Learning to Pray

I am still in the home stretch of final grades for this marking period, so this is short and sweet. Truth be told, I should probably be skipping the blog post tonight and just getting my work finished. (Can you hear the Fab Hub gently pointing out that I’ll be exhausted if I stay up too late?)

This one is too good to wait.

This evening at dinner, we sat down and prepared to eat. But we forgot to pray. I reminded Kidzilla and she immediately asked if we could say the “Our Father” instead of usual grace before meals (which around here is not exactly usual) because her Kindergarten class is learning all about the “Our Father” in class.

Sounded like a good idea, so we went ahead…

Me: In the name of the Father…

Zilla: Mom! Wait! I’ll do it. I need to practice.

Me: By all means. Proceed.

Z: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”

Me: Amen.

Z: Our Father, who art in Heaven – it’s not really art you know, like art in Mrs. Art Teacher’s class, it’s art like who is not who takes art class. It’s not like Mrs. Art Teacher is up there in Heaven teaching Jesus how to do art.

Me: Got it. Continue.

Z: Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name – it’s like Halloween but not the same it’s hallowed, not Halloween and it means holy. Got it?

Me: Got it. Go ahead.

Z: Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name – oh, you need to know about thy. Thy means your. So it’s hallowed be your name.

Me: I understand.

Z: Can you help finish the rest? That’s all I know so far.

Me: Sure. No problem.

And so we continued.

The Fab Hub and I were about done for trying not to laugh. I mean, this is serious business and that would be the last thing we need to do when she’s giving us lessons in prayer. But holy cow she was funny! I think I saw a tear or two sneak out of the Hub’s eye, but he managed to hold it together pretty well.

And I have to give the guy some extra credit points here. This whole thing is somewhat new to him being that the man is Jewish and all. This is not exactly standard dinner table far where he comes from. Even the grace before meals concept is a pretty Christian one. But since Zilla wants all of us to be involved, dinnertime prayer goes something like this…

We pray the Sign of the Cross in Latin. Yes, Latin. Why? Well, mostly because the Fab Hub is Jewish.

No, really, get off the floor and stop laughing. It’s true.

See, I taught Zilla the good old “God is great, God is good, let us thank Him for our food” prayer when she was small. Simple. Easy. And then somewhere along the line about a year or so ago, she decided she wanted to know a different one. “A Mommy prayer,” she said. So we added the more mature “Bless us O, Lord, and these thy gifts which we are about to receive from thy bounty, through Christ, our Lord. Amen.”

But that wasn’t enough.

She wanted the Fab Hub to get involved.

“Jewish people don’t exactly do prayer before meals,” he said. “We have a blessing over bread, blessing over wine…but not before the meal, per se.”

Me: Well, say one anyway so we can eat. OK? Just humor her. It’s not like it’s a bad thing.

FH: OK. Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech ha-olam borei pri ha-admah. Amen.

Zilla: What was that? Spanish?

Me: Uh, no.

FH: It’s Hebrew.

Zilla: It’s awesome.

And life went on from there.

Not long after that, the Fab Hub managed to teach Zilla the Hebrew words and she said her prayer before meals in both English and Hebrew for both the Catholic and Jewish sectors.

And then one night, she wanted more.

Zilla: Mom.

Me: Yes?

Zilla: I want to learn to pray in another language.

Me: Oh? You already know a prayer in Hebrew…

Zilla: Yeah. I know. I want to know another language. We have Dad’s language. I want to know another one. Can you teach me?

Me: Uhhh….

desperately searching memory banks for whatever prayer I vaguely remember learning in high school French class nearly 30 years ago…

Me: OK, I got one! In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen

Zilla: Whoa. That’s awesome.

And that’s how we learned to say the Sign of the Cross in Latin – because the Fab Hub taught Zilla a prayer in Hebrew. Lord only knows how or why I whipped that one out – I don’t even actually know Latin. Must’ve been osmosis.

And so each night, before we break bread or vegetables or cheeseburgers together, we pray in Latin, English, and Hebrew and manage to cover both the Old and New Testament.

Perhaps it’s weird. But this is our normal.

Who says we can’t all get along?