My family used to pray together every evening before going to bed.
The six of us would gather in Mom and Dad’s bedroom. We’d kneel around the bed, 3 on each side of the bed, and begin with the prayers: Our Father; Hail Mary; and Glory be to the Father. We ended with the Serenity Prayer.
Most of the time, we went willingly and behaved. We understood that prayer was not a joke. Despite this, we couldn’t avoid being kids. For some stupid reason, one of us would crack a smile and begin giggling. The laughter was contagious and soon we couldn’t stop, even if we shut our eyes. Dad and Mom didn’t like that.
They also didn’t like when we complained about praying.
“I have homework to do!”
“I want to see the end of this show!”
“I’m about the beat this level!”
“I’m on the phone!”
Mom would sigh and roll her eyes, “It’s only ten minutes. That’s all we ask.”
Dad had a different way of dealing with us, “Your Grandpa used to make us pray too. We had to do the Rosary. And it wasn’t just the cinco misterios, he added the Litany of Saints…”
He let that sink in for a moment before adding, “And we had to kneel too!”
Wow.
I was familiar with the Litany of Saints. I’d mumbled “ruega por nosotros” at least a dozen times during funeral wakes and Nochebuena (Christmas Eve) festivities. Saying a complete Rosario took 20-30 minutes, depending on how fast we mumbled the Hail Marys and Litany of Saints.
We stopped complaining after that.
Feliz Día de la Virgen Guadalupe
Lotería Chicana 
Great post, Cindylu. I was raised in a traditional Catholic home and went to 12 years of Catholic school. I did my fair share of praying in English and in Espanol. We would make a game by stringing the Ruega por Nosotros as fast as possible. And we had to kneel. Thank the Lord and the Virgen de Guadalupe that you never had to go to Mexico and visit a church and “entrar de rodillas”. That’s were I drew the line! To this day, my Chicano butt does not understand how tearing up your knees makes you a better person or gets you closer to heaven.
Oh, and Feliz Día de la Virgen Guadalupe to you, too!
I never really prayed as a child, but I do remember trying to protect animals, plants and even insects cuz God had made them. I went with my wife to church, even though I am not Catholic, I do believe in honoring mothers and mother earth. There were even danzantes, and at the end they had a play.
Love it Cindylu! Made me reminisce. You don’t know how hard this word is to spell! Had to look it up, ni modo! I was born, raised, baptized, catholic, yet Tin is more so than me. I turned into a skeptic, a long time ago. The time I got hooked on U.F.O’s. Believe it or no. Since then, I’ve been lost. I have always felt the feeling, I feel a strong pull in various directions now. Would like to give my Catholic heritage a go at it first. Wish me well. Ciao!
Miguel Angel
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