|
 If
you have any questions about Home is a Holy Place that you would like to
see answered here, just let
us know.
What
is Home is a Holy
Place
all about?
How
can we see God at home?
Isn’t
family
holiness an
unrealistic aspiration?
What
about those who experience terrible suffering at home?
What difference does it make if home is a holy place or not?
Why are we doing this?
So how do we get involved?
We are a Catholic parish but our priest knows nothing about
the pack? How do we get one?
What
is Home is a Holy
Place
all about?
Home is a Holy Place is about seeing, knowing and responding to God's
presence at home in our families, in the ordinary events of our daily
lives, in the deep joys and sorrows we experience together and in our
relationships with one another, whether we are children, siblings,
parents, spouses, friends or neighbours.
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How
can we see God at home?
It can be hard to see God especially because family life is complicated.
It’s busy and messy and we are right in the middle of it 24/7. So
we’ve identified three signposts that point to the presence of God:
-
In
the love we share together – bearing in mind that God is love
-
In
our family relationships – bearing in mind that God, Godself, is
three persons in One, the Holy Trinity
-
In
everything we see around us - bearing in mind that both we and the
world we live in are all created by God
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Isn’t family
holiness an
unrealistic aspiration?
Think for a minute about the images that come to your mind when the word
holy is mentioned. Are you thinking about perfection, silence, order?
About somewhere, or someone, else, not here, now, me.
Did you know that the word holiness is actually derived from an
Anglo Saxon word halig that
means whole, complete, entire. In raising awareness of home as a holy
place we are aiming to raise awareness that our entire lives as Christians
are important to God, not just our Sunday lives but every second, minute,
hour of every day. Even, maybe especially, the messy bits.
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What
about those who experience terrible suffering at home?
In saying home is a holy place we are not claiming that for a home to be
holy all must be well. We know that there have always been homes which are
far from being safe, caring places. But to imagine that that would somehow
disqualify God from being present within them would be to diminish the
nature of God, especially a God whose own son was only too familiar with
suffering, his own and that of others. Faith in God is always challenged
by suffering but it’s often in suffering that we come to a greater
awareness of the closeness of God. There’s a wonderful Leonard Cohen
line that says
:
Ring
out the bells that still can ring,
Forget your perfect offering,
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.
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What
difference does it make if home is a holy place or not?
Here’s one response we had recently: one lady told us that it enabled
her to see that all the mundane everyday chores that she used to really
hate, were as much a part of her Christian life as saying her prayers, and
that they had value for her spiritually, as well as for her family in
terms of showing them the love of God through her. This kind of
understanding really can encourage families, enabling them to feel that
the seemingly insignificant stuff of everyday life has value and is valued
by their faith community. Recall the gospel of St Matthew, chapter 25,
when Jesus said, whatever you do to the least of these my family, you do
to me. Knowing that home is a holy place can enable families to be more
resilient during hard times.
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Why
are we doing this?
We are doing this as a result of an earlier initiative (Listening 2004) to
find out from families how best the church could support them. They were
looking for parishes that were more welcoming, friendly and family
sensitive so home is a holy place is certainly a response to that need.
But it’s also a response to our greater awareness that the church rarely
articulates the spirituality of family life. We just didn’t hear much
about it from families. When they did mention spirituality it was usually
in terms of prayer within the home. And while that is certainly important,
there is a lot more that is holy that goes on at home that deserves to be
recognised and celebrated.
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So
how do we get involved?
The Resource Pack has been produced to encourage parishes to explore Home
is a Holy Place. There is a free
copy of this pack for every Catholic parish; otherwise you can download
most of the material on this website.
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We
are a Catholic parish but our priest knows nothing about the pack? How do
we get one?
Every diocese has now received its quota and the
individuals named here have taken responsibility for circulating the packs. Contact them to
express your interest and to find out how they intend to make the Packs
available locally.
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