Is a 4 yo too young to go to soup kitchen?

I want to begin a family tradition of bringing my 4 year old to a soup kitchen.  My mom thinks she is too young to be involved in this type of volunteer work.  What do you think?

Electronics at Church

 At Church today there was a five year old sitting next to us playing video games.  I kid you not.  He was literally playing a hand-held video gaming system including the continuous click-click of the keys.  While walking to Communion I noticed another electronic device (unsure what it was.. DVD v. videogame, etc.) sitting on the pew.

Seriously?  I cannot wrap my mind around the idea of letting children play electronics during the one hour a week we go to Mass.  I am not trying to sound hard, I am just dumbfounded.  Has anyone else had this experience during Mass?

Pope's Statement about Condoms

What does the Holy Father really say about condoms in the new book?

By Dr. Janet E. Smith

This week, Light of the World, a book-length interview given by Pope Benedict XVI to journalist Peter Seewald, will be released worldwide. Several of the Holy Father's statements have already started making news, particularly his comments regarding condom usage in the prevention of the spread of HIV.

To the charge that “It is madness to forbid a high-risk population to use condoms,” in the context of an extended answer on the help the Church is giving AIDs victims and the need to fight the banalization of sexuality, Pope Benedict replied:

There may be a basis in the case of some individuals, as perhaps when a male prostitute uses a condom, where this can be a first step in the direction of a moralization, a first assumption of responsibility, on the way toward recovering an awareness that not everything is allowed and that one cannot do whatever one wants. But it is not really the way to deal with the evil of HIV infection. That can really lie only in a humanization of sexuality.

Are you saying, then, that the Catholic Church is actually not opposed in principle to the use of condoms?

She of course does not regard it as a real or moral solution, but, in this or that case, there can be nonetheless, in the intention of reducing the risk of infection, a first step in a movement toward a different way, a more human way, of living sexuality.

To read the full article regarind the Pope's statement about condoms and sex workers go here.

Prayers with a 4 year old

My four year old asked me why we had a statue of Jesus' mother, but not Jesus.  Well that prompted me real quick to go out and get a beautiful Divine Mercy statue.  While praying for the first time in front of it she led the prayer like this:

Jesus, I hope we don't have any temptations and here is your invitation.  Amen.

I am pretty sure she was reciting the 'Our Father'.  I guess we'll be working on the 'Our Father' over Thanksgiving break!

Olivia has developed a real awareness of God over the past few weeks.  There is a lot of songs about how much she loves God, mixed in with songs about spooky Halloween.  A child's love for the Lord is just so pure and amazing.  Without knowing any of the theology or catechetics behind some of the most complex issues of the faith she just loves.  How hard it has become for me as an adult to remember to just LOVE the Lord.  Sometimes there are so many facets to the faith that I literally forget to become like a child and fall in love with our Creator.  I know Scripture references to the child-like-faith we are all to have and that the children will lead us to Heaven.  I truly never saw the meaning of this until now. 

I wonder at which point we decide to make our prayer life so complex?  The opportunity to pray comes in so many ways.  My little one is usually on a swing or sitting in the back of a car when she will break into song and ultimately 'pray'.  She is able to drift off into her own world of thought and prayer and even manages to make some rhymes.  (Usually hilarious and unrelated of course).

Leave it to a four year old to bring my faith back to the basics and to remind me that prayer is prompted by the Holy Spirit.  I pray that we are open to the Spirit as Christmas approaches and that prayer through song escapes our lips throughout the day.