is the more frequent and more intimate will our prayer to God be.

Therefore in the teaching of prayer, a true and lively faith must first of all be instilled into the hearts of the children. They must have a noble and very beautiful concept of God and Our Saviour which so grips their whole heart and influences their life that they learn to judge and order everything according to faith…