The Catechetical Review - Communicating Christ for a New Evangelization

Articles Under: Marriage and Family

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For many young people, the “domestic church” is like Plato’s world of ideas: a great concept that doesn’t necessarily have a corresponding reality. Marriage and family life have an innate beauty that young people are naturally drawn to because of the heroic love, sacrifice, virtue, and holiness involved in them. But why does the ideal seem so hard to transfer into reality? How do we teach the domestic church to young people in a culture that seems antagonistic to marriage and family life? Authenticity Young people crave authenticity. When we teach the hard truths, the high ideals, the demanding precepts,... Read more
The family is the domestic church, a “little Church,” a microcosm of the Church. [1] When you look at the Christian family you see the Church, and when you see the Church you see the Christian family. God is love, and that love is imaged through the union of man and woman in the Sacrament of Marriage; furthermore, as a husband lays down his life for his bride, he images Christ’s sacrificial love for the Church. Parents are the first heralds of the Gospel to their families. [2] God bestows on them the task of the education of their children,... Read more
To view and zoom in on image click here . Who prepared the young heart and mind of Mary to respond to God in humble faith with a fiat, her “yes” to the Archangel Gabriel? Where did Mary, the Mother of God, learn to listen attentively to God’s word? The beautiful painting The Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple , by Italian artist Andrea di Bartolo in the first decade of the fifteenth century, offers insight into Mary’s life through one pivotal moment in her youth. This event, of course, is known largely from early apocryphal writings. In this... Read more
The domestic church inhabits a domicile: an apartment, a mansion, a cabin, a farmhouse, a penthouse, any kind of dwelling that we call home. Everyone from the quasi-agnostic Jungian psychologist Jordan B. Peterson to the viral video sensation Navy Admiral William McRaven to your own mother advocates tidying up your living space as the first step to a successfully ordered life, both practically and symbolically. For those with a sacramental vision of reality, we would also say both physically and spiritually. We rightly understand the Church at every level from Triumphant to domestic as a sacred communion of souls, embodied... Read more
La familia tiene un lugar privilegiado en la catequesis. El Catecismo declara que “los padres han recibido la responsabilidad y el privilegio de evangelizar a sus hijos”, refiriéndose a ellos como los “primeros heraldos de la fe” (2225). La familia es llamada “iglesia doméstica” – la iglesia del hogar (CEC 2224). Por esta razón, los padres son los primeros y más importantes maestros de la fe para sus hijos. En décadas recientes, sin embargo, ha sido difícil para las parroquias y escuelas católicas cambiarse a prácticas consistentes con esta comprensión. Los padres de familia han llegado a pensar en la... Read more
The family has a privileged place in catechesis. The Catechism states that “parents receive the responsibility of evangelizing their children” and calls them the “first heralds” of the faith (2225). The family is called “domestic church”—the church of the home ( CCC 2224). For this reason, parents are the first and most important teachers of the faith for their children. In recent decades, however, it has been difficult for parishes and Catholic schools to make the shift to practices that are consistent with this understanding. Parents have come to think of the parish and school as the places where children... Read more
The surprise winner of this year’s Best Picture Oscar was veteran South Korean director Bong Joon-ho’s social satire Parasite , the first foreign-language film to win the award . Set in South Korea’s capital, Seoul, it chronicles the comedic and underhanded attempts of the Kim family to find work in the home of the wealthy Park family, who live in a cavernous mansion high above the city. The contrast drawn between the two families lies at the core of the ensuing drama: the poor but united Kims, and the economically rich Parks—the epitome of privileged detachment. The role of the... Read more
¿De qué manera es la familia un camino a la santidad? ¿Qué quiere decir la Iglesia al referirse a la familia como iglesia doméstica ? Un breve resumen de la Escritura y del desarrollo de la aplicación el término nos será útil. El judaísmo siempre ha puesto el énfasis en la familia. La familia es todo para Israel. Sin ella, no hay alianza, y esto queda muy claro en el Antiguo Testamento. Sin embargo, existe cierta tensión dentro del Nuevo Testamento. En los Evangelios, Jesús parece ser crítico de la familia. En su llamado al discipulado, dice Jesús, “Cualquiera que... Read more
How is the family a way to holiness? What does the Church mean when she calls the family the domestic church? A brief summary of the Scriptures and the development in how the term has been used will prove helpful. Judaism has always placed significance on the family. Family is everything for Israel. Without it, there is no covenant, and this is very clear in the Old Testament. But there is a tension within the New Testament. In the Gospels, Jesus seems to be critical of the family. In his call to discipleship, Jesus says, “If any one comes to... Read more