Family

Strong Catholic Families

Family of Nazareth, grant that our families too may be places of communion and prayer, authentic schools of the Gospel and small domestic churches.” (AL, 325)  

The family is the first church, the living stones, where the love of Christ is encountered and shared, and the dignity of each person is cherished, supported and strengthened in faith. Christian families, through ‘their joy-filled witness as domestic churches’ reveal the transformative and fulfilling reality of love to a world hungry for more and yearning to be connected. Pope Francis writes in his Apostolic Exhortation, Amoris Laetitia (AL), “The Gospel of the family responds to the deepest expectations of the human person: a response to each one’s dignity and fulfilment in reciprocity, communion and fruitfulness” (201).

The Church supports families by accompanying parental figures in nurturing important gospel values within children, offering catechesis and formation in personal development and direction, and empowering, through witness, prayer and the Sacraments, and the grace of the Holy Spirit, engaged and active participants ready to serve as the hands and feet of Christ in the world.

“The Church is a family of families, constantly enriched by the lives of all those domestic churches.” (AL, 87) 

Pope Francis is quite clear about the importance of a loving family.  Parenting and family life are critical for the development of personal vocations.  As a parent, from your child's baptism, you are creating and developing a husband, a wife, a single person and potentially someone called to religious life. 

Building strong Catholic marriages and families is crucial.  Learning about these can come through a child's eyes as they watch their parents work together to clean the kitchen or to help one another, these vocations can be revealed through discussions and modeling. 

The Office of Marriage and Family Ministry is working with the Youth Ministry office to help develop conversations and tools for use with junior high or high school students about dating.  We piloted a dating curriculum over the summer (2023) with TOB and the Young Adult office to develop discernment tools that young adults can use to discern personal vocations also. 

If you are curious about how you as a parent impact your child please don't hesitate to email our Director HERE to start a conversation.