Raising Teens with Intention: Daily Catholic Practices and Helpful Resources

Parenting teenagers can feel like walking between two worlds, one of childlike innocence and another of emerging independence. In Intentional Catholic Parenting, Renée Marazon reminds us that this stage is not just a challenge to survive, but a sacred opportunity to guide young hearts toward maturity, love, and faith.

Her books, Affective Development: Birth through Adulthood and Social Development: Birth through Adulthood, offer hundreds of ways to help parents nurture emotional strength, moral character, and social responsibility, essential qualities for adolescents growing in today’s complex world.

The Heart of Catholic Parenting

Renée Marazon teaches that the goal of Catholic parenting is not to control behavior but to form the whole person — body, mind, and soul. During adolescence, our children begin to question, stretch, and seek their identity. This is the perfect moment to walk beside them intentionally — listening more, judging less, and grounding every conversation in love and truth.

“We are not simply raising children; we are forming future disciples who will carry Christ into the world.” — Renée Marazon

Daily Faith Practices for Parents of Teens

Here are five intentional daily practices that can help strengthen the bond between parents and their teenage children.

1. Begin and end the day with prayer. Start or close each day with a short prayer together — even just a few words of gratitude or trust. Encourage your teen to speak openly to God in their own words. It’s not about perfection; it’s about presence.

2. Talk about emotions without judgment. From Affective Development: Renée emphasizes that emotions are not weaknesses but signals that guide growth. Ask questions like:“What’s been weighing on your heart lately?” or “What brought you joy today?”Helping teens name their emotions builds self-awareness and empathy.

3. Teach virtue through small weekly challenges. Each week, invite your teen to focus on a virtue — patience, gratitude, humility, or forgiveness. At the end of the week, reflect together: What was easy? What was hard? What did you notice about yourself? Small, repeated acts shape lifelong habits of holiness.

4. Practice sacred screen-free moments. Once a week, set aside time as a family without phones, music, or distractions. Walk, cook, or simply talk. From Social Development, Marazon highlights that authentic connection builds trust and teaches the value of relationships.

5. Reflect on Scripture together. Pick a short Gospel passage each week — like the story of the Prodigal Son or Jesus calming the storm — and discuss how it applies to teenage life. Ask: How do you see yourself in this story? What would you have done? These conversations open the heart to faith and build spiritual maturity.

Recommended Catholic Resources

1. Intentional Catholic Parenting: Affective Development Birth through Adulthood. A practical and faith-based guide that explores emotional growth from early childhood through adulthood, offering over 200 ways to support affective maturity in your child.

2. Intentional Catholic Parenting: Social Development, Birth through Adulthood.  Focuses on teaching empathy, communication, cooperation, and respect. It helps parents shape the social dimension of their child’s development through everyday family life.

Other helpful books for parents of teens:

• Raising Grateful Kids in an Entitled World — Kristen Welch

• Parenting Teenagers with Love and Logic — Foster Cline & Jim Fay

• The Catholic Teen’s Survival Guide — Christopher Heffron

Explore more Catholic parenting resources at the Marazon Store.

Faith in Action

Parenting teenagers is not about perfection — it’s about showing up with faith and consistency. Even when your teen resists or withdraws, every prayer, every patient word, every loving gesture becomes a seed of grace that God can use in His timing.

Renée Marazon’s approach to intentional parenting reminds us that God works through ordinary families: through open conversations, forgiveness at the dinner table, laughter, and tears. These are the spaces where holiness is quietly formed.

“Your home is a sacred classroom. Every act of love teaches who God is.”

Closing Prayer

Lord, bless all parents who strive to raise their children in love and truth. Give us patience when we are weary, wisdom when we feel lost, and hope when the path of parenting feels long. May our homes reflect Your presence, and may our children grow to know You through our love. Amen.

Final Reflection

Raising teenagers with intention is an act of trust — trusting that the Holy Spirit is at work in their hearts even when we cannot see it. By using the tools from Intentional Catholic Parenting and practicing daily awareness, parents can help their teens grow not just into good people, but into faith-filled disciples of Christ.