apriori_2009 August

Chris Frame wrote:

apriori_2009 August

Our Mission Statement calls us to work to create an environment within the Domestic Church (aka the Family) which combines both a movement inward toward God and outward to society by promoting Family Life. In our Council our primary focus is to offer fathers, the priests of the Domestic Church, resources on how to build a strong, loving and confident identity in a culture that often does not value fatherhood or masculine virtues so they can  build stronger marriages and families and pass those values and virtues on to their children.

Lofty words, much easier to write about than often times to do. One challenge we face is conquering and freeing ourselves from the inhibitions of being able to talk freely about our faith. Everything begins with prayer.

“It’s always good to pray with brothers!” these were the first words out of Father Nathan Malavoti’s mouth as we began the discussion he led in Stelling Hall earlier this month. He went on to say, “In order to pass the faith on you must be a man of faith, you must be a man of prayer.”

St. Ephraim, a Doctor of our Church, said in a homily, “Do nothing at all without the beginning of prayer. With the sign of the living cross, seal all your doings, my son. Go not forth from the door of your house till you have signed the cross. Whether in eating or in drinking, whether in sleeping or in waking, whether in your house or on the road, or again in the season of leisure, neglect not this sign; for there is no guardian like it. It shall be unto you as a wall, in the forefront of all your doings. And teach this to your children, that heedfully they be conformed to it.”

Another struggle is for us to not lose our own faith when we do all the right things, say the right things, set the right examples, when we work so hard to pass on the faith and still see our children losing their faith. But I challenge you to look back upon the genesis of your own faith, look at your own faith journey. Were there ever doubts?  Who prayed for you? Who had faith for you?

Consider the example of the paralytic who was lowered thru the roof of the house where Jesus was teaching and healing. So, (from a priori page 2)   the story goes, they carried him up to the roof  broke a hole through the roof large enough to admit the paralyzed man, and lowered him down through it with ropes or some other means. When Jesus saw the faith of those helping the paralytic, He said to him, "Son, your sins are forgiven.” So it is with your children, by your faith will they be healed.

 

So it is also that we must overcome our pride and realize that we don’t have the strength to do this by ourselves. Father Malavoti reminded us that we could ask not only Saints but someone in your family who has gone before, to intercede on their behalf and there is no better time to seek their intervention than at the Consecration. As we approach the moment when bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ, the Communion of Saints is realized. Where Christ is present, there are His saints in glory, the holy souls in purgatory and all of us struggling in this world. The presence of the Communion of Saints at the consecration is a powerful realization and a peaceful knowledge. Ask them for strength and it will be given.