Thursday, October 11, 2007

Families as Building Block of Vocations

My next submission for the Catholic Telegraph is now posted at the Cincinnati Seminarian blog:

First, families must recognize that they are the basic building block of the Church. The Domestic Church is where your children learn to pray, to give thanks to God for the many gifts He gives, and to share their talents for the building up of the Kingdom of God. Aspects of this Domestic Church can be simple to build, too. Do you have Crucifixes in your homes? Do you pray before meals? My family had a tradition of praying the rosary together every Monday evening. It helped bring the faith alive to me. Some families celebrate the patron saint of each child, in addition to birthdays.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This sounds like the sort of thing that Francisco Franco would endorse. You remember who he is, don't you? The fascist dictator over Spain who was responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of good, Spanish republicans AND was recognized by the Catholic Church as 'the savior of the Catholic Church in Spain'. Remember that?

Father Schnippel said...

Anon:

I'm sorry, but I don't follow your reasoning.

I based this paragraph on the Rite of Baptism, which states, in part, for the blessing of the father of the child: "He and his wife will be the first teachers of their child in the ways of faith. May the be also the best of teachers, sharing the faith by what they say and do." (The last part is a little rough, been a while since I have done a baptism.)

It also comes out of Vatican II and the Catholic Catechism.

I'm at a loss to explain what you mean.