Why do you do that head thing when we pray?

No kidding that is a real question that I was asked, way back when I was teaching kindergarten. Now that is a challenging age to teach, especially if they are not your own children!

When I was a young I attended a Catholic school for K-second grades. I can remember my kindergarten teacher, Sister Mary Anne, patiently trying to teach her charges about the holy name of Jesus. I remember the love that was in her voice as she spoke about Him and all of the miracles that he performed. I can still see her face as she topped the whole talk off with the words, "and He did all of this for us!"

She was the one who started me onto the habit of doing "that head thing" when I pray. Of course I refer to bowing the head slightly whenever I say the name of Jesus. Of course during class Sister was always careful to gently remind us so that it eventually became a habit. To finish the history lesson, though, let us fast forward to third grade when my family moved to a town about an hour away. No more Catholic school but we did go to religious education at the Catholic church that my family attended on Sundays. (where I happen to go to this day).

My teacher there was thrilled that her new students had this wonderful habit of bowing their heads whenever they said the Holy name of Jesus. But she had something more to add, and this addition struck me profoundly and has stayed with me to this day. It is why this little habit that seems so unimportant, is really so very important, especially today. I grew up in the seventies and we all know what that era was like. My wonderful religious ed. teacher, who is still a friend today, taught us to not only bow our heads when we speak the name of Jesus, but whenever we hear His name spoken by others.

She explained to us that so many people were taking His holy name in vain and using the name of our Precious Lord for evil purposes that it was up to good Catholic children like us to witness to our love for Jesus by this little act of bowing our heads at the mention of His name. I was impressed by her love for Jesus and the way that she made us feel like grownups, like we could help fight against people who didn't love Jesus the way that we did.

So to all of my classes, no matter what grade, I give the same talks that Sister Mary Anne did and my religious ed teacher from home and I try to instill in them a love for the name of Jesus. I try to let them know that these small acts of faith and love that they perform are only small to the world, God sees them as huge. If they perform them with love and devotion and with the purpose of letting Jesus know that someone loves Him in a world where so many others don't, God will reward them greatly with many graces.