Holy Family

 GKC “Christmas is built upon a beautiful and intentional paradox; that the birth of the homeless should be celebrated in every home.”
– Brave New Family

Even though it was written 25 years ago, many Catholics in family life ministries believe that the Church is only beginning to see the fruits of John Paul II’s message to families.
Although he was a celibate priest like me, Wojtyla became very close to a circle of young people whom he pastored while serving as chaplain to university students in Krakow. As they married and had children, Fr. Wojtyla offered spiritual and pastoral guidance to their families that would inform his work well into his years as Pope John Paul II.
“He was able to support these young families, to help them live the faith at a time when Communist society was really trying to undermine the family, ordering work and school schedules in a way that systematically minimized their time with each other. The state, and not the family, was, according to the government, the ultimate good and end of society.
JPII was working in his own small way to fight this head on as a priest, then in a bigger way as a bishop, and finally, after being elected Pope, much of his wisdom about the sanctity and importance of marriage and family life can be found in his 1994 “Letter to Families.”
In his letter, John Paul II wrote that men and women, particularly in their roles as fathers and mothers in the family, are key to building up a “civilization of love,” in which families are able to give and receive love at individual and societal levels.
The history of mankind, the history of salvation, passes by way of the family.
we're not investing for the future of society or for the Church. We're just living for the present moment, and for our own selfish desires.
Who can deny that our age is one marked by a great crisis, which appears above all as a profound ‘crisis of truth?’” John Paul II wrote. “A crisis of truth means, in the first place, a crisis of concepts. Do the words ‘love’, ‘freedom’, ‘sincere gift’, and even ‘person’ and ‘rights of the person’, really convey their essential meaning?

It is in our hearts and in our homes that the Lord ultimately desires to reside as well - not just in this church. This is why Pope St. John Paul II called the home “the domestic church” – for children it is the first community of faith, and for all of us it is the first step in bringing God’s kingdom into the world.
The family needs the parish for support, and the parish needs the family for support. So our community is trying to build up the parish family by building up the domestic church. Prayer must become the dominant element of the Year of the Family in the Church: prayer by the family, prayer for the family, and prayer with the family,” John Paul II wrote. “Prayer increases the strength and spiritual unity of the family, helping the family to partake of God's own ‘strength.’    
Resources, workshops, and other avenues will be utilized throughout the year. Please refer to other parts of this bulletin for more information.
Goals: 1 - invest into our parish families of all types.  2 - We are in God’s family, adopted sons and daughters in Christ Jesus 3 - Christ must be at the center of our families 4 - support network for families in smaller communities within the parish called “households," starting officially in the fall.
If you are… this is for you.   recently married. married for years. empty nesters. widowed. divorced or in other difficult situations. unmarried, you still have a family! (I know I do!)
We can say that the family is the unit of the state; that it is the cell that makes up the formation. [...] If we are not of those who begin by invoking a divine Trinity, we must none the less invoke a human Trinity; and see that triangle repeated everywhere in the pattern of the world. GKC