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Pope John Paul II to parents: Article
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POPE
JOHN PAUL II TO PARENTS: "I
address parents as well. May faith and readiness never be lacking
in your hearts, if the Lord should bless you by calling a son or a
daughter to missionary service. May you give thanks to God! Indeed,
see that this call is prepared through family prayer, through education
rich in spirit and enthusiasm, through participation in parochial
and diocesan activities, through involvement in associations and volunteer
work.
The family that cultivates a missionary spirit in its lifestyle and in education itself, prepares good soil for the seed of the divine call and, at the same time, strengthens the loving ties and Christian virtues of its members." (Rome, Italy, May 22, 1994) "The Christian family, as the 'domestic church,' forms the original and fundamental school for training in the faith. The father and mother receive, in the Sacrament of Matrimony, the grace and the responsibility of providing Christian education for their children, to whom they bear witness and transmit, at one and the same time, human and religious values. In learning their first words, the children also learn to praise God, whom they feel to be very close as a loving and provident Father. As they learn the first expressions of love, the children also learn to open themselves to others, perceiving in their own self-giving the meaning of human living "Here is Jesus, who returns to Nazareth and is obedient to them, to Mary and Joseph. That 'obedience' signifies filial obedience, but also, at the same time, an obedient opening to humanity, which always needs to learn, above all in the family. Parents must behave in such a way that children can find in them a living model of mature humanity - and can, on the basis of this model, gradually develop their own human and Christian maturity." (Rome, Italy, December 26, 1982) "For man, to generate a child is above all to 'receive it from God': it is a matter of welcoming from God as a gift the child that is generated. For this reason, children belong first to God, and then to their parents: and this is a truth which is rich in implications for both parents and children. "To be instruments of the heavenly Father in the work of forming their own children - here is found the inviolable limit that parents must respect in carrying out their mission. They must never consider themselves 'owners' of their children, but rather they must educate them, paying constant attention to the privileged relationship that their children have with their Father in heaven. In the last analysis, as with Jesus, it is his business that they must 'be about' more than that of their earthly parents." (Plato, Italy, March 19, 1986) "The family is for this reason also the first and fundamental setting in which the Christian vocation sprouts, is formed, and is manifested. Just as Jesus' vocation was manifested in the family of Nazareth, so every vocation today is born and manifests itself also in the family. And when this general vocation is revealed as particular calling to 'leave everything' then the Christian family is revealed here also, and above all here, as the privileged place where the seed placed by God in the hear of the children can take root and mature; the place where the participation of the parents in the priestly mission of Christ himself is revealed in its most elevated degree. Vocation touches the very roots of the human soul. It is an interior calling of God directed to the person: to the unique and irreplaceable person." (Cainca, Ecuador, January 13, 1985) |
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