Prayer is not prescriptive. So how could we hope to teach our children a practice that St. Thérèse called “a surge of the heart”? Lower school head Colin Gleason suggests that it’s about creating opportunities and options, so that our sons can naturally make a life of prayer their own.

In his talk from our Parenting Conference in April, Mr. Gleason lays out ten very practical ways to sow the seeds of prayer into our family’s daily routines—in formal and spontaneous ways. He ends by reminding us that prayer is not a program. It is an orientation. And whatever we parents approach with consistency and sincerity, “the house will be filled with the fragrance of it” (cf. John 12:3).

00:05:28 Prayer as a relationship
00:09:53 A family plan for daily prayer
00:12:30 Introducing them to mental prayer
00:15:00 The Psalms: a handbook
00:20:37 Making opportunities and options
00:24:20 Asking them to pray for us
00:26:57 Stories for the prayer imagination
00:29:52 Prayer journals
00:31:07 Discussing prayer
00:32:46 Prayer in our daily activities
00:35:27 Making a prayer spot
00:37:32 Clearing obstacles, preparing the ground

Teaching Essentials Workshop at The Heights School (June 16-20, 2025)

Convivium for Teaching Men at The Heights School (November 13-15, 2025)

Forming Men of Faith by Alvaro de Vicente

Forming Families, Forming Saints featuring Fr. Carter Griffin