Yes, God! What Ordinary Families Can Learn about Parenting
from Today’s Vocation Stories
by Susie Lloyd
Notre Dame: Ave Maria Press, 2013
by Susie Lloyd
Notre Dame: Ave Maria Press, 2013
Have you ever looked at a priest or religious and wondered
how it was that he or she came to be there – what made that person willing and
able to say “yes” to God’s call? Susie Lloyd, author of Please Don’t Drink the Holy Water and Bless Me, Father, For I Have Kids, decided to find out. She
interviewed ten priests and religious to discover what their families of origin
had been like in order to learn what lessons those families had to teach. As
Lloyd states, “I wanted to raise heroic kids – kids who could say yes to God in
whatever way he calls. Or at least, I didn’t want to blow it.”
It is heartening to know that there is no one right way to
be a parent and these families illustrate this point quite nicely. Some
families were large and others small. Some struggled with poverty. Some
homeschooled, while others attended public or Catholic school. Some lived lives
literally dripping with the Catholic faith while for others it was more subtle.
Yet each of these families has something to teach the rest of us, a virtue or
practice we can emulate. These include generosity, love of God and neighbor,
respecting duty, treasuring the inheritance of our faith, being strong, and
embracing spiritual poverty.
Lloyd is best known as a humorist and she brings her sense
of humor into these pages. She is willing to laugh at her own parenting mishaps
and challenges, and in her laughter, parents will recognize some of their own
challenges. (For the record, I actually have had a child drink a bottle of holy
water – I would like to say it brought instant sanctity, but there seemed to be
no discernible effect.) She is a mother who, even with her vast experience as a
mother of six, is willing to admit she is not perfect and that there is still
much to learn.
As Lloyd hoped when she set out on this literary and
spiritual quest, there is much to be learned from the families profiled in Yes, God! It is also great reading for
those who wonder how it is that a young person receives and answers a call from
God. It can help make all of us more open to God’s small quiet voice speaking
in our lives.
Posts
