See the daily excerpt from the preparatory catechesis for the 2015 World Meeting of Families, “Love is Our Mission: The Family Fully Alive.”

14. To speak of men and women as the “image of God” means that we cannot speak of humanity without reference to God. If the nature of God is to be a Trinity of communion — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — and if we are made in that image, then our nature is to be interdependent. To be a person, we need communion.10 “Being a person in the image and likeness of God thus also involves existing in a relationship, in relation to the other ‘I.’”11 To be ourselves, we need each other, and we need God. We need somebody to love, and someone to love us. To be who we are created to be, we must give ourselves to our neighbors. “Being a person … can only be achieved ‘through a sincere gift of self.’ The model for this interpretation of the person is God himself as Trinity, as a communion of Persons. To say that man is created in the image and likeness of God means that man is called to exist ‘for’ others, to become a gift.”12 To save our lives, we must lose them to God. (Mt 10:39, 16:25) This theological account of the human person will become the blueprint for all moral theology, including Catholic teaching about the family.

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In its introduction, the document says its aim is to present “Catholic teaching in a way that is fresh, insightful, and accessible to contemporary Catholics and all people of good will.” The catechesis “offers a narrative beginning with our creation, soberly noting our fall and the challenges we face, but emphasizing God’s plan for our salvation. Love is our mission, and it is by loving God and one another that we will be fully alive.”

Each day in CatholicPhilly.com’s World Meeting of Families section you can reflect on the official Catholic teaching on the family presented in the catechesis, pray a special prayer together as a family or individually, and stay on top of breaking news about the events coming Sept. 22-27, 2015.

Order the catechesis for your home via Our Sunday Visitor, and visit WorldMeeting2015.org for more information on the events.

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