Call to Family, Community, and Participation
A Prayer for the Family
Heavenly Father,
you have given us the model of life
in the Holy Family of Nazareth.
Help us, O Loving Father,
to make our family another Nazareth
where love, peace and joy reign.
May it be deeply contemplative,
intensely eucharistic,
revived with joy.
Help us to stay together in joy
and sorrow in family prayer.
Teach us to see Jesus in the members of our
families,
especially in their distressing disguise.
May the eucharistic heart of Jesus
make our hearts humble like his
and help us to carry out our family duties
in a holy way.
May we love one another
as God loves each one of us,
more and more each day,
and forgive each other’s faults
as you forgive our sins.
Help us, O Loving Father,
to take whatever you give
and give whatever you take with a big smile.
Immaculate Heart of Mary,
cause of our joy, pray for us.
St. Joseph, pray for us.
Holy Guardian Angels,
be always with us,
guide and protect us.
Amen.
Attributed to St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta
"CALL TO FAMILY, COMMUNITY, AND PARTICIPATION"
"If you want to bring happiness to the whole world, go home and love your family."
St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta
How do you nourish, support and sustain your family?
Another fundamental theme of CST is the call to family, community, and participation. A person is not only sacred but is also a social being. How we organize in society—politically, economically, through policy and law—directly affects not only our human dignity but also our capacity to grow and thrive in community. “People have the right and duty to participate in society, seeking together the common good and the well-being of all, especially the poor and vulnerable,” and in “the transformation of unjust structures.”
CST teaches that “marriage and the family are the central social institutions that must be supported and strengthened, and not undermined.” As the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches:
The family is the original cell of social life. It is the natural society in which husband and wife are called to give themselves in love and in the gift of life. Authority, stability, and a life of relationships within the family constitute the foundations for freedom, security, and fraternity within society. The family is the community in which, from childhood, one can learn moral values, begin to honor God, and make good use of freedom. Family life is an initiation into life in society. (CCC, no. 2207)
The U.S. Bishops further instruct:
Marriages benefit society by building and strengthening human relationships within the home (among spouses and children) and beyond (involving relatives, neighbors, and communities). For this reason, the family has long been understood as the fundamental unit of society, the foundation from which religious, civic, and legal organizations naturally develop and flourish (USCCB, How Does Society Benefit from Strong Marriages?
This teaching is supported by the findings of social science:
Marriage is the greatest social educator of children. It is the institution that most effectively teaches the civic virtues of honesty, loyalty, trust, self-sacrifice, personal responsibility, and respect for others. The virtues cultivated between men and women in mar-riage, and between parents and the children, radiate outward into civil society. They deepen in married men and women strong habits of devotion to civic life. (Id., citing Wilcox, Sacred Vows, Public Purposes: Religion, the Marriage Movement, & Marriage Policy, 2002, pp. 3, 28).
Let us support and witness in our love and actions to the sacredness and primacy of marriage and the family.
VIDEOS
"CST 101 - Call to Family, Community, and Participation" (USCCB & CRS)
"The Call to Family, Community and Participation (Part 1)"
"The Call to Family, Community and Participation (Part 2)"
"The Call to Family, Community, and Participation (Part 3)"
"Call to Family, Community, and Participation" (Pax Christi)
"Call to Family, Community, and Participation"
"Call to Family, Community, and Participation"