[sinkspur]

The modernists have tried to deny us our cultural heritage and in so doing so have robbed us of our identity. (was that part of the plan?)

You mean you let somebody take something as precious as a spiritual heritage away from you? Come on. Catholic culture starts at home. My wife and I still have an Advent wreath during Advent, though the kids are long gone.

We're big boys and girls. It's high time we stopped waiting for "the Church" to tell us how to transmit our Catholic identity to our kids and those around us. Something as simple as insisting on grace at meals, and saying a quick prayer before bed as a family can become ingrained in a child's mind.

I saw my oldest cross himself at the graveside of a Protestant friend of the family a few months ago. Reminded me to do it too.

[Maximilian]

We're big boys and girls. It's high time we stopped waiting for "the Church" to tell us how to transmit our Catholic identity to our kids and those around us. Something as simple as insisting on grace at meals, and saying a quick prayer before bed as a family can become ingrained in a child's mind.

Each of us can do little things, but no one can create a culture of their own. Alasdair MacIntyre compares it to "playing the violin well in an orchestra that plays well." First it takes a lot of work and dedication on your part as an individual. But then you need to be part of a wider culture so that you can join together with other dedicated individuals. You can't have a 1-man orchestra.

[maryz]

We're big boys and girls. It's high time we stopped waiting for "the Church" to tell us how to transmit our Catholic identity to our kids and those around us.

I think Desdemona's point was more that the Church stopped cooperating in passing on Catholic culture (and I mean specifically culture -- leaving doctrine, etc., out of it). And one family's customs -- however traditional (and I don't mean to say that the individual family preserving these isn't important; that's the only way they will be preserved) -- don't really constitute a culture; you need a neighborhood, a parish, a universal Church.

I think Des misses a sense of wholeness.

[Desdemona]

Not only do we have an advent wreath at my house, somewhere I have packed away my own. There is actually competition in my house to put up the Creche and arrange the figures (BIG Fontanini set). So, that's not what I was talking about. It's more the spiritual culture and the understanding of why we do what we do. Why have an advent wreath if you don't understand or know advent? what exactly IS Gaudate Sunday? Why is the candle pink? That's the sort of stuff we're missing.

[american colleen]

It's high time we stopped waiting for "the Church" to tell us how to transmit our Catholic identity to our kids and those around us.

It's a seamless garment kind of thing. My kids are young and I would be so grateful if my parish (CCD, Youth Group, homilies) backed me up when I teach my kids the Catholic catechism and Catholic tradition. Otherwise, I seem like a crank who is just about the only one who believes what I teach my kids. For example: the rosary. Never mentioned anywhere in my parish. Neither is Confession or the BVM and a bunch of other stuff. Other than the idea of the Mass (never heard it explained, though) and the priest's belief and sometime explanation of the Eucharist, my parish could almost be any Christian Church.

Something as simple as insisting on grace at meals, and saying a quick prayer before bed as a family can become ingrained in a child's mind.

Of course. But I would hope that the above isn't only a Catholic thing, that it is generic to religious belief everywhere - Christian, Jewish, Muslim, etc.