This week ushered in a new school year for most students and teachers. For some, it is their first year or could it be their last. For most, it will be different than before with new teachers, subjects, friends, or campus. If you are a teacher, you will be learning your new students and possibly new fellow teachers. Some parents might have chosen to take the leading role of the education of their children at home for the first time or joyfully for another year with the challenge of new grades. That’s a lot of new all at one time!
New and different things create all sorts of emotions inside people. What will this school season be like? What demands and challenges will be there? What successes will be celebrated? Those emotions make us all think – where can we turn to prepare and handle all these new things?
The most important lesson that we can learn for ourselves and to teach our children is to entrust each day to God. When we trust Him, we remind ourselves that He already holds the day in His loving hands. God is there constantly calling us to be at peace and to recognize He is right there with us. God can be relied on and most certainly trusted in all things! Therefore, we can let go of our need to control each new day and instead make it an offering of love and trust. The best time to offer up the day is when it begins in the morning.
One beautiful Catholic prayer that invites us at the start of each day to trust God is the Morning Offering. There are several variations you will find when looking for it, but they all have the purpose of setting our focus on God for the day.
This simple version can easily be memorized by children (and, of course, the child-like!) You can even type it out and put it up somewhere to remind you each morning until you create the routine.
Morning Offering for Children
O my God, I offer You this day, all I think, and do, and say; in union with what was done on earth by Jesus Christ, Your Son. Amen. (Children’s)
Here is another beautiful traditional option:
Morning Offering
O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
I offer you my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day
for all the intentions of your Sacred Heart,
in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world,
for the salvation of souls, the reparation of sins, the reunion of all Christians, and in particular for the intentions of the Holy Father this month. Amen.
(USCCB)
It would be a great tradition to start now with yourself or even with your children before you rush them out the door, over to the homeschool gathering place, or to wherever the day beckons you.
Each new day is a gift and a chance to do better than the day before. It is like a cleaned chalkboard or whiteboard ready for writing upon again. What will the legacy of each new day or this new school year be for you and your family? Let God help you answer that question by offering Him the start of each new day!
References:
Children’s retrieved from https://catholicathome.com/childrens-morning-offering/
USCCB retrieved from https://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/prayers-and-devotions/prayers/morning-offering
Author: Laura Stephens, FF Homeschool Coordinator
