Prayer as Homework?

[Lady Grey, Hot]

Catechists/religion teachers in Catholic schools: would you ever "assign" prayer as homework - either for a particular amount of time (e.g. "Spend 15 minutes in prayer tonight - see me if you need suggestions for how to spend that time") or a particular devotion, which would perhaps rotate according to the season (e.g. all or part of a rosary during days in October, St. Andrew novena during Advent, etc.) or curriculum (e.g. lectio drawing from books of Scripture currently being studied)?

I'm of two minds on the subject. On the one hand: other than choosing to send me to Catholic school and ensuring regular access to Mass and confession, my parents were pretty hands-off when it came to my faith formation, so I had no real role model for private prayer (as well as no concrete conception that it ought to be a daily habit). I didn't figure a lot of it out until college, and I've sometimes thought some guidance/structure during my formative years would have been helpful. I'd love to be able to provide that for students in similar circumstances. On the other hand: I'd hate for students to develop a lasting aversion to prayer because they're being forced to do it - along the same lines as reading.

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

[Sponsa-Christi]

Could you present it as the "easier" homework option? As in: "Your homework is to write a 100 word reflection paper...but if we get through all our tasks today, as a treat I can change the assignment to 15 minutes of prayer, and you get to pick however you want to pray."

[truthfinder]

When I was a catechist, I don't think I ever assigned prayer to my students.  There may have been a year when I gave them Mass journals.

I'd be reluctant to set prayers as homework because prayer should be about having that conversation with God, and for many students that would mean turning into just another homework assignment.  That doesn't mean, however, that I didn't assign them to learn a few key prayers by heart.

 

[MIKolbe]

We've practiced Lectio in class, and I gave it as an assignment to practice with their mom or dad.  That was nice.  One of the mom's even wrote me a nice note about it.