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You
are the Church in Your Home
Excerpts
from
Follow the Way
of Love
A
Pastoral Message of the U.S. Catholic Bishops to Families
On the Occasion
of the United Nations 1994 International Year of the Family
A
family is our first community and the most basic way in which the Lord gathers
us, forms us, and acts in the world. The early Church expressed this truth by
calling the Christian family a domestic church or church of the home.
As families, you carry out the mission of the church of the home in ordinary ways
when:
You believe in God and that God cares about you, in good
times and bad.
You love and value others. Children form a picture
of God from the love they experience among their relatives and godparents.
You foster intimacy. To share oneself and be accepted with a family
is indispensable to forming a close relationship with the Lord.
You
evangelize by processing faith in God, acting in accord with gospel values
and setting an example of Christian living for your children and for others.
You educate, especially by example. Sometimes children listen and
learn; sometimes they teach you. Your wisdom and theirs come from the same Spirit.
You pray together, thanking God for blessing, reaching for truth,
asking for guidance in crisis and doubt.
You serve one another,
sacrificing your own wants for the other's good. Your "deaths" and "risings"
become compelling signs of Jesus' own life, death and resurrection.
You
forgive and seek reconciliation. When you do so, family members come to believe
that, no matter what, they are still loved by you and by God.
You
celebrate life, whether for births, weddings, birthdays, deaths, first days
of school or graduations, new jobs, old friends, family reunions, surprise visits,
holy days and holidays. You gather together when tragedy strikes or in celebration
of the sacraments. As you gather for a meal, you break bread and share stories,
becoming more fully the community of love Jesus calls us to be.
You
welcome the stranger, the lonely one, and the grieving person into your home.
You give a drink to the thirsty and food to the hungry. The gospel assures us
that when we do this; they are strangers no more, but Christ.
You
act justly in your community when you treat others with respect, stand against
discrimination and racism, and work to overcome hunger, poverty, homelessness,
and illiteracy.
You affirm life as a precious gift from God. You
oppose whatever destroys life, such as abortion, euthanasia, unjust wars, capital
punishment, domestic violence, poverty and racism. Within your families, you make
peace.
You encourage vocations of priesthood and religious life.
This is especially fostered through family prayer, involvement in parish life,
and by the way you speak of priests, sisters, brothers and permanent deacons.
Click
here to read the entire Pastoral Letter,
Follow
the Way of Love
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