See the daily excerpt from the preparatory catechesis for the 2015 World Meeting of Families, “Love is Our Mission: The Family Fully Alive.”
76. This vocation gives purpose to Catholic parenting. The same love that sweeps up men and women, teaching them the ways of the covenant and bringing them to the Sacrament of Marriage, leads a couple to become a family. A husband and wife become a father and mother: “From the wedlock of Christians there comes the family, in which new citizens of human society are born, who by the grace of the Holy Spirit received in baptism are made children of God, thus perpetuating the people of God through the centuries.” Christians have children not merely to continue the species and build up society, but that the whole family might be formed for the communion of saints. In the words of Saint Augustine, the sexual love of male and female “is the seedbed, as it were, of a city,” and he has in mind not only the earthly city or civil society, but also the heavenly city, the Church come to full flower.
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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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