Letter to Families from Pope John Paul II
(1994 Year of the Family) (Boston,
Massachusetts: Pauline Books, 1994).
Most folks see their families as just part of
ordinary, every day life. Pope John Paul
II helps Catholics to see the wonder, even the
magnificence of family. The family is in
the mind of God as the primary way to develop
souls. It is a source of and channel of
grace to all in the family. Letter to
Families is a beautiful gift to be read
together by husband and wife and the ideas in
this letter embodied in the marriage.
The Letter was written to introduce
the Year of the Family (1994), but every year is
a "Year of the Family." As family life
becomes more fragmented and assaulted by
culture, this letter is a call to return to a
"civilization of love" which has its root in the
family.
"The Church shares in the joys and hopes, the
sorrows and anxieties of people's daily
pilgrimage, firmly convinced that it was Christ
himself who set her on all these paths.
Christ entrusted man to the Church; he entrusted
man to her as the 'way' of her mission and her
ministry. Among these many paths, the
family is the first and the most important.
It is a path common to all, yet one which is
particular, unique and unrepeatable, just as
every individual is unrepeatable; it is a path
from which man cannot withdraw."
Christ came into the world through a family,
and He gave us His Mother to be ours. His
great prayer, the "Our Father," speaks of
relationship within a family. This very
prayer can pull families together and give them
direction. Prayer must be a part of every
family.
Respect for life and procreation, too, forms
a core of family life. "The universe,
immense and diverse as it is, the world of all
living beings, is inscribed in God's
fatherhood, which is its source." God
not only creates mankind in His own image, but
gives him the command to "Be fruitful and
multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it"
(Gen. 1:28). Thus human beings are given a
dual mission which involves responsibility and
love. The marital covenant is the core by
which this command of God the Father's is
realized.
The beauty of family life is evident in John
Paul II's Letter. Tucking this
Letter into a gift for a new bride and groom
would help the couple just forming a family to
understand what an intimate and essential unit
they are forming. They are participating
in the life of God Himself by creating a family.
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To learn about a disciplined,
Catholic, joyful Rule of Life that can help you
draw closer to God while living in your own
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Thank you and God bless!
