DOUG ULASZEK
SPECIAL TO THE CATHOLIC HERALD

 

Each year, teachers spend the early weeks of the school year combating the “summer slide,” the loss of academic skills that students experience during many weeks off of school.

This step back makes perfect sense in light of the many weeks without routine, classroom instruction and using skills in math and writing.

Many families and students also suffer from the same slide in their faith each summer. Weekends at the lake, vacations and soaking in every minute of Wisconsin summer pulls us away from our normal routines, and often, practicing our faith.

But it need not be so! Here are seven ways for your family to keep faith a priority this summer.

  1. Plan for Sunday Mass: Weekend getaways and trips pose a challenge for keeping the Lord’s Day. But not if we plan ahead! Catholic parishes abound all over Wisconsin and the USA. Sites like MassTimes.org can key you into when Mass is offered where you’ll be. Or just Google “Catholic parish in [city near you]” to find the closest parish. The important piece here is to build Mass into your itinerary.
  1. Leverage Car Rides: If your family is like mine, summer brings lots of drive time. We use that to our advantage by praying the family Rosary on drives. It only takes 20 minutes, which is a small piece of most road trips! Try listening and praying together on Relevant Radio or on the Hallow app. In addition, road trips are a great chance to learn something new through Catholic podcasts (like “Bible in a Year“ or “Saints Alive“).
  1. Get Moving: Our faith is incarnational (embodied, or literally “in the flesh”), so we live it most fully when our soul and body get involved. So, go for a Rosary walk “in the evening or participate in a local Eucharistic procession (there will be many around the Feast of Corpus Christi June 22).
  1. Do a Deep Dive: Summer presents a unique opportunity to spend extended time living our faith. Sign your kids up for Vacation Bible School at your parish or send them to a Catholic Summer Camp (Camp Gray and Catholic Youth Expeditions are great local options). Or serve others on a mission trip (like our local Love Begins Here trips).
  1. Make a Pilgrimage: Our faith is built on the fact that God entered human history out of love for us and to save us. These things happened in real places! Visiting holy places is an ancient Catholic practice. This summer, try making a pilgrimage to a shrine or other holy place. To make it easy, add it as a stop on an already-planned trip — there are Catholic sites on the way to many great places! Door County? Visit Our Lady of Champion. Heading west to the Badlands? Visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse. Staying close to home this summer? Visit Holy Hill or the Archdiocesan Marian Shrine!
  1. Read the Gospels: The four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) tell the greatest story ever told, the life of our Lord and his Passion, Death and Resurrection. We cannot say we love Christ if we do not know his story. Taken together, there are 89 chapters in the Gospels, and there are 98 days from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Read one chapter a day and you’ll be finished when school starts! Read them out loud together as a family and discuss what stands out to each of you. Learn how to pray with the Gospels using our Emmaus 90 materials!
  1. Do Small Things: Living our faith does not have to consist only of large, pious acts. Small acts of faith not only keep our minds on Christ, but they show our children that our faith isn’t part of our life — it’s integrated into everything. So, stop at the Adoration Chapel for five minutes on the way to the pool. Pray the St. Michael Prayer when you see an ambulance go by. Ask each other where you saw God today. Do small acts of love and kindness.

Without the normal schedule constraints of the school year, summer presents us an opportunity to actually deepen our faith. In these last weeks of school, make some time to plan your summer as a family. Resolve to avoid that summer slide and make it your holiest summer yet!

Doug Ulaszek is the Director of Adult Formation and Marriage and Family Life with the Archdiocese of Milwaukee Office of Evangelization and Catechesis.