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The following resources have been highlighted by Diocesan Marriage and Family Life Coordinators and others as useful means of supporting Home is a Holy Place. See also the Links and the Liturgy pages for further resources. If you have more to add please let us know. What does God Expect of Parents? | Online Introduction to Marital and Family Spirituality | BRIDGES | Diploma/Certificate in Family Ministry and Evangelisation | The Nazareth Pages | Group Materials | Mark G. Boyer: Home is a Holy Place | Family - An Adventure in Love | Christian Family Movement Special Resources | Wendy Wright: Sacred Dwelling | Master's in Leadership for Family Ministry and Faith Development What
Does God Expect of Parents: Mickey and Terri Quinn A
group resource with leader’s guide, participant handbook and video.
material is provided for four sessions to accompany parents whose children
are being prepared for confirmation; three separate simultaneous sessions
are available for the young people. More information to follow. An online module introducing
Marital and Family Spirituality is offered by Ushaw
College in
Previous
participants have commented: "Really
helpful, made me consider my faith in a way I hadn't thought
about." The
module starts mid January 2008 and costs £48 per person. For
more information or to register contact
courses@ushaw.ac.uk
as soon as possible. BRIDGES: Building Relationship, Interaction, Decision-making, Growth and Enrichment through Spirituality BRIDGES is a research-based program to help couples identify their strengths and weaknesses around spirituality and religion and move toward building a deeper, more enjoyable bond with one another. BRIDGES is designed as an inventory for the couple to complete that will help them explore their spiritual relationship with one another, identify their shared values, explore their differences and build connection through shared activities. It was originally designed as a result of the Creighton Center for Marriage and Family research into interchurch marriages. Go to the BRIDGES order form. Evangelisation and Ministry for the Family An opportunity to learn in your own home with an exciting new initiative. In collaboration with Maryvale Institute, Birmingham, the Department for Pastoral Affairs in Westminster is offering a new course to certificate or diploma level to prepare people for this important ministry. Read more... The Nazareth Pages are a
reflection on each Sunday's gospel from a family perspective, connecting
the teaching of Jesus with real family life. The texts provided each month
have been used by parish priests as the starting point for their homily,
as inserts in a parish newsletter and as a take-home gift for children
participating in the Children's Liturgy of the Word. They can also be used
in schools as a means of evangelising families who don't attend the Sunday
parish liturgy. From the first Sunday of Advent in 2006 until
the feast of Christ the King in 2007, Bethany Family Institute are making
the Nazareth Pages freely available as a gift to parishes supporting the
Home is a Holy Place initiative. Download
here....
Acta Publications, 1997. Available from the Marriage and Family Life Project
Office. Special price for 2007 initiative: £3 per copy to include
p&p. Book Review by Helen Connell, Association of Interchurch Families. 'Home is a This is very much a
family book and has enhanced our family prayer time considerably.
The Scripture readings present the theme which has been suggested by the
title and the reflections have really opened the word of God. I like
the suggestions for something practical to do and the prayers at the end
always centre the whole experience on God. Our daughter has been
keen for us to use it, having been attracted to it by the book's
encouragement to consider objects like the toilet bowl and bath as
something which could lead us to find God in our every day lives. I can't recommend it
enough, and have given it to friends who are struggling with praying with
their children, as well as using it myself.'
Okay. We all admit it.
Family life is difficult. What family does not know the tension of a
personality clash, the heartache of tragedy, the dull pain of daily
irritations? Not to mention the juggling of millions of demands, the
balancing act of home and work life and the seeming never quite to get
there. Family life is a challenge because the stakes are so high. What
other relationships can hold out so much promise: a life-long sense of
belonging, a rare depth of intimacy, the shelter of each other’s arms?
Family life is indeed a risky adventure in love; a relational experience
at the core of human existence with the power to make or break not only
individuals, but society itself.
Costs are not-for-profit to enable parishes, schools and dioceses to reach every family. Core text is courtesy of the Australian Conference of Catholic Bishops Additional text by the Home is a Holy Place Working Group.
