Donna Price brings faith and fun to young families through Faith Alive in the Home program
It was time for closing prayer.
Donna Price brought out the paper airplanes.
“When we say a prayer, it’s like sending a message to God,” she explained to Ellie Bommarito, 4, and her sister, Abby, 2.
She tucked a small note with a drawing of a cross into the airplane, then sailed it across the Bommarito family’s living room to the girls. Then, it was the girls’ turn; they selected a heart to send back.
“That’s one of the best prayers you can say, is, ‘I love you, God!’” Price said as she opened it.
Price visits the Bommarito family, fellow parishioners at St. Catherine Laboure, once a month as part of the Faith Alive in the Home program, an archdiocesan initiative that supports parents in their role as first educators of the faith.
Each visit is about 45 minutes long and includes prayer time, children’s books, songs, crafts and games to help explore Bible stories and topics of faith. Price also sets aside a few minutes to chat with the parents about how things are going and offer further resources.
Price has volunteered with the program since it began at St. Catherine Laboure four years ago. She had recently retired from her career as a school psychologist and was considering how she could still be of service.
“One of the things that struck me was how our culture now is not very supportive of families raising young children to love God and Jesus,” she said. “So I started thinking it would be good to do some sort of outreach.”
She connected with Sister Maureen Martin, ASCJ, the archdiocese’s family life coordinator, to learn more about Faith Alive in the Home. Now, Price leads the St. Catherine Laboure team of four volunteers — three retirees and one young mother — who are visiting 12 families with preschool-age children this year. (Price is responsible for six of the 12.)
As a mother of two and grandmother of six, this felt like a good season to offer her service and experience to young families, she said.
“I feel like I have an understanding of parents and what the challenges are and how busy their lives are, raising kids, and then I’ve had a chance to know a lot of kids through my life” as a school psychologist, she said.
“I want, through this ministry, to help the parents find ways to bring the faith into the home in a real, natural way, and to see that it doesn’t have to be a big production,” she said. “It’s just a part of being in the home, just like having meals and things — it can be done without being too complicated.”
Throughout the year, the sessions include activities for the liturgical season and feast days. Around the feast of St. Joseph in March, for example, they built with blocks while talking about what it takes to build a holy life.
“We talk about different things that you can do during the day that are holy, everything from, picking up your toys can be holy, Dad can be holy when he’s driving in the car, Mom can be holy at work or when she’s giving people supper or helping with baths,” Price said. “It’s the idea that you can do things throughout your day, like St. Joseph was holy throughout his day.”
During Price’s visit, Melissa Bommarito prayed and played right alongside her daughters. In the busyness of four kids’ schedules (she and husband, Billy, also have two older sons), it’s been nice to have intentional time set aside to do faith-related activities with her younger children, Melissa said. The ideas and activities often last beyond the single visit.
During a lesson on the story of the Good Shepherd, they played a game where they had to gather all the lost sheep — balloons — back together, going to find the one that had been lost. “We played that for like, a month,” Melissa said. “Turning it into play, I think, helps the preschoolers learn a lot more than just listening.”
“The hands-on activities make it much more accessible for (Ellie), and she loves that she understands it,” she added.
Parents have a lot on their plate, Price knows. And as they do their best to share the love of Christ with their kids, the secular culture can often be discouraging.
“I want them to know that the parish is behind them and that there are other people who are doing what they’re doing, too,” she said.
