100 Ways to Rebuild the Culture of Life

Family

1. Celebrate life: birthdays, name days, anniversaries.
2. Celebrate the living. Spend time with grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins.
3. Get your marriage right. Seek spiritual direction if you need to, as individuals or as a couple.
4. Have kids, have more kids, adopt, or sponsor a child.
5. Nurture relationships within the home especially among siblings.
6. Document your family’s important moments. Take pictures. Start a family journal if you don’t have one yet.
7. Teach and model self-sacrifice.
8. Be joyful as you serve one another.
9. Learn/teach how to value internals over externals.
10. Teach and model delayed gratification — material, spiritual, physical. Learn/Teach the difference between want and need.
11. Be kind. Learn your spouse and children’s love languages. Speak them.
12. Cultivate a spirit of detachment and poverty. This will determine daily decisions. Abby Sasscer’s book might be helpful.
13. Teach your kids the concept of “offering it up”.
14. Pray for and model grace in suffering.
15. Talk about natural death — it’s part of who we are. Pray for a happy death.
16. Don’t be afraid to shepherd your children. Fear is not of the Lord.
17. Moms, teach modesty and model it for your daughters. Dads, teach chivalry and model it for your sons.
18. Hold on to your children’s hearts, especially during adolescence — it doesn’t have to be the nightmare people say it is.
19. Your kids are paying attention to what you’re watching, reading, or listening to. Be a good example.
20. Date your kids. Have late night conversations. Whatever it takes for them to be able to pick your brains and get answers to life’s most important questions. Don’t forget the hugs!
21. Meet your kids where they are. Some of them will be voracious faith-wise. Don’t worry if they seem to outpace you.
22. Let your children teach you as well. They have unbelievable insights about life!
23. Be a parent first and foremost. Sometimes they’ll need you to be their friend, but more than anything they need you to be the parent.
24. Teach and model how to be discerning with regards to friendships.
25. Get your/their hands busy, cooking, baking, making, building, growing.
26. When you need help as a parent, default to Scripture, the Catechism and your own experiences.
27. Don’t be afraid to tell your kids about mistakes you’ve made. It helps them to know you’re not perfect either.
28. Don’t forget the 4 most important things you can say to your children: Please. Sorry. I love you. Thank You. Say them often.
29. Set the bar high, but make it a different kind of bar; raise children for heaven, not Harvard.
30. Learn to relish swimming against the tide, as individuals and as a family. Read Familiaris Consortio and take it to heart.
31. When they make mistakes, forgive, and help them move forward.
32. Tackle the difficult topics: sex, drugs, alcohol, violence. They need to know they can come to you with ANY concern, and they will be treated with respect and understanding.
33. Be their first role model and their first line of defense.
34. Pray for their vocations and their future spouses.
35. Fill your home with good music and art.
36. Keep sacramentals and use them.
37. Surround your family with reminders of your faith.
38. Know where your food comes from. If you can, grow your own. Eat meals together.
39. Keep physically fit.
40. Develop awareness for spiritual oppression. Be quick to recognize attacks on the family, so you can immediately take recourse in prayer.
41. Get out and enjoy God’s creation whenever possible.

Education

42. Build your library. Fill it with classics and wholesome literature that teach virtue.
43. Raise readers, thinkers, writers. The world needs more of these.
44. Study biology, paying special attention to the life issues. Older kids read Fides et Ratio.
45. Study the encyclicals, particularly Evangelium Vitae and Humanae Vitae.
46. Read and digest JPII’s original Theology of the Body. Bit by bit.
47. Teach your kids the five non-negotiables.
48. Stay away from pornography. Remember, Once In, Never Out
49. Teach your daughters to chart their cycles — this is real empowerment.
50. Understand the sexual revolution and how we got to where we are today.
51. Teach and model Ephesians 5.
52. Teach and model 1 Corinthians 13.
53. Read Divini Illius Magistri. Homeschool if you can.
54. Learn history.

Faith

55. Get serious about passing on the faith. Learn apologetics.
56. Hone your children’s thinking and their argumentation. Kids who know how to think critically won’t be prone buying the lies that society tries to sell them.
57. Learn the basics of natural law.
58. Join pro-life groups; there are many to choose from.
59. Encourage your college-aged kids to get to know their professors. Chances are, even in a secular university, they will find one or two faithful Catholic professors who will be willing to give off-hours lectures or seminars for Catholics. Take advantage of those.
60. Read Mulieris Dignitatem. Get to know women in Scripture: Sarah. Rachel. Hannah.
61. Read about the saints and cultivate a devotion to them. Let the kids pick their favorites.
62. Invoke the help of St. Joseph and our Blessed Mother at all times.
63. Go to Mass regularly, daily if possible.
64. Go to Confession regularly.
65. Pray for souls in purgatory. Pray for those who don’t have people to pray for them.
66. Spend time with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.
67. Pray the Rosary daily. Encourage your children to make the consecration.
68. Say the Prayer for the Unborn.
69. Have your child attend Catholic youth conferences. Go with them if possible.
70. Go on pilgrimage at least once a year. Masstimes.org is your friend.
71. Cover your children in prayer.
72. Live the liturgical year.
73. Retreat periodically from the world, even for just a few days at a time. Learn to appreciate silence.
74. Let the kids go on missions.
75. Pray for our religious, our priests, our bishops, and our Pope.

Church and Community

76. Build relationships with fellow Catholics, young and old. Hang around other Catholic families. You are each other’s support group.
77. Involve your kids in Trail Life, American Heritage Girls, and other Christian youth organizations. Better yet, get involved yourself.
78. Keep abreast of current events. Add Catholic sites and blogs to your reader.
79. Develop an awareness for what’s happening globally. Be thankful for your blessings. Read Laudato Si’.
80. Volunteer at church — have your boys help as altar servers. Be cantors, lectors, etc. Get to know your fellow parishioners.
81. Tithe. There is no way to outgive God.
82. Get your kids around good nuns and priests. Encourage a vocation to religious life. Pray for it.
83. Encourage your young adult to join local Catholic young adult groups. Have their friends over and get to know them.
84. Encourage your young adult to attend Theology on Tap and other Catholic functions, so they can meet other people their age who are also on fire for their faith.
85. Establish lending libraries.
86. Support Catholic businesses. Buy titles by Catholic authors. Listen to Catholic radio. Purchase works by Catholic artists. Watch movies that promote Christian family values.
87. Get to know people around you — neighbors, people at work, people on the street, etc.
88. Cultivate relationships with young families. Mentor young parents.
89. Pray at abortuaries.
90. Help out at pregnancy centers. They’re always in need of something.
91. Study the Church’s social doctrine — great material for discussion at the dinner table.
92. Volunteer. There’s always some local charity or soup kitchen the whole family can support.
93. Make sure your children understand the political process. But don’t fall into the rut of thinking that politics is THE answer.
94. When your kids are old enough, discuss Roe v. Wade, Obergefell v Hodges.
95. Learn to navigate and make good use of social media. Involve your kids in the new evangelization. Populate social media with what’s true, good, and beautiful.
96. Find ways to serve those with special needs or are disabled.
97. Keep care packages in the car, to give out to the homeless.
98. Support local farmers.
99. Pray for our nation’s leaders.
100. Pray for peace.

Related reading:

Catholic Families in Crisis: New Study Finds Catholic Homes Are Spiritually Bankrupt
Are You Ready to Change the World?
Recovering God’s Plan for Marriage and Family: A Sermon on the Feast of the Holy Family