I work as a consultant for a homeschooling program, Mother of Divine Grace. We’ve used this program, a classical Catholic curriculum blend, since we started homeschooling, and because I have a firm confidence in its purpose and in the results I’ve experienced, I take joy when I get to work with families who have the same hopes for their children as I do: a strong, living faith, an ability to think, and a desire to serve God.

When I talk with moms, there are inevitably conversations that go beyond curriculum and schedules. We are Catholic mothers, a growing minority, and we can confide and laugh and share things with each other that perhaps others cannot empathize with. And in my small and humble experiences with these families, there are growing concerns and observations when it comes to the status of families.

I was in a training meeting with other consultants and our mentors, and various women were sharing the same thoughts. The families they were working with had a variety of struggles, from within and from without.

Some have spouses who think that Catholic curriculum isn’t “woke” enough. Some have grandparents who believe the children (too many of them for some grandparents’ tastes) need a more worldly, “realistic” education. Some parents have pastors, well-meaning I’m sure, who think the kids would be better off in a standardized, mass-produced catechism class, 35 minutes a week, taught by a well-meaning stranger than taught the lives of the saints, Catechism questions, Bible stories, traditional hymns, morality, theology, and Church history within the warm lap of the Domestic Church – who are actually the ones obligated to catechize their own flock.

Others have pulled their children out of brick-and-mortar schools and discovered, to their dismay, that their children have become cheeky and indignant, resistant to their parents’ guidance.

Some families, like my own, look outside their windows and are afraid for the state of the family. Young children are taught sexual tips by pro-choice educators. Teachers direct their pupils in socialist “truth.” Drag queens perform lively story times at local libraries. A father is imprisoned for trying to stop his underage child from government-funded self-mutilation. Politicians kindly promote free government daycare … you get the idea.

Our children are being formed in thought and belief by strangers with beliefs contrary to our own. Some days Brave New World comes to mind, where the idea of a father, a mother, and a home are repugnant remains of a long-discarded world that has been replaced by socialism.

Sister Lucia, one of the three children of Fatima, wrote that Satan’s ultimate attack on the world would be against the family: ‘’The final battle between the Lord and the kingdom of Satan will be about Marriage and the Family … Don't be afraid,” she added, “because whoever works for the sanctity of Marriage and the Family will always be fought against and opposed in every way, because this is the decisive issue.”

The decisive issue.

We, as authentically Catholic parents, godparents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles, must take the signs of our times seriously. It is not a matter of little temptations and small victories that the enemy is after. He is after the very soul of our children, and if you believe in hell then the idea of our children, eternally separated from the all-consuming love of God, is a terror. That is the sole purpose of the works of the evil one. (If you don’t believe in hell, don’t bother reading the rest of the column. Perhaps pick up a Catechism instead.)

We must take deliberate, guided steps to shepherd our children, to remain their confidantes, to pray with and pray for the souls that are in our care:

  • Do you pray with your children?
  • Have you consecrated them to Our Lord, St. Joseph, and Our Lady?
  • Do you meditate on the life of Christ and the Sorrows of Our Lady?
  • Do you watch movies and shows that build up faith?
  • Do you laugh together?
  • Do you tell them stories of the saints, the courage and zeal of these holy men and women who chose death over compromise with the world?
  • Do you celebrate their baptism days and their saint feast days?
  • Have you looked at the many amazing Catholic resources available – books like Hold on to Your Kids by Dr. Gordon Neufeld, podcasts, Lighthouse CDs?

I know not every family can homeschool their children, and that should not be cause for frustration or discouragement.  But I also know there are forces without – and from personal experience I know there are also forces within – the Church who are working deliberately to form your children with the ideologies they espouse.

We must work deliberately, prayerfully, and quickly to build up a culture of true dignity, hope, fulfillment, and faith within our families, that one day we may be gathered together around his throne in joy.

As Sister Lucia concluded, “nevertheless, Our Lady has already crushed his head.”