Playing make-believe provides many benefits to children as they grow up. They enable youngsters to enhance key communication skills, while also allowing them to make sense of the world around them.
Therefore, for children of faith, “playing” Mass can be a great way of getting them to become more familiar with the key rituals they see every Sunday, and to understand and respect them even more.
From kids carefully performing baptisms on baby dolls, to mini priests-in-the-making bowing their heads in prayer with such devotion you could already see them at the seminary, these make-believe sessions are truly impressive.
Priests of the future!
And you might have noticed seeing more of these make-believe sessions on social media. One mom-of-four, Tatiele Oliveira, is particularly happy to encourage her children in the faith and regularly posts videos of them carrying out different church traditions.
In fact, a recent video of three of her children processing down their makeshift aisle shows just how much the kids have been focusing at Mass!
It’s adorable to see them mirroring the solemnity of Church, but the different life-like accessories — particularly the wooden incense burner — are rather wonderful, too.
While some people commented that the children should not be stepping on the holy images, it could be seen more as the various saints guiding them on their path to holiness. As one person pointed out, in Proverbs 22:6 we’re reminded to “Train the young in the way they should go; even when old, they will not swerve from it.”
And today we celebrate...