5 Marks of a Catholic family

Aug 28, 2023

excerpt from article by Dr. Gregory K. Popcak, OSV Newsweekly

Are Catholic families supposed to be different? What would that difference look like?

The Church considered these questions in earnest ahead of the 8th World Meeting of Families and the 2015 Synod on the Family. While I don't presume to offer definitive answers, considering the Church's writings on the matter, here are what I would like to suggest are the five most important differences that distinguish a family committed to living the Catholic vision of family life.

1. Catholic Families Worship Together: The Eucharist is the source of the deep love and intimacy Catholic families are called to live out. To celebrate this, Catholic families attend Mass together on Sundays and Holy Days (and at other times as we are able) and actively participate in the sacramental life of the Church. Also, recognizing that we sometimes struggle to love each other as we should, Catholic families regularly go to confession (recommended: monthly) to seek God’s healing, grace, and inspiration to love more and better.

2. Catholic Families Pray Together: Catholic families are called to love each other with the love that flows from God's own heart. We can only do this if we ask God – together – to teach us what this means. Therefore, in addition to both our individual prayer life and our worship with our parish communities, we gather together for family prayer each and every day. We use our daily, family prayer time to:

Praise and thank God for his blessings.
Ask forgiveness for the times we didn't love as we should.
Ask for the grace to love each other and the world better.
Pray for both our needs and the needs of the Family of God.
Seek God’s will for our life.

We treat family prayer, not as a duty or a chore, but as the key to true intimacy and joy in our home.

3. Catholic Families Are Called to Intimacy: Most importantly, the Christian life is a call to intimate communion (cf. Jn 17:21). Catholic families serve that goal by being schools of love (CCC 1657) where we learn how to love God and each other with our whole hearts, minds, souls, and strength (Lk 10:27). To do this, we constantly seek new ways to be even more open with and loving to each other as husband and wife, parents and children.

For instance, children are supposed to be the visible sign of the loving union between husband and wife. Catholic families live this out both in our openness to life and by working hard on the quality of our relationships with one another.

To do this, we cultivate marriage and parenting habits that make each member of the family feel loved and valued and practice all the virtues that help us live life as a gift (EV#92). For instance, we choose loving guidance approaches to discipline that teach virtue and good behavior instead of merely punishing wrongdoing. We schedule regular one-on-one time with each family member so that we can get to know each other's thoughts, feelings and heart's desires on the deepest level possible. And we take an active interest in all the things that each family member finds true, good and beautiful even when those interests doesn't come naturally to us.

4. Catholic Families Put Family First: Because our family relationships are the primary means God uses to help us become the people he created us to be, we treat family life itself as the most important activity in our week. We create and protect family rituals — like regular family dinners, time for prayer and worship, weekly game nights and "family days," and regularly scheduled times for communication and relationship-building — that give us regular time to work, play, talk and pray together. We hold these activities as sacred rituals of the domestic church and value them over all other activities that would seek to compete with them.

5. The Catholic Family Is a Witness and Sign: We recognize that God wants to change the world through our families. We actively participate in this plan in two ways.

First, we work hard to be witnesses of the love, joy and intimacy that every human heart longs for. We'll share this love in good times and bad, in sickness and health, for richer or poorer.

Second, we carry this love outside the home by serving our community in a manner that keeps our family together. We intentionally practice the corporal and spiritual works of mercy within our home and outside of it. We regularly talk about how we can do a better job of living out our family mission to be a sign of God's love in the world.

Again, I don't presume to offer the final answer to the question of what makes a Catholic family different, but perhaps these five "marks" can at least start the conversation. What can your family do to more faithfully live the Catholic difference?

This content comes to you from Our Sunday Visitor courtesy of your parish or diocese.

< Older Post Newer Post >

The Good News leads to seeing with eyes of faith

11 Sep, 2023

What really matters? Most of us have had an experience that causes us to ask this question. Our lives are filled with activity, much of it necessary, some of it surely not. On most days many of us feel we have little time for anything beyond a quick prayer, a fast-food meal, and then total collapse at the end of the day (yet statistics indicate we seem to find endless hours to watch television). And then something happens: a death or diagnosis of serious illness; a natural disaster that takes with it human life and property; unemployment or underemployment affecting physical, emotional and spiritual well-being. That “something” may happen to us, to someone near us, or to someone around the world, but in that moment, as circumstances suddenly change, our perspective is changed as well, and we may ask, “What really matters, after all?” The Good News of Jesus Christ focuses our attention beyond the mundane, toward that which is of lasting value. When our lives are directed by our relationship with the God of Love, we order our actions, words and attitudes to reflect that Love. That is the real meaning of our life in Christ, and the call of disciples and stewards. By seeing with the eyes of faith, we gain holy perspective and realize that our stewardship of life, time and resources is the means by which we show Christ’s love in the world. This article comes to you from Grace In Action (Our Sunday Visitor) courtesy of your parish or diocese.

The saint who guided the Church through turbulent times

11 Sep, 2023

by Russell Shaw

Big “T” traditions

11 Sep, 2023

Traditions are important to families. Singing the family birthday song, making grandma’s banana bread, praying in a special way at holiday meals — traditions are the foundation on which strong families are built. Likewise, the Church was built upon the rituals and traditions of the apostles and the early Christian communities. This body of ritual and teaching is called Tradition (with a capital T), and it serves as a unifying force in the Church today. This Tradition is so important that the teaching office of the Church, called the magisterium, safeguards it. We believe that that sacred Word of God is found in both Scripture and Tradition. In fact, the Tradition of the Church was in place before the Gospels were even written. It’s true! We practiced our faith long before we wrote about our faith. The first Christians were already meeting together, mostly in homes, celebrating the Eucharist, sharing the teachings of the apostles and encouraging one another at the time the New Testament was written down. This was the beginning of St. Paul addressing his letters to these early Christian communities. Those who argue that Scripture alone should be the source of Christian teaching fail to recognize that in the first several centuries of the Church there was no “Bible” in the form we have today. Early Christian communities read from the Old Testament writings, the prophets and from the letters from leaders like Peter and Paul. The earliest writings in the New Testament reflect the belief and practice of the early Christians as the Holy Spirit guided the Church

September 11, 2023

11 Sep, 2023

Lk 6:6-11 The Pharisees are now actively looking for reasons to find error in Jesus’ ways. Jesus knows and moves forward demonstrating who he is by what he says and does. Jesus tells his critics that an observant Jew should know not to do the good that can be done, in this case healing, is evil. We praise you Lord God for showing us what doing good is and giving us the grace to act in accord with your will. This content comes to you from Our Sunday Visitor courtesy of your parish or diocese.