Book Review by Chris McDonnell. Published in Spirituality magazine Sept/Oct 07. Reproduced here by kind permission of the editor. For more information about Spirituality magazine see www.dominicanpublications.com A
dwelling is a place we leave on our many journeys and it is where we
return for rest, relaxation, security and recreation. It is where we are
able to create our own personal space, somewhere where our identity is
recognisable in the artefacts of our day to day existence. The rooms and
their furnishing, the family pictures and the ornaments, all contribute to
making our dwelling a personal, lived-in, space. That
such a space should be accorded the description “sacred” may, to some
people, be a misnomer but if it is in our dwelling that the sacred nature
of the mystery of our life is encouraged to mature, then our homes are
indeed Sacred Dwellings. It
is this phrase that Professor Wendy Wright
chose for her book on the spirituality of family life and the recently
published new edition is to be welcomed, offering another generation of
readers her perceptive insights. (1) Throughout
her book, Dr Wright (2) sources her narrative from the particular
experience of her own family, the joys, the difficulties and the changes
that she was part of and that others with families can identify with and
say with some conviction “Yes, we have been there too”. Fragments
rather than a continuous narrative, indicators rather than long detailed
stories, but significant for all that. “I do not intend to describe for you
in minute detail the appearance of the home. That is for you to do. Nor
will I paint a portrait of the family that lives inside. They are yours to
identify.” (3)
And
so we begin to share her journey and every so often realise the truth of
her words in our own family lives. It is a journey that reflects the
Gospels, the living out of the Christian message, with all the stumbling
and hesitancy that is necessarily involved. We
are led through the story just as you are led into a house, from the porch
through the doorway and in to rooms that are the immediate living spaces,
shared with each other and with those who visit us. The more personal
spaces, of bathroom and bedrooms are hidden from this general intrusion
for they are beyond the gateway, protected in an inner space. “There
are also private areas as well, places of intimate encounter, places not
visited by the stranger and known only by those who inhabit the family
home. Any of us who have visited people we do not know well are familiar
with the curious sense of hesitancy, or even trespassing when we enter the
intimate parts of the house…..” (4) Central
to her thesis is a view that the Church is the family writ large, that our
experiences within our families, the joys and the tensions, are seen
within the broader church communities, be they the local parish, the
diocese or the national church. “The
home, as sacred space and as domestic church, is both complex and diverse.
Its floor plan is fathomless. Yet, it calls for a simplicity of response.”
(5) Her
description later in the book of the importance of meal times to family
exchange, the family table a shared Eucharist, brought to my mind the
teenage years with children, when getting everyone to sit down together
for a meal can be a real difficulty. The busyness of families, the demands
on parents to see that activity deadlines are met often leads to
fragmentation and an apparent loss of joint purpose in the home. We have
moved from the inherent stability of family experience to one that is
mobile and more demanding. With
both parents often engaged in full time employment, out of necessity as
much as choice, the shared meal can become a rare occasion of celebration.
The talk and chatter round the table offer a chance for shared experience
and the chance to challenge the accepted norms, to create the waves that
will encourage the development and growth of personal views. Over the
years that table space retains the echoes and memories of argument and
laughter, an important element within our sacred dwelling. Maybe
it is a similar story in our Parish life, where the gathering of the
community for Mass on Sunday once had a pattern and ritual that was the
same week in, week out. Now, with ease of mobility and the spread of the
nuclear family beyond the immediate confines of neighbourhood or town, the
Sunday gathering is a mix of residents and visitors. That of course, has
much wider implications for our understanding of Parish. Dr
Wright manages to reflect, with her descriptions of home, the sacred
dwelling and those who occupy it, the creativity of God in our lives. Not
that this is a cosy story of family life, where all is “apple
pie” and everyone is successful. No, it
comes out as it is, joyful, difficult, chaotic yet purposeful. For an
increasing number of families, the care and nurturing falls on one parent,
with all the problems associated with one adult caring for children.
Her description of managing her own children during a time when her
husband was working away from home brought out some of the strain
associated with being a single parent, though as she is quick to note, her
own situation was not permanent and so although at times very difficult,
did have an end point in sight, a near-time of being back together again.
This experience offered an understanding of the nature of parenting. “I
learned, first of all, what an immense task parenting is when shouldered
alone. I learned too how nearly impossible it is to share parenting with
others who have no relationship to your children” (6). One
aspect of family and the sacred dwelling in which we live that is evident
throughout these pages is the journey we all make. The importance of where
we came from, the cultural and social roots that nourish our lives and how
the experience of family passes through us to the next generation to
adapt, modify and change. “Through my
mother and her mother, I am linked to the tuck and pat, the abstracted hum
of women who died long before I was born. Their tenderness yearns out over
the crest of a melodic line, spanning years and miles to bless me and to
bless through me my children” (7)
I
was reminded of that marvellous opening to Neil Postman’s book “The
disappearance of childhood” where he writes that
“children are the messages that we send to a time we may not visit”.
(8) When
grandchildren arrive, parents have the opportunity, albeit in changed
circumstances, to re-live again the younger years of their own children,
to see and hear the transmission to another generation of shared values,
changed by experience yet offering the continuity of years, that which was
has now become the basis of what will be. And the home they refer to is
that from which they came, the sacred dwelling that we as parents lovingly
devised, through much hardship and effort, for their growth and safety,
the place for sharing stories, wiping away tears and experiencing joy. Her text moves from the sacred mystery of life, where in our expression of mutual love we enable the continuation of the creative life of God, through the utter transforming experience of pregnancy and on to the early years of a new family. Towards the end of the book, she touches on the care for the elderly within the extended family, the need for the family to understand forgiveness within their own sacred dwelling in order that they may also be peace-makers for others beyond. I have heard it said somewhere that families are places where it is safe to argue, for the structure to repair damaged friendship is secure. That is, of course, provided that the effort has been made over the years to build a secure and lasting structure. And so, throughout her fine book, there is this constant thread of event narrative and the corresponding background of our life in faith, our life in the Risen Christ. This
