When ever people sit and have a discussion about matters of faith, one theme which comes up again and again is the challenge of passing on the faith to the next generation.
In a period of time where we have seen the publication of a Irish survey which tells us a Majority of young Irish people feel church attendance is optional; recently Breda O'Brien reflected in the Irish Catholic on the Challenge of building Faith in Lourdes’ young volunteers and in the US a new book called "iGen" about what Bishop Robert Barron calls "The Least Religious Generation in US History" there is a question about what to do? Pope Francis has given the focus on young people to the 2018 Synod of Bishops which will be looking at Young People, the Faith, and Vocational Discernment.
Fr Eamonn takes us through a discussion looking at how parents and grandparents can deal with this particular. He makes the point that it has to come from personal witness - the ground on which you as a parent or grandparent stand and being able to show by example that faith is the root of your daily existence. We need to share the love experience we have of God before worrying about the issues of knowledge of faith. Another way to look and see is how do we make space in our lives for family time and for faith time where we are harassed almost without realising it by what Pope Francis called the "technocratic frame around our lives". Maybe as parents we need to show some tough love to remind our young people that there is more to living at the touch of a button and that we need to move away from a desire to live only through technological interactions which can almost tranquillise us in our lives. But ultimately the best way to pass on the faith is through the art of listening to our young people and accompanying them into the questions they are posing about who they are? Why are we here? Why is there evil in the world? And to recognise with them that there are no quick answers to these questions but that faith can help to guide our individual response to them.