Tag Archives: family

Making Room for Jesus

22 Sunday Dec 2019

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And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. Luke 2:7

Christmas is only a few days away. During these weeks of Advent, we have been emphasizing the importance of slowing down to spend time with Jesus instead of getting caught up in the hustle and bustle of the secular holiday season. Have you made time in your schedule to spend time with Jesus, contemplating His love, mercy, and forgiveness?

Thankfully, it is not too late. During the next couple of days, block out some time to quiet your heart and fix your eyes on Jesus, so that you can experience the wonder and awe of Christmas like never before.

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Balancing Priorities in Marriage and Family Life

20 Saturday Jul 2019

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Work-Life Balance

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Matthew 6:21

What do you treasure most in your life? Your career, beautiful home, car, friendships, family, leisure time, possessions? To help you determine what you treasure most, look at your calendar. Where do you invest the greatest amount of time, energy, and finances?

Take a few moments to look at the figures below and honestly decide which one best represents the focus of your life.

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Christian Families can Change the World

30 Sunday Jun 2019

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Gomez Address_190618

On June 18, 2019, the Most Reverend José H. Gomez of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles delivered the keynote address at the annual liturgy conference hosted by the University of Notre Dame’s McGrath Institute for Church Life, speaking on the pastoral state of the family.

“Today we are looking at a future generation in which there may be far fewer children,” said Archbishop Gomez, “many young people are debating whether it is ‘ethical’ to have kids in an age of global warming. There is an even larger conversation going on among millennials about the ‘value’ of starting a family.”

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Jesus Christ: Source of Hope and Love in Marriage – Part 3

16 Saturday Feb 2019

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2018_Exhortation_Cover_Complete My Joy_Full (2)

The last two weeks (Part 1 and Part 2), we have been looking at Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted’s Apostolic Exhortation Complete My Joy, which he wrote to husbands and wives, mothers and fathers of the Diocese of Phoenix. He delves into the importance of having a marriage centered on Jesus Christ. This week we will look at his practical suggestions on how to strengthen your marriage and family life.

Bishop Olmsted identifies six key areas of growth for your marriage and family spirituality:

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Jesus Christ: Source of Hope and Love in Marriage – Part 2

10 Sunday Feb 2019

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2018_Exhortation_Cover_Complete My Joy

Last week, we started looking at Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted’s Apostolic Exhortation Complete My Joy, which he wrote to husbands and wives, mothers and fathers of the Diocese of Phoenix. Bishop Olmsted points to Jesus Christ as the source of hope and love in marriage and family life. This week, we will continue in our examination of this timely and much needed exegesis into both biblical and Church teachings on this important topic. As he says:

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Jesus Christ: Source of Hope and Love in Marriage

03 Sunday Feb 2019

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Complete My Joy_Cover

On the Feast of the Holy Family, Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted promulgated Complete My Joy, an Apostolic Exhortation to husbands and wives, mothers and fathers in the Diocese of Phoenix, This exhortation is relevant to all husbands and wives, mothers and fathers.

Listen to Bishop Olmstead describe his reason for writing this exhortation.

Complete My Joy – Official Trailer

It is a great privilege and a great duty, that we strengthen and encourage [husbands and wives, mothers and fathers], and that we remind them that their vocation is a vital contribution to the world. Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted

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Families: Transform the World

04 Sunday Nov 2018

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JPII Families Become What You Are

Preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching…always be steady, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil your ministry. 2 Timothy 4:2, 5

Do you see yourself as an evangelist, sharing the Gospel in the world so in need of God’s love and mercy? The Gospel is “good news,” that God became man in the person of His Son Jesus Christ, that he died for the forgiveness of our sins, reconciling us to the Father, and that He rose from the dead. Every baptized Christian is called to share this good news with the world.

This is especially important in the family. Parents have the primary responsibility of bringing their children up in the faith. The most important document to come out the Second Vatican Council speaks of this important role of husbands and wives…

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Married Love: A Foretaste of Heaven

22 Thursday Feb 2018

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Ben XVI_Married Love_02

Have you ever thought of your marriage as a foretaste of heaven? When marriage is lived as God intended – with permanence, partnership, fidelity, and fruitfulness – your marriage is the image of the love that unites the three persons in the Holy Trinity.

Pope Benedict XVI offered high praise for the family in one of his audiences. Here is what he had to say about the gift of marriage and family:

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Marriage: Radiating the Love of Christ to the World

11 Sunday Feb 2018

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Aquila Quote

In honor of the 50th anniversary of Blessed Pope Paul VI’s visionary letter Humanae Vitae, Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila of Denver has issued a pastoral letter The Splendor of Love. Archbishop Aquila states that Blessed Paul VI “prophetically defended the integrity of married love and warned us against the danger of reducing sexuality to a source of pleasure alone” (SL, 1).

Archbishop Aquila states that his purpose in writing the pastoral letter is “to affirm the great beauty of the Church’s consistent teaching through the centuries on married love, a love that is so desperately needed today” (SL, 5). He goes on to say:

The family is the foundation of society, and when it is undermined, society itself is threatened with collapse. Therefore, it is crucial to reaffirm our commitment to the truth, goodness, and beauty of Christ’s teaching on marriage and sexuality. SL, 6

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The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph

31 Sunday Dec 2017

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The-Two-Trinities-MURILLO-Bartolomé-Esteban

The Two Trinities, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, c. 1675-82

Today the Church celebrates the Feast of the Holy Family. Through the Incarnation, the Divine Word assumed a human body, entering into every aspect of human life, including family life, sanctifying it and making it a path to holiness.

Teacher and author Scott Hahn says,

The family is the key to Christmas. The family is the key to Christianity…When God came to save us, he made salvation inseparable from family life, manifest in family life. Since the family is the ordinary setting of human life, he came to share it, redeem it and perfect it. He made it an image and sacrament of a divine mystery. Salvation itself finds meaning only in familial relations.[1]

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