One of our family traditions during Holy Week is to attend the Holy Week Retreat organized by our community, the Light of Jesus, and led by our servant-leader Brother Bo Sanchez. This year, we did the same thing. For me, this retreat is a much-needed respite from the many responsibilities and worries of being a hands-on parent while earning. I always look forward to Holy Week as an opportunity to reconnect with God, to be refreshed by Him and to strengthen my relationship with Him.

Even when I was still a child, my family of origin also spent the Holy Week being immersed in spiritual activities. We were not yet introduced to the Catholic renewal movement then. But we participated in our parish’s Lenten activities. What was clear to me was that Holy Week is time spent with God. That was the main message and value that my parents and maternal grandmother taught me. Fun activities with the family were always done during the Easter Season. Thus, these are the same values and lessons that I am passing to my own children.

It can be challenging to focus on the talks of speakers with the kids in tow. They are not always well-behaved. They can get bored and noisy. We just need to keep reminding them of the proper decorum in such events.

I also believe that they are able to pick up some lessons as they listen. What my kids love the most in our gatherings are the songs. My kids are very musical and they usually learn the songs after we attend the retreat. They also love that they can dance and clap while singing worship songs; unlike in church where they have to be still while singing in the choir.

This year, the theme of our Holy Week Retreat retreat was Deeper. The main goal is to go deeper in our relationship with God.

As expected, I had a great time with God during our retreat. He spoke powerfully to me through the speakers and the songs. I had a grand time worshiping God. I was truly refreshed!

Our retreat ran for two days, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. During day 1 of our retreat, I was reminded of a very important lesson by Brother Bo. He said that it is through parents that kids get their first image of God. Our kids’ perception and image of God are first taught by us, their parents. Their relationship with God is thus largely affected by how we parent them. Therefore, if we are punitive parents, our kids will think of God as a punitive God. If we constantly point out their mistakes, they will see God as someone who keeps score of their sins. He reminded us, parents, to do our best to give a better reflection or image of God to our children.

He reminded us of the story of the prodigal son that Jesus shared in the New Testament. The parent in the parable was in no way punitive. He was very loving and forgiving. That is the image of God that Jesus wants us to have.

I was thankful that I was reminded of this lesson. I hope to demonstrate love and forgiveness to my children in the way that I parent them so that they will also see God as loving and forgiving.

Brother Bo shared another example that is common among parents. He shared that parents sometimes tend to notice more what is wrong than appreciating what is good. His example is when parents see the report card of their children. Many parents scan the grades and skip the good grades but point out the low grades. What message does this send to the children? Their efforts and their accomplishments are not important or appreciated. He warned parents that if we do this, our kids will be wanting in appreciation and recognition. That can result in low self-esteem. Children naturally seek the approval of their parents. When they do not get this from their parents, they will try to find approval elsewhere.

He said that parents should celebrate their children’s accomplishments and efforts. For example, if your child got a grade of 80 in one subject but got mostly 90s in the rest, you should build him up and congratulate him for his efforts and the grades he got. Don’t just point out the low grade or ask why he got that grade. He said that many parents make that mistake of skipping the appreciation part and proceeding to interrogate the child why he got a low grade or a failing grade.

He reminded us that when our children were still babies or toddlers, we celebrated their every little milestone. We didn’t keep score of how many times they fell when they were still learning how to walk. Instead, we counted their steps and became proud of their little milestones. He reminded that God is like that. He doesn’t want to keep score of our sins. He is like us when we are new parents. He focuses and celebrates the good that we do. He rejoices and is proud of our accomplishments and efforts even when we sin or make mistakes every now and then.

This brings me to the second important reminder I got from Brother Bo’s talk. We should try to imitate God in parenting our children. He is the perfect parent. We would do well in parenting if we follow His example. However, our image of God or our perception of Him is affected by our own experiences in the past, how we were parented and how God was introduced to us. As we grow in our relationship with God, we get to know God better and our image of God becomes clearer and closer to who He really is. That’s why we should also invest in our relationship with God so we can better introduce Him to our children.

Let me share this short video of Brother Bo about the image of God. Click here.

Lastly, by our example, we can teach our children to make their relationship with God a priority. When they see us allocating time for prayer and other spiritual activities, they will also choose to do the same. Values are more caught than taught. We can preach to them a lot. But our words would not be as effective if they are not supported by the witness of our lives.

After our Maundy Thursday retreat at the MOA Arena, we also attended the Mass of the Last Supper in our parish and finished our yearly visita iglesias. We were happy to discover and visit new churches this year. The following day, we attended the Good Friday service after the half-day retreat.

In between, we continued our regular practices of reading the Bible daily and praying together. I also searched and printed activity sheets that would help them learn and understand our Catholic faith and traditions.

It has been another meaningful and blessed celebration of our Lord’s passion and death for our family. We are excited to celebrate Easter tomorrow! We will be attending the Easter Grand Feast of our community again. If you can’t join us physically, you can join us via live streaming.

I pray that you and your family had a blessed Lent and Holy Week and that the resurrection of our Lord fills your hearts with incomparable joy!