FAMILY LIFE

For the Sacrament of Marriage, click HERE

The family has been called the ‘domestic church’ (LG 11), because it is the place that children first encounter Christ and grow as disciples, through the primary educators in the faith, their parents. The joy of teaching children to ‘Love the Lord your God’ (Deuteronomy 6:5-9) is entrusted to parents, and is enriched when shared with relatives, the parish and the Catholic school.

Family Life

Everyone is born into a family and the Church recognises the need to accompany families in order to strengthen their love for one another, founded on a living relationship with God. Our families should be the people we turn to for support and encouragement, so it is vital for any parish to offer assistance, along with other organisations and agencies, to help families truly become the domestic church, envisioned by recent popes.

Pope Francis said, ‘no family drops down from heaven perfectly formed’ and while family life is often a joy, it can also be a huge challenge. Family life involves both parents and children, but increasingly grandparents and other relatives.

Family should be the place we can express that universal yearning to love and to be loved and to begin to discover our vocation and ongoing mission. We are created for someone, and Catholic anthropology recognises that human beings are not a commodity – God’s love for us in Christ reveals a relationship with Him that is most properly understood and expressed as a covenant, not a contract.

Grandparents

The faith of generations is is so important to anchoring children and grandchildren in a living faith in Jesus Christ. Each has their role in witnessing and supporting a growing faith, and this has become increasingly important in the presence and prayer of grandparents.

The Catholic Grandparents Association is one such organisation that recognises their contribution and tries to support grandparents in this vital role.

Find out more by clicking the image.

Natural Fertility Awareness

The Church's vision of marriage and the family is a life-giving one. The teaching that "children are a wonderful gift from God and a joy for parents" (Amoris Laetitia, § 222b) leads the Church to call married couples to avoid anything that jeopardises that gift. Natural Family Planning forms Catholics to cherish the gift of children by honouring the dignity in each other as partners with God in the creation of human life. The book, Totally Yours, offer a good intorduction to NFP.

For more click HERE, or for the book, click the image.

Family Prayers

Favourite Catholic Prayers

For families to pray together.

“Christ chose to be born and grow up in the bosom of the holy family of Joseph and Mary. The Church is nothing other than "the family of God." From the beginning, the core of the Church was often constituted by those who had become believers "together with all their household..'”
- CCC 1655

Contact

Paul Northam is the Diocesan Advisor for Evangelisation, Discipleship and Marriage & Family Life. Paul can offer advice to help to:

Promote a Catholic vision of marriage and family life,
Find useful materials to affirm marriage and family life within the parish family,
Assist those involved in marriage preparation,
Support formation in family catechesis to assist parents as well as catechists,
Pray as a family or married couple.

T: 0121 321 5148

E: paul.northam@rcaob.org.uk

Family Life

Family Prayers

“Christ chose to be born and grow up in the bosom of the holy family of Joseph and Mary. The Church is nothing other than "the family of God." From the beginning, the core of the Church was often constituted by those who had become believers "together with all their household..'” - CCC 1655

Contact

​

“Christ chose to be born and grow up in the bosom of the holy family of Joseph and Mary. The Church is nothing other than "the family of God." From the beginning, the core of the Church was often constituted by those who had become believers "together with all their household..'”
- CCC 1655