Family - A Community of Love
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Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The Christmas Season ended Monday Jan. 8 at the end of the day, the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus who wishes to identify with us, weak mankind, in order that we might accept his graces to overcome all temptation and sin in our life.
Ordinary Time
We are now in Ordinary Time: "The designation for the period during the Church's Liturgical Year that falls outside the times of Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter" (United States Catholic Catechism for Adults, p. 522). Sundays are the high point of every week.
Ordinary time shows how an authentic disciple, a baptized person should live in ordinary lives, e.g. in marriages, in families, at work, in school, the priesthood, the religious life, the single state, etc.
The Model Family
As your pastor for the Diocese of Amarillo I propose that throughout 2007 we all concentrate on family life.
"May Nazareth (Mary, Joseph, and Jesus) serve as a model of what the family should be ... the family's holy and enduring character ... its basic function in society: a community of love and sharing, Beautiful for the problems it poses and the rewards it brings; in sum, the perfect setting for rearing children - and for this there is no substitute" (Pope Paul VI, at Nazareth, Jan. 5, 1964).
A family is preceded by a valid marriage between a man and a woman (ideally both are virgins or living a virginal life with each other in their courtship).
The Catechism defines marriage: "A covenant or partnership of life between a man and woman, which is ordered to the well-being of the spouses and to the procreation and upbringing of children.
"When validly contracted between two baptized people, marriage is a sacrament" (CCC, Glossary).
All are called to pursue chastity
Chastity is the successful integration of God's gift of our sexuality into the plan of God the Creator making us according to His image and likeness - also male and female. All people are called to pursue and live the virtue of chastity according to one's state in life.
Natural Family Planning is God's way through nature to live a chaste married life avoiding contraception, tubal ligation, vasectomy, and abortion, which are all intrinsically evil.
Family: Launching pad to society and to heaven
"The family is the community in which, from childhood, one can learn moral values, begin to honor God, and make good use of freedom. Family life is an initiation into life in society."
"The family should live in such a way that its members learn to care and take responsibility for the young, the old, the sick, the handicapped, and the poor.
There are many families who are at times incapable of providing this help. It devolves then on other persons, other families, and, in a subsidiary way, society to provide for their needs: 'Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world"' (James 1:27, taken from CCC #2207 & 2208).
Family prayer
Pastors of parishes have a duty to bring families to a natural and normal practice of family prayer, and to "a knowing and active participation in the sacred liturgy" (Canon 528): Sunday Mass Together!
Minimum family prayer might begin with family meals together praying the sign of the cross, Our Father, Hail Mary, and grace before meals. "The family that prays together stays together".
No Catholic child should be enrolled in a Catholic school or CCD program who doesn't already know by heart how to recite the Sign of the Cross, Our Father, and Hail Mary.
Congratulations to Fr. Mitchell, pastor of Panhandle (St. Theresa's) and White Deer (Sacred Heart) for printing a card for distribution to his parishioners with the Angelus prayer recalling the annunciation of Archangel Gabriel to Mary and the incarnation of the Eternal Word in her womb.
When most of the human race lived on farms or in rural villages, the church bells rang at 6 a.m., 12 noon, and 6 p.m. as a reminder to pray your morning prayer, stop your work and pray before lunch, and a midday rest, and to pray as you gather after work or school for the evening meal.
Perhaps the Lord is saying to you that it's time to renew praying the daily family rosary.
What a difference this will make in your marriage, your family, your parish, and our diocese!
The nature of the family and marriage
"The importance of the family for the life and well-being of society entails a particular responsibility for society to support and strengthen marriage and the family.
"Civil authority should consider it a grave duty 'to acknowledge the true nature of marriage and the family, to protect and foster them, to safeguard public morality, and promote domestic prosperity'" (GS "Vatican II, The Church in the Modern World" taken from CCC #2210).
The Fourth Commandment (Honor your father and your mother) illuminates other relationships in society.
In our brothers and sisters we see the children of our parents; in our cousins, the descendants of our ancestors; in our fellow citizens, the children of our country; in the baptized, the children of our mother the Church; in every human person, a son or daughter of the One who wants to be called "our Father."
In this way our relationships with our neighbors are recognized as personal in character.
The neighbor is not a "unit" in the human collective; he is "someone" who by his known origins deserves particular attention and respect" (CCC #2212).
Two big mistakes by parents and children
The first mistake by the parents to children: "What are you going to be when you grow up?"
Parents should remember and teach that the first calling of the Christian and Catholic is to follow Christ.
God has a general plan for everyone in the whole human race: salvation by righteous living, discipleship — for Christian to follow the master Jesus, and holiness like that of the saint's name chosen at baptism by our parents, or the saint's name you chose at Confirmation as a young Catholic. That is God's general plan for us.
God also has a specific plan for everyone to attain salvation, discipleship, and holiness.
So the question becomes: "What do you think God wants you to be in your life?"
God has a special love for every human person and a special plan for each of us (Ephesians 1:9).
Shortcut to holiness
The shortcut to holiness is doing his holy will every moment of our lives as we pray in the Lord's Prayer: "Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven".
At the Last Supper in Jesus' prayer to the Father, he said: "I glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do" (John 17:4).
Mary thought it was God's plan to marry Joseph; but God showed her a different plan. Mary changed her original plan and Mary's "yes" inspires us to live a daily "yes" to God's will or his plan.
You can avoid a lot of grief in life by simply surrendering to God's plan and doing his holy will all the time.
Large families: A sign of God's blessing
Every child is a gift: "Sacred Scripture and the Church's tradition see in large families a sign of God's blessing and the parents' generosity.
Recently, at my Christmas Mass with the parishioners of Our Lady of Vietnam, at the end of Mass during my remarks, I congratulated them for the large number of children present.
Then I told my Vietnamese Catholics: "Don't be afraid to have a large family!" and they burst into a very big applause. It takes strong faith to have a large family.
From time to time, you might read again the Bible reading for Holy Family Sunday, i.e. Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14, Colossians 3:12-21, and Luke 2:41-52.
Yes, the words of Pope Paul VI: "Family, a community of love and sharing - Beautiful for the problems it poses and the rewards it brings!"
This item 7393 digitally provided courtesy of CatholicCulture.org
