Celebrating the feast with your children

From The Liturgical Year for Little Ones on the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul.

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I was reading from the Prologue of Ohrid this morning and was struck by the homily of the fear of God on the above verse. At one point he writes:

"Will I be saved? This question should torment every one of us in the same way that the sower is tormented by the question: Will I reap the fruit of my labor in the field? The sower labors and fears every day. Let us also labor and fear "all the time of our sojourning" on earth."

As trite as it may be to say, it is very easy to have anxiety and to fear earthly things. To fear God--that is a struggle. However, it is a struggle we need to embrace and seek that we may have the same boldness as Paul one day and be able to say, "Not I, but Christ liveth in me" (Galatians 2:20).

To celebrate the feast:

Here is a list of activities I compiled last summer for this feast.

In addition to these activities, I have a challenge for all you mothers (and fathers). We all have fears and anxieties we struggle with. I was told during a confession once that it was my duty as a mother not to pass on my fears to my children. What is the first step to doing this? Control your mouth. Do not speak of your fears in front of your children. During your prayers, seek repentance for those earthly fears and ask that the Lord replace them with the holy fear of God. This is what we want to teach our children: to fear the Lord our God.

May the Lord have mercy on us and each of us learn to be driven by the fear of God in our daily lives.