Bishop Michael Izen’s mother was a schoolteacher. During summers, she would attend daily Mass. While Bishop Izen and his siblings weren’t expected to join her, he would.
“My experiences of daily Mass with my mom were only in the summer, (and) that’s a cool memory,” he told Patrick Conley, host of the “Practicing Catholic” radio show, for an episode set to air at 9 p.m. June 6 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM.
Bishop Izen recommends Catholic families try something new this summer.
“Maybe there’s a mom and dad out there who have to add and make an addition,” Bishop Izen said. “They don’t have the habit of praying the family rosary, so maybe it’s finding time to start with praying a decade together with your kids and just explaining the beauty of that one mystery. … And be creative. We had a (three-season) porch in the old house back in Fairmont. Boy, it was the place to be in summer. It faced the lake and when we could pray the rosary out there, it was a treat.”
The idea of cookouts has changed, Bishop Izen said, since he was growing up in the 1970s. Grilling might be more common now, but when he was a kid, the cookout was special.
“It was the one time Dad cooked,” Bishop Izen said. “I remember that and then we’d eat on the porch. Things like that. Maybe for some families it’s planning, especially when your kids are little and they get excited about these things like a picnic, something to do. Maybe once a week. ‘OK, Thursdays we’re going to actually eat in the backyard’ or ‘We’re going to actually walk down to the park’ or something like that can make it special.”
These family plans don’t have to be spiritually driven, Bishop Izen said, but should be something special for summer. However, he also encouraged Catholics to not take vacation from their prayer.
“We have to be more intentional about making that work and that when we’re in a new setting, maybe it’s vacation, maybe it’s just some downtime, we want to be careful not to take that vacation from prayer,” Bishop Izen said. “It’s the spiritual nourishment that is part of what the rest is. … To rest with the Lord is something we need to do.
To hear more from Bishop Izen about maintaining family and faith time during the summer months, tune into “Practicing Catholic,” which repeats at 1 p.m. June 7 and 2 p.m. June 8.
Also on the program, Bishop Kevin Kenney explores how to trust God while wrestling with his will. And Karen Hastreiter, a parishioner of the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul, explores how to honor all vocations.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, “Practicing Catholic” can be heard after it has aired at archspm.org/faith-and-discipleship/practicing-catholic or choose a streaming platform at Spotify for Podcasters.
