Family is Sacred Course Creates Community
Saturday 31st October 2020One of the programmes taken up by the Department of Formation in the area of Marriage and Family Life was the fourteen unit course called Family is Sacred. Because of the lockdown restrictions it was decided to hold the course on line. The leadership team of four couples, Davie and Nancy, Julia and Phil, Matthew and Marianne, and Charlotte and Chris were joined by Lorraine, John, Fr Michael Deas and Fr Bryan. We had an introductory webinar in July this year and the course started on a fortnightly basis in the end of September. Until now we have had three sessions with about twelve/fifteen households joining us.
Each session has an input from one of our leading couples and the chance in breakout groups for the families to discuss the various topics. The course was developed by members of the Schoenstatt Families and follows the original programme based on the Churche’s vision for Marriage with the couples sharing how each fo the topics works for them in their marriage and family. To date we have covered three topics: The mission of love, challenges facing the family today and man and woman – equal in dignity, but distinct in attributes.
Asking at our last meeting how the participant households were finding the course, we had the following reactions: it meant for us as a couple to have quality time together. Sharing our experience in marriage in family life has created community in the group. The topics have been enlightening and enjoyable. The aim of the course is enrichment of married and family life and the course participants said that they have found it encouraging, insightful because we are learning from other people’s experience. This has been reassuring.
We are forming a ‘Zoom community’ made up of couples from different generations, some married over forty years some for just over a decade. We have those recently widowed, those not with their partner. Most have children again of different ages and they bring their experiences and family history.
As Pope Francis says in Amoris Laetitia: “I thank God that many families, which are far from considering themselves perfect, live in love, fulfil their calling and keep moving forward, even if they fall many times along the way. The Synod’s reflections show us that there is no stereotype of the ideal family, but rather a challenging mosaic made up of many different realities, with all their joys, hopes and problems.” (AL57)
In his meditation on the dignity of women St John Paul II spoke of marriage as the reflection of the relationship of Christ and his Bride the Church, a ‘unity of two’. Father Kentenich describes this as a Covenant of Love; two hearts, one beat. We continue with our programme and you are very welcome to join.
The dates and titles of the talks are as follows:
| 23/9/20 | The Mission of Love | |
| 7/10/20 | Challenges facing the family today | |
| 21/10/20 | Man & Woman – equal in dignity, but distinct in attributes | |
| 4/11/20 | Man & Woman – Communication & Sexuality | |
| 18/11/20 | The Sacrament of Matrimony – a reflection of the Love of Christ | |
| 2/12/20 | The Sacrament of Matrimony – a reflection of Christ’s faithfulness & fruitfulness | |
| 16/12/20 | Fatherhood & Motherhood – the challenge of Authority | |
| Christmas Break | ||
| 13/1/21 | Fatherhood & Motherhood – Mutual complementarity | |
| 27/1/21 | The Importance of Family Life – the human significance | |
| 10/2/21 | The Importance of Family Life – the religious significance | |
| 24/2/21 | Love and the Importance of Home | |
| 10/3/21 | Love and how we understand work | |
| 24/3/21 | Family & suffering | |
| 7/4/21 | The mission of the family | |
Please email: Formation@dioceseofsalford.org.uk to register for the course or individual sessions.
Tagged | Around the Diocese
