Learning New Prayers

"Yanthy, it's time for you to go to sleep," I told my eldest son as I reminded him that it's time for his nap.

 

"I will pray first, Mommy," he answered.

 

"Okay. Let me hear your prayer," I replied.

 

"Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God's love commits me here. Ever this day, be at my side, to light and guide, to rule and guard. Amen."

 

Yanthy has just recited a new prayer I did not teach him.  How did he learn that prayer? I wondered.

 

So I asked him.

 

"Who taught you that prayer?  Did Daddy teach that prayer to you?" I inquired.

 

"No. I read it in my book," he said.

 

"Which book?"

 

He answered by getting the book from the shelf and by showing me the page in the book with the prayer.

 

Wow!  I was impressed!  I first read that book to him last Christmas season during our Christmas countdown.  After that, I can only remember a few times that I have read it to him.  I don't know if he has been reading it on his own lately or in the past month.  But I'm really happy that he has learned on his own by simply reading his book. 

 

That prayer became one of his daily prayers since then.

 

I got another surprise one afternoon when my husband told me that our eldest son, Yanthy, has learned new prayers.  He was watching over our son that time.  And he taught Yanthy new prayers while they were together.  I shared in my previous post before that Yanthy has already memorized The Lord's Prayer.  (You may read here how we taught it to him.)  This time, my husband and my son surprised me when I heard Yanthy recite the Hail Mary and the Glory Be.   I was so happy and impressed that Yanthy did not only memorize one new prayer but two!  My husband excitedly told me this because he wanted our eldest to be more involved when we pray the Rosary as a family.  Before, Yanthy would just wait for the time to recite The Lord's Prayer. Now, he can join us as we recite the five decades of the Rosary.

 

To help him master the new prayers he has learned, we also asked Yanthy to recite these new prayers that he learned with The Lord's Prayer before bed at night.

 

Actually, Yanthy has already memorized even the morning prayers and the night prayers that I have asked him to read every morning after breakfast and at night before sleeping.  I just noticed him one morning this year not looking at the page where the prayer is printed.  Then at night, there were also times when he would no longer get the book of prayers but would simply proceed on reciting them.  It's funny and amusing that he memorized them ahead of me and my husband who also hear the same prayers read every day/night. These incidents affirms us that having a good memory and being a fast learner are really some of his strengths because he remembers right away things that he reads and learns new things fast.

 

I'm glad that these things happened just before Lent started this year.  It's like God has helped us prepare our son for this season where we are all called to pray more.  Glory and praise be to our God!