Forming God’s Precious Stones – A Secular Carmelite’s Guidance on Teaching Children Mental Prayer (PART III)

Published on in All Prayers, Spiritual Motherhood/Infertility

We are blessed and honored to share the following blog series written by our guest writer, Michelle Estep. She is a Secular Carmelite and second-grade teacher at St. Gabriel’s Catholic School in Austin, Texas. In this series of posts, Michelle beautifully reflects on her experience in guiding her students, or God’s “precious stones” as she lovingly calls them, in the practice of mental prayer.

Part III: In Conclusion: Working With the Holy Spirit to Form His Precious Stones

The final two steps we must take to ensure that we are working with the Holy Spirit in forming these precious little stones are to pray and to act.

I feel it is important to not only listen to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit through meditation, but to also offer up intercessory prayers for those He places in our path, especially the children in our care.

Our good Lord never leaves us to the wolves; therefore, to model such a Sweet Shepherd, we too must remember that just like a stone can become scratched with the wear and tear of daily life, so too can these precious souls be marked. We must bring them to the Lord for continual polishing through intercessory prayer. Not just for the time that they are with us in person, but for the remainder of our lives.

Finally, we must never grow weary of our task. The enemy has a way of ever presenting before us our inadequacies; always trying to convince us that we don’t have the steady hand of a proper “gemcutter” to partake in such an important task. The fact of the matter is that the enemy speaks truth. We will never be adequate vessels of the Lord, but we must rejoice in our happy fault and allow the Lord to provide for our weaknesses so that He may be all the more glorified through the precious souls he created.

We are everything and nothing; but we must not become paralyzed by our nothingness and have the courage to hold, cut, polish and set these precious stones so that God’s revelation of Love may live.

Click here for Part I: Introduction and Preparation

Click here for Part II: Steps in Establishing A Prayer Routine for Children

More about Michelle Estep: Michelle Estep is a member of the Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites, a wife and a mother to one precious little stone. She has been blessed with the vocation of teaching and has been doing so for the past eight years – all in Catholic education. She finds joy in all of God’s creation, but especially enjoys witnessing the miracle of new life in the garden.

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