Thursday, December 14, 2017

Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 373.






YOUCAT Question n. 373 - How should a family live its faith together?


(Youcat answer) A Christian family should be a miniature church. All Christian family members are invited to strengthen one another in faith and to outdo one another in their zeal for God. They should pray for and with each other and collaborate in works of charity.   

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 2226) Education in the faith by the parents should begin in the child's earliest years. This already happens when family members help one another to grow in faith by the witness of a Christian life in keeping with the Gospel. Family catechesis precedes, accompanies, and enriches other forms of instruction in the faith. Parents have the mission of teaching their children to pray and to discover their vocation as children of God (Cf. LG 11). The parish is the Eucharistic community and the heart of the liturgical life of Christian families; it is a privileged place for the catechesis of children and parents.   

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) Parents stand in for their children with their own faith, have them baptized, and serve as their models of faith. That means that parents should make it possible for their children to experience how valuable and beneficial it is to live in the familiar presence of the loving God. At some time, however, the parents, too, will learn from their children’s faith and hear how God speaks through them, because the faith of young people is often accompanied by greater devotion and generosity and “because the Lord often reveals to a younger person what is better” (St. Benedict of Nursia, Rule, chap. 3, 3).

 (CCC Comment)

(CCC 2227) Children in turn contribute to the growth in holiness of their parents (Cf. GS 48 § 4). Each and everyone should be generous and tireless in forgiving one another for offenses, quarrels, injustices, and neglect. Mutual affection suggests this. The charity of Christ demands it (Cf. Mt 18:21-22; Lk 17:4).     

(The next question is: Why is God more important than the family?)

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