1. Make Sunday Mass the center of their week—Mass attendance is a challenge with all that goes in our lives today. But it is all about priorities.
Here’s a Faith Builder—enjoy Sunday brunch as a family and talk about the part of the Mass that reso-nated most with each person. Hold on to it all week long.

2. Give Thanks—in today’s “grass is always greener” world it is easy to look over the fence at a neighbor and be jealous or watch a TV show where problems are solved in 22 minutes.
Here’s a Faith Builder: Give your dinner prayer a boost by pausing during grace and encouraging everyone to share something they are grateful for today.

3. Simply Give—part of being grateful for what we have is giving back as God does not grant gifts so that we hoard them greedily.
Here’s a Faith Builder: Talk together about the concept of tithing. Find out what is really important to your family, and de-vote some of your hard-earned resources to that cause.

4. Let Their Lights Shine—members of a faith community—a family—are called to make use of their God-given gifts. You don’t have to be the von Trapps to sing in the choir. You can bring the Word of God alive as a lector. A great starting point is asking your pastor or priest how your family can better serve your parish.

Here’s a Faith Builder: chart your family’s talents. What can everyone give? Even better, where can you give together so you can combine volunteering with family time?

5. Fight Fair—As much as we wish family life were perfect, the reality is that all families experience conflict. Fight fair—and using the application of the Ten Commandments—and not sell-ing a sibling into slavery (like Joseph’s brothers did) is a good place to start.
Here’s a Faith Builder: Create and display your family’s rules for conflict: “No sulking, no lying, no grudges, etc.”

6. Make Mistakes—while we are created in the image and like-ness of God, we are not gods! We are very human. We let each other down. We sin. We fail. But there is a well-defined line between making a mistake and being a mistake. We have dignity from God. Here’s a Faith Builder: Does your family keep alive old wounds? Take some time together to bury old mistakes and genuinely move on from them.

7. Forgive Each Other – a lot—Jesus commands us to forgive “not …seven times, but seventy times seven” (Mt 18:22), for-giving a family member can be tough to do even once. Some of the most important family words are “I Love You” and “I’m Sorry.” Use them often.
Here’s a Faith Builder: Experience the Sacrament of Reconciliation as a family. If your parish offers a communal reconciliation service, be sure to attend. This won-derful Sacrament was created and instituted by Christ Himself. He knows we need it.

8. Remember Ritual—family rituals and traditions help us to define who we are and what we believe. Praying before dinner, lighting the candles at Advent, singing a special birthday song are all ways we express the unique bond that is family. Family traditions are passed on from generation to generation.
Here’s a Faith Builder: Bring back a family ritual that has fallen out of practice and notice the fruits of renewing this tradition.

9. Listen for Holy Moments—the prophet Elijah expects to hear the voice of God in the roaring storm raging outside his cave, but he is surprised when God’s voice is not in the wind, or the earthquake, or the fire. Rather, God’s voice comes to Elijah in the silence after the storm, in a mere whisper (1 Kings 19:11-13). It seems this is how God talks to us today in the middle of our busy modern lives. It is important to pause and notice the holy moments, perhaps at bedtime or in the car, when we share our true selves with one another and enjoy each other’s pres-ence. Turn down life’s noise.
Here’s a Faith Builder: Make room for silence in your household. Turn off electronics for a time. Read, pray, meditate, or daydream. Give God the chance to speak!

10. Practice Lifelong Loving—In the Gospel of John (13:34) Jesus gives his disciples a new commandment upon which to base their lives: “that you love one another; even as I have loved you.” We are called to model Christ in the way we love—in serving each other, caring for each other and committing to a lifetime of selflessness. (It isn’t always easy, but trying to love as Jesus does really is at the heart of creating and maintaining a great Catholic family.
Here’s a Faith Builder: Choose a family member (draw names) to secretly do nice things for, such as picking up a sibling’s dishes or sharing a toy. We are then reminded just how good it feels to be kind and loving to each other.

Source: Our Sunday Visitor