• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe

Sounding out the words

May 9, 2018
By Rita Buettner
Filed Under: Commentary, The Domestic Church

Our younger son comes running to find me with a book.

“Will you read with me?” he asks. It’s an irresistible invitation, and he knows it. I stop what I’m working on, and we climb onto the couch together.

He studies the first word and then reads it aloud. He reads the next one, and then the next one. But soon enough, he is stuck. I sit and watch and wait as he tries to sound it out.

It’s a tough one, and so I try to figure out when I should intervene. I want him to feel the thrill of figuring the word out himself. I also don’t want him to struggle with it so much that he tosses the book onto the floor and leaves, discouraged.

So I slowly offer the first syllable and then the second. Then, when I know he’s still not seeing it, I finish the word.

He seems relieved, and we continue our slow progress along the page.

Reading doesn’t come easily for our second grader. He has dyslexia, so reading is particularly challenging for him. But I love that he wants to read. I am so grateful that, even though reading is a battle he has to fight, he is still excited to read a story with words that are much too long and with way too many syllables.

I used to worry that it would be hard for him to succeed. Now I watch him meet challenges head on and wonder whether he might actually be better prepared for the world as a result. He doesn’t expect school to be easy. He knows he has to spend longer on his work. He isn’t afraid to ask for help.

As we sit and read, I think – as I have so many times – how hard it is to watch him struggle. I want to jump in and just read the story. I want to give him the answers. I also know, however, that I can’t do the learning for him. I need to let him learn and grow. He’s the one in the driver’s seat. I’m merely here to help him navigate, if I can.

As with so many parenting moments, it reminds me of God’s relationship with me. He must watch me sometimes and marvel at how I can make the same mistakes over and over without learning to do things differently. He must wonder at how I fumble around asking him for guidance that he gives through gentle nudges and I ignore.

But maybe God rejoices at every one of my small achievements. Maybe it doesn’t trouble him that I make so many bad choices, time and again. Maybe he looks at me with the eyes of a parent and sees the successes more than the failures. Maybe he watches me struggle with pride, love and faith that I will keep trying, and that I may improve.

That’s how I am with our son. As we move slowly through the book, I am astounded at every word he recognizes. Each word he reads with ease feels like a miracle. He’s reading! He still has so much to learn, but he’s light years ahead of where he was a year ago, or even six months ago. It has taken a team of people who support him, and I am so very thankful for them. But when I sit beside him and hear his voice sounding out the words, I am in awe of how far he has come.

For our son to learn to read is taking a dedication, a hunger and a deep determination that I know I never had at 8. He stumbles through the pages, but he keeps trying. Isn’t that how we all are on our journeys as Christians?

“We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures,” said St. John Paul II. “We are the sum of the Father’s love for us.”

How wonderful that, even when life isn’t easy and we struggle to be all we can be, our Father is watching us with a divine love that is beyond understanding.

Print Print

Primary Sidebar

Rita Buettner

View all posts from this author

| Recent Commentary |

Cupcakes with 2025 graduation toothpicks in them and a bowl of cookies

Our 31-hour Road Trip

St. Paul and discovering that sin is ‘missing the mark’

Six lit candles on a chocolate birthday cake

Making a birthday wish come true

Pilgrims of Hope: Walking the Way of St. Francis in the Year of Jubilee

The fisherman and the pharisee

| Recent Local News |

St. Clement Mary Hofbauer adapts to times, cultures as it celebrates 100th anniversary

Archbishop Lori and Supreme Knight Kelly meet with Pope Leo

Hope rises from ashes for St. Rita parishioners

‘Big Boss’ begins first day visiting Catholic Charities programs

2025 Stellar graduates

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • ANALYSIS: ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ cuts expected to outweigh benefits for low-income families
  • Safeguarding remains a top priority with new appointment, US cardinal says
  • Pope at Angelus: Be a laborer in the field of mission
  • Catholics mourn, offer support, as Texas flood’s catastrophic death toll rises
  • Pope names French Archbishop Verny as new president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, replacing retired Cardinal
  • Our 31-hour Road Trip
  • San Antonio Archbishop García-Siller asks for prayers, solidarity following Texas flooding tragedy
  • St. Clement Mary Hofbauer adapts to times, cultures as it celebrates 100th anniversary
  • Archbishop Lori and Supreme Knight Kelly meet with Pope Leo

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED