Bishop Arthur Kennedy said several good things in his Year of Faith talk on Dec. 2, and one that impressed me was his insistence of the “importance of remembering” not only the history of faith in general, but also including our own earliest memories of coming to know God and how we have grown in our faith in stages.

That remembering can help us progress in our interior life and become more able to bring our faith into the culture.

A Carmelite friar friend from Holy Hill has long encouraged his listeners to give God a tour of their lives. That might mean walking with Him through our homes and explaining what everything is and the history behind this or that object. It can include showing God our picture albums or memorabilia or any old cards and letters we’ve kept.

We can expand on that idea to help remember our personal journeys of faith and the times when God touched us in some meaningful way. One thought is to tour through each decade, one at a time, with God as Father, as Son and as Holy Spirit, allowing each person of the Trinity to look with us at each decade of our life.

The logical place to start is childhood. Some of the things we might ask ourselves could include: When exactly did I become aware of God? How did I picture God the Father/Son/Holy Spirit as a kid? Which person of God did I feel closest to, and why? Who taught me about God? What did I learn about the angels and saints, and what books and pictures and stories had an impact on me? Did we go to church together? What was that like?

What was my day-to-day life like back then? What was important, difficult, exciting, frightening or confusing? What were my relatives like, my teachers and my friends, and did any of them teach me about God? Did I learn about God from nature, from group experiences, from my pets, from special events? Did anyone who was important to me die? Did anyone hurt me? How did that affect my relationship with God?

The second decade of life includes the teen years. As we tour God through those, we can tell Him all about our feelings and fears from that time, and all the things that stabbed us in the heart or made them soar. We can tell him about our friends, our enemies, our school time and summer time, our interests and the new discoveries we made about the world and about ourselves. We can remember how we communicated with God back then, and how we pictured Him.

What did we learn about work and weariness? What were our strengths and weaknesses? Did we experience the flaws of others, and glimpse the evil that is present in the world? Did we ponder the deep questions of life? Did we take risks that worked out, and others that didn’t? Was there anyone who inspired our faith? Anyone who made us question God’s existence? Do we recall any experience that made us run away from our Church or from God? Did we return? Would our life be different if we had?

The years of our 20s probably brought many changes. That decade may have included marriage, maybe children, a career or vocation or a series of jobs, perhaps travels, and most certainly some pain and some joy. We can tour God through all of that and reflect also on what our spiritual life was like then.

We can do the same with the decades of our 30s and 40s and 50s and up. Talk about your life with the Lord who has cared about you all these years.

Let that remembering of the ups and downs of life, of your ups and downs with others and with God, help you to see the bigger picture of your faith. If the occasion arises, consider sharing some of those moments with others, particularly with younger generations. Try especially to share the times when you were discouraged or afraid, and God helped you out. Children, teens and young adults can only benefit from knowing that they can take heart that God knows us all and loves us all.

May this season of remembering God’s gift of His Son help you also remember God’s gift of your faith.