Many families have traditional practices during the Advent season which create memories and help form the faith of parent and kids alike.   These activities include lighting candles on the Advent wreath, opening up a window each day on the Advent calendar, and setting up the creche/nativity scene. Last week, we sent you this parish-handout on various Advent events taking place in December - including an Advent music concert and Reconciliation services/confessions. Hopefully you're considering adding a few events from this handout to your family's Advent season "basket of best practices."

However, there are two fundamental "best practices" that every Christian/Catholic family needs to have at the top of their basket, in a more prominent location than the extras like candles, caroling, and calendars. These two fundamental actions help form the faith of parents and their children more than any other Advent events. I'm talking about praying daily and going to church weekly.

Not only does daily prayer and weekly Mass improve your faith life and help you grow closer to the Lord, but these actions improve your health, too! A Harvard School of Public Health study showed that participation in these two fundamentals of spiritual development during childhood can lead to better health and well-being during early adulthood. Researchers found that those who attended religious services or prayed daily throughout their upbringing reported greater positivity and more satisfaction in their lives in their 20s. The Harvard study also indicated that people were less likely to exhibit depressive symptoms, to smoke, or to use illicit drugs than people raised with less time in the essential, elementary spiritual practices of daily prayer and weekly church-going.

Getting deeper into the study's results, children who were exposed to religious services regularly were:

• 18% more likely to report higher happiness during their young adulthood;
• 29% more likely to volunteer in their communities as they grew older
• 33% less likely to use illicit drugs.

Similarly, those who prayed daily were:

• 16% more likely to have a happier outlook in their early adulthood;
• 30% less likely to begin having sex at a young age;
• 40% less likely to contract a sexually transmitted infection.

So, you want to improve the health and future outlook of your kids' lives in this lifetime, while also improving the chance your family gets to Heaven in the next life? Get to church every Sunday, starting this Advent season and into 2019, and make daily prayer a "best practice" with your family.

Daily prayer can be as simple as saying an extended grace before one meal a day - be it at dinner or at breakfast (for you busy families who never are able to be home at the same time in the early evening hours). You could also get a Rosary app on your phone and play the Rosary in the car when driving on your commute to work or driving the kids to school each morning. Everyone in the car can pray the Rosary - not only to deepen your faith and convert your hearts but so you and the kids in your carpool don't start the day listening to the negativity and despair on your car radio's news station.  (I like using this particular  Rosary app daily on my commute to work to pray the Rosary, but you'll find many other choices out there - many for free.)

( As for the other fundamental action you can take of getting to Mass each weekend, I'll address this in a future Parent Bulletin.)

Advent is an opportunity to renew our commitment to Christ. Not that there is anything wrong with traditional family activities such as opening up one Advent calendar window every day in December, but nothing can renew our relationship with our Lord more than praying to Him and worshipping Him.