Amoris Laetitia Family
On March 19, 2021, the Church celebrated five years since the publication of the apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia on the beauty and joy of love in the family. On the same day, Pope Francis launched the Year "Amoris Laetitia Family." The Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, in collaboration with the Dicastery for Communication, has launched an initiative to accompany the Year of the Family: ten families from various parts of the world offer their video testimonies discussing the papal document. Each month, a new video will be released to enkindle pastoral interest in the family within dioceses and parishes around the world. Click here to witness their testimonies and learn more about Amoris Laetitia.
The Fulton Sheen Society invites families to an evening of reflections and fellowship every month in Knoxville. The ministry is focused on strengthening marriages and families. The society is named after Venerable Fulton Sheen, who encouraged families to grow in faith using modern technology.
To learn more about the Fulton Sheen Society and its events, please contact Matt and Christine Blair at [email protected].
JMJ stands for Jesus, Mary, and Joseph – the Holy Family that we take as our role model. JMJ supports new marriages and young families, growing together in faith. Events designed for JMJ have spiritual, educational, and social goals that build up the Catholic community into a strong support network.
Young couples and families can participate in monthly events or become more involved in a small group of other young couples and families. Join the JMJ Facebook Group!
Every year the weeks leading up to the start of a new school year are typically characterized by a mad rush of back to school shopping, the reluctant abandonment of the free spiritedness that summer brings, and a general rising of tensions as the scramble to get organized and establish routines becomes ever more pressing. This year everything is that much more stressful and uncertain!
In an effort to support families in this transition, Evango is sharing a free “5 Day Catholic Parenting Challenge” to give families the tools they need to thrive in this climate and not to merely feel like they’re surviving from day to day.
The challenge includes five simple routines that families can easily incorporate into their daily schedule, laying the foundation for stronger and closer relationships with God and with one another.
Black Lives Matter: What’s a Parent to Do? offers excellent advice to parents from Dr. Janet Smith on how to approach the important subject of racism and the God given dignity of every human being.
The Knights of Columbus have provided a free, five videos on the truth and beauty of the Catholic vision of marriage and family life in the modern world. The videos are part of the Knights' Into the Breach campaign to help Catholic men and families lead lives of faith and virtue.
In Part Three of the Apostolic Exhortation of Saint John Paul Familiaris Consortio (The Role of the Christian Family in the Modern World) is listed 4 tasks of the family
Family, Become What You Are
Hence the family has the mission to guard, reveal and communicate love, and this is a living reflection of and a real sharing in God’s love for humanity and the love of Christ the Lord for the Church His bride. Every particular task of the family is an expressive and concrete actuation of that fundamental mission. We must therefore go deeper into the unique riches of the family’s mission and probe its contents, which are both manifold and unified.
Thus, with love as its point of departure and making constant reference to it, the recent Synod emphasized four general tasks for the family:
1) forming a community of persons;
2) serving life;
3) participating in the development of society;
4) sharing in the life and mission of the Church
This report presents findings from a major study of the influence of families on the discernment of a vocation to religious life and priesthood. The goal of the research is to provide information that will help families promote vocations to religious life and priesthood.
CARA surveyed 2,174 men and women religious and 4,140 diocesan priests and seminarians who entered since 2000. The survey also asked respondents to provide contact information for a family member. CARA then contacted 1,587 identified family members with an invitation to complete a similar survey.
CARA received completed responses from 1,279 men and women religious and 1,352 diocesan priests and seminarians for a response rate of 59 percent and 33 percent, respectively, and 892 family members, for a response rate of 58 percent. Another 15 family members participated in one of two focus groups, held in Washington, D.C. and in Chicago, IL, in May 2015.
• Family members of seminarians, priests, and religious are usually Catholic themselves and are more likely than Catholics in general to have attended a Catholic school. They are more likely than other Catholic adults to say that their Catholic faith is the most important part of their daily life. One in five had a priest or a religious already in their extended family.
• These family members report a more engaged prayer life than do other Catholic parents or other Catholic adults in general. Nearly nine in ten pray daily, compared to just over half of U.S. Catholic adults and just over a third of Catholic parents. They also feel more strongly than Catholic adults in general that it is important that younger generations of the family grow up Catholic.
• Religious faith was at least “somewhat” important to these families at the time their family members was considering a vocation. Six in ten say the family was attending Mass together weekly and a quarter say the family typically prayed at home together daily, apart from prayers at meals.
• Family members were engaged in their faith in public ways. Eight in ten were active in parish life, two in three say the family participated in Eucharistic Adoration, and three in five say the family prayed the rosary together.
• Families typically ate dinner together daily and two in three report that the family gathered together at least once a week for a game or movie night, family discussion, or family prayer.
• More than half report that Catholic media, such as books, movies, and TV shows, were important religious activities in the family. About the same proportion say that volunteer or charitable service in the community were important to the family.
• More than half of responding family members say they have encouraged a family member to consider a vocation to priesthood or religious life. Most often, it is parents or grandparents who encourage vocational discernment.
• Family members recommend acceptance, encouragement, and support for those considering a vocation. They suggest that families should uphold priesthood and religious life as options for young people when they are exploring and considering their future.
ava's grace offering spiritual, emotional and practical support to families who suffer miscarriage, stillbirth or infant loss.
Morning Light Ministries is a Catholic ministry for bereaved mothers and bereaved fathers who have experienced the death of their baby through ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage, stillbirth or infant death up to one year old. This Catholic ministry also welcomes bereaved parents of other Christian denominations, bereaved parents of other faiths and bereaved parents of no religious affiliation who are struggling with the very notion of faith.
Nursery of Heaven: Miscarriage, Stillbirth, and Infant Loss In the Lives of the Saints and Today’s Parents Paperback – October 15, 2019 PRINT The Nursery of Heaven
Red Bird Ministries Red Bird Ministries serves ordinary families who have been given an extraordinary cross to carry.
VIDEO: A Mother's Tears: A Mini-Prayer Retreat on Our Lady's Sorrows
The Emmaus Ministry for Grieving Parents: A Catholic Ministry in the Franciscan Tradition, All Are Welcome!