Pray with Me: Seven Simple Ways to Pray with Your Children

Fantastic! I just finished leading a 10 week small group at my parish on "How to Mentor Your Kids in the Faith". This book fits perfectly and I highly recommend to our moms and dads for our "prayer" section of the class. Great job to the author! Practical and helpful. Thank you very much!!!

Lovely little book. It's an easy read.

just a described. A great read.

Wonderful

The book is written from the perspective of a parent or grandparent teaching prayer to children. This is a daunting task, which is the reason I requested the title from Ave Maria Press. My wife and step-children recently joined the church, and helping them develop a prayer life is important to me. It’s also the weak link in my spiritual life. I needed some help.Grace Mazza Urbanski has penned a book on learning to pray that was very different than I expected. Instead of a step-by-step technical manual on prayer, I found a well crafted narrative on seven different ways to pray(Every modern parent should probably turn straight to the chapter on Silent Prayer). She fills her narrative with concrete examples of how these methods have worked in the past and the advice that no one method works for everyone. The examples are often very humorous anecdotes about the reactions of toddlers and young children. These anecdotes help reinforce the fact that though some of these methods may sound a little corny to the adult in you, they obviously strike home with the children. All in all, it is a worthwhile read. I would recommend it to anyone with young children and to adults who feel like they are starting from scratch on their prayer life.

“Pray with Me: Seven Simple Ways to Pray with Your Children” is a great gift to Catholic parents everywhere. Grace Mazza Urbanski, the director of Children’s Ministry for the Apostleship of Prayer in the United States, has degrees in English and Theology, and is also the mother of five children. She offers both her personal and professional expertise in this guide to helping your children learn how to pray.Even if we ourselves have an active prayer life, it can be difficult to pray with our children and help them develop their own relationship with God. We can trust that God will help us in our endeavor. “When our children need help, we offer what we can. Ultimately, prayer is God’s gifts; he improves our imperfect attempts to help our children pray.”The seven means of prayer discussed are praying spontaneously, praying from memory, praying with scripture, praying with song, praying with silence, praying with reflection, and praying with the Apostleship of Prayer. The Appendix offers a brief treasury of classic Catholic prayers.“Prayer is an active, personal relationship with God; it gives us access to God and permits God to reach into our lives and our hearts.” It is so important that we help our children cultivate the practice of prayer. While “parents are the first gift God gives children,” we must always remember that God created our children and is their heavenly Father. “God already has a personal relationship with [our children.]” It is our job to help them be aware of that relationship and help develop it.Some of the forms of prayer that Urbanski describes will come easier to certain individuals and families than others. That’s okay. There is no wrong way to pray if we approach God with a humble heart and an honest effort to reach out to Him. The important thing is to pray ourselves, and to pray with our children.Parents are sure to find some much needed encouragement and practical suggestions within the pages of “Pray with Me.” It would also make a great addition to any parish library.

What a new way to think about establishing daily habits of prayer in your children? In my children, I should say. At our house we have gotten lax even about saying grace before meals. I know the kids think it's boring sometimes. Prayers at bedtime? Hit or miss. Yet I and my spouse are serious believers, and we want to do our duty towards our kids. This book is already helping us.Yesterday I was putting my 8 year old son to bed and I asked him if he would like to try to pray in silence. He was curious, but agreed. I welcomed the presence of the Lord into the room, thanking and loving God. I asked God to be with us in the silence and speak to our hearts. It was beautiful to sit there in silence trusting God was present with my son as with me. After a minute or two, I touched his hand and said, "okay, honey." He opened his eyes wide and said "wow." He was genuinely moved.This book talks about many ways to pray with kids, and I want to try them all. Not only can it help my children know and love God better, clearly it can help us to draw closer to each other as a family. The family that prays together...

Pray with Me is for everyone! The list of people I want to share this book with is very long! This book will be at home in the hands of any lover of children. Urbanski has written into life a treasure trove of ideas for parents at all points of their walk in faith. This book would be helpful for a parent wondering how to begin praying with their children and also affirming and life giving for a parent who already prays with their children. The personal accounts and breadth of ideas make the different types of prayer accessible and manageable. The book could be a jumpstart for some, encouraging them to try something new, and for others it may be an affirmation with some fresh ideas and perspective. Either way, this book promises to deepen the prayer life of the adult reading the book and the children who will without a doubt benefit from that reading. This will not be the last time that I pick up this book.