Following The Way of Love

Mary Jo Dannels is a mother of two and lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, Fred. She enjoys journaling, knitting, and gardening. This is her first book and.
Table of contents

You may occasionally catch a glimpse of it in the news media and in conversation with neighbors or fellow workers. But the full story is to be found in God's word. The First Letter of John puts it succinctly: In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world that we might have life through him. In this is love: Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another 1 Jn 4: Thus, the basic vocation of every person, whether married or living a celibate life, is the same: The Lord issues this call to your family and to every family regardless of its condition or circumstances.

Love brought you to life as a family.

The Way of Love: Practices for Jesus-Centered Life : Forward Movement

Love sustains you through good and bad times. When our Church teaches that the family is an "intimate community of life and love," it identifies something perhaps you already know and offers you a vision toward which to grow. What you do in your family to create a community of love, to help each other to grow, and to serve those in need is critical, not only for your own sanctification but for the strength of society and our Church.

It is a participation in the work of the Lord, a sharing in the mission of the Church. We know you face obstacles as you try to maintain strong family ties and to follow your calling as a church of the home. The rapid pace of social change; the religious, ethnic, and cultural diversity of our society; the revolution of values within our culture; the intrusion of mass media; the impact of political and economic conditions: Some family pressures are due to broad social forces over which a family has little control. But other pressures are caused by personal choices, sometimes involving human weakness and sinful behavior.

Divorce, a serious contemporary problem, takes a heavy toll on family life. Spouses and children are affected most immediately, but so too are grandparents, other relatives, and friends that make up the extended family. Divorce can create in young people a fear of and a reluctance to make lifelong commitments.

It often pushes families into poverty and contributes to other social ills. Families are burdened also by the economic demands of providing housing, health care, childcare when needed, education, and proper care for sick or elderly members. Unemployment or the fear of losing a job haunts many families.

Families Are Supported in the Church

Child and spouse abuse are touching the lives of more families. So, too, is the tragedy of AIDS. Families struggle with alcoholism, crime and gang violence in their neighborhoods, substance abuse, and suicide among youth. In a neverending stream, communications media bring images and messages into your homes that may contradict your values and exert a negative influence on your children.

Some families face multiple burdens of poverty, racism, religious and cultural discrimination. New immigrant families can feel unwelcome in our communities and caught in a conflict between cultures. Not all families experience these pressures to the same degree. Some are damaged by forces beyond their control. Many more, however, continue with prayerful determination and trust in God. All deserve our compassion and support—those who persevere also our gratitude as they show us the very faithfulness of God.

Pressure is brought to bear on families not only by outside forces but by those ordinary and inevitable tensions which arise from within. Daily you discover how different temperaments and opposing points of view can create hard feelings and even lasting bitterness.

Human weakness and sinfulness often make it difficult to accept differences. Recall how the wayward son swallowed his pride and returned home to find a forgiving father awaiting him and a family celebrating his arrival cf. In the same way, all of us who suffer broken relationships are called to make peace, to reestablish trust, and to repledge love. This can be an especially painful task for parents. What if your child becomes addicted to drugs, or harms others through drunken driving, or chooses friends you consider a bad influence.

What if your adult child leaves the Church or makes other choices that cause you pain? Is it still possible to maintain a loving relationship without approving the child's behavior? How much can you accept before you compromise your own integrity? It's not possible in this message to give complete answers to these questions and to the many others you confront. But what we can do, as your pastors and teachers, is to shed the light of Sacred Scripture and our Catholic tradition on a few key issues which you face. In the next few pages we would like to discuss with you four challenges in family life.

They make a claim on your resources and responsibilities as a church of the home. They point out how you can follow the way of love, even as Christ loved you cf. Earlier in our message we affirmed the ancient insight that the Christian family is a church of the home. This understanding has guided and informed all we have written.

The Way Of Love by Maher Zain ( with lyrics )

We know that, in the everyday moments of your family lives, you proclaim God's word, communicate with God in prayer, and serve the needs of others. The graced experience you have as a Christian family in your domestic church should be shared more extensively with all of us. We encourage you to help the Church by speaking to us, but more importantly to other families, about how you are trying to follow the way of love.

Tell us how you work to stay married, how your family has overcome obstacles, how you have made time for each other, sought enrichment opportunities or professional help with your problems. Share with us how you have come to understand your vocation as a spouse or parent. Speak to us of your pain over broken promises and relationships. Give witness to your belief in God's mercy as you move toward reconciliation both with your family and with the Church.

Help us to appreciate the symbols and traditions with which you celebrate and worship. Let us glimpse how you are trying to live a more simple lifestyle, serve the needy, build justice and peace in your community. Tell us what kinds of support you expect from the larger Church. In The International Year of the Family Catholic News Service will provide a forum, through its syndicated "Faith Alive" series, for families to tell their stories.

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Your words and deeds will lend strength to our exhortations. Our Pledge At other times we have urged all institutions of society to forge partnerships with families. We now promise to do our part to develop such a partnership within the Church. Specifically, as the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, we pledge: Most of these documents those listed with a publication number are available from: Teaching on the dignity of marriage, the role of the family, and the duty of society and the Church to support families.

Encyclical letter on the nature and purposes of married love, the gift of fertility, and the call to responsible parenthood. Pope John Paul II. Apostolic exhortation on the nature and tasks of the Christian family and the scope of pastoral care needed by families. Print Share Calendar Diocesan Locator.


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Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth. Families Are a Sign of God's Presence Ways of Loving When people talk about life in a family, they speak of love with its abiding peace, its searing pain, its moments of joy and disappointment, its heroic struggle and ordinary routines. The Way of Love Our ministry as pastors and teachers is enriched by our family experience. Reflection Questions What image, feeling, or memory comes to mind when you think about your family? What does it tell you about your life as a family? Your family life is sacred because family relationships confirm and deepen this union and allow the Lord to work through you.

The profound and the ordinary moments of daily life—mealtimes, workdays, vacations, expressions of love and intimacy, household chores, caring for a sick child or elderly parent, and even conflicts over things like how to celebrate holidays, discipline children, or spend money—all are the threads from which you can weave a pattern of holiness. Jesus promised to be where two or three are gathered in his name cf.

We give the name church to the people whom the Lord gathers, who strive to follow his way of love, and through whose lives his saving presence is made known. 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.

This marvelous teaching was underemphasized for centuries but reintroduced by the Second Vatican Council. Today we are still uncovering its rich treasure. The point of the teaching is simple, yet profound. As Christian families, you not only belong to the Church, but your daily life is a true expression of the Church. Your domestic church is not complete by itself, of course. It should be united with and supported by parishes and other communities within the larger Church. Christ has called you and joined you to himself in and through the sacraments.

Therefore, you share in one and the same mission that he gives to the whole Church.

Follow the Way oF Love

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. It is God to whom you turn in times of trouble. It is God to whom you give thanks when all goes well. You love and never give up believing in the value of another person. Before young ones hear the Word of God preached from the pulpit, they form a picture of God drawn from their earliest experiences of being loved by parents, grandparents, godparents, and other family members.

You foster intimacy , beginning with the physical and spiritual union of the spouses and extending in appropriate ways to the whole family. To be able to share yourself—good and bad qualities—within a family and to be accepted there is indispensable to forming a close relationship with the Lord. You evangelize by professing faith in God, acting in accord with gospel values, and setting an example of Christian living for your children and for others. And your children, by their spontaneous and genuine spirituality, will often surprise you into recognizing God's presence.

As the primary teachers of your children, you impart knowledge of the faith and help them to acquire values necessary for Christian living. Your example is the most effective way to teach. Sometimes they listen and learn; sometimes they teach you new ways of believing and understanding. Your wisdom and theirs come from the same Spirit. You pray together , thanking God for blessings, reaching for strength, asking for guidance in crisis and doubt You know as you gather—restless toddlers, searching teenagers, harried adults—that God answers all prayers, but sometimes in surprising ways.

You serve one another , often sacrificing your own wants, for the other's good. Intelligibility in Worship 1 Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit.

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The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, c unless someone interprets, so that the church may be edified. Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying?


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You will just be speaking into the air. Since you are eager for gifts of the Spirit, try to excel in those that build up the church. I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults. In Context Parallel Compare. Videos on 1 Corinthians