You can usually tell when you walk into someone’s house what kind of people live there. The atmosphere is important. The “vibes” you pick up speak volumes. If a home is a place of love, joy and peace – with lots of happy memories – then others can benefit. People can come into your home and feel the difference: that house, that family is like a “healing fountain” – if you visit them you tend to feel really quite better afterwards.

Fr Kentenich, founder of the Schoenstatt movement, often talked about the “Personal Ideal” – or, where a married couple is concerned – the “Marriage Ideal”. What he means is that Our Lord has given every person and every married couple their own particular mission or calling. A couple sit down together and think: What are we here for? What purpose does God have in mind when he looks at us?

You could imagine that the Personal Ideal of Jesus could be: “I have come so that they may have life and life to the full” (John 10,10). The Personal Ideal is God’s vision for every human being, for husband and wife, for the children. If we are going to serve life in others then we have to help each other discover the special treasure which lies within each one of us.

It is so important that teenagers find their Personal Ideal. Without it, faith will always be bland and weak in their lives. Growing in maturity for teenagers also means growing into the original vision that God has of them. Who am I for God? What am I here to do? These are the “eternal questions” that, when answered, bring new life and enthusiasm. Once a teenager “discovers” his or her Personal Ideal, it is quite amazing how adolescent problems seem to recede slowly into the background. The Personal Ideal encourages them to become independent, strong enough to resist peer pressure and able to put into practice what it means that they are children of the Living God. It teaches them to be inwardly free.

Parents can help their children find their Personal Ideal by observing where their gifts and talents lie. Their hopes and dreams, the people they look up to and admire: these are all indicators of where their “treasure” lies.