The One Thing

Passing Faith Onto Children

I sat there last night holding my son Walter longer than usual, and, in the midst of my thoughts and prayers, I was filled with questions. They were questions about passing faith onto children: Will my son grow to appreciate the Catholic faith the way I do? Will he attend church joyfully? Will he go through a rebellious stage? Will he reject the faith of his parents and leave the Catholic Church? Will he be attracted to another religion? Will the secularism of today s culture turn him away from organized religion altogether? --- Excerpt from The One Thing --- In this deeply personal bestseller, Matthew Kelly reflects on the challenges of passing faith onto children. Written just ten-months after the birth of his first child, he writes about his own faith, why religion has played such a powerful role throughout history, why so many people are leaving the Catholic Church today, and the hopes he has for his son when it comes to the spiritual life. Kelly writes, Religion is the primary humanizing force in a person, in a society, in history. In my own experience this is particularly true of the Catholic form of Christianity. Catholicism makes me a-better-version-of-myself. It makes me more human. But ultimately his reflection centers on a single question, If I could teach my son one thing that would ensure his appreciation of Catholicism, what would it be? As always Kelly’s ideas are engaging and challenging, but writing for the first time as a father it is clear that he is growing in new and fascinating ways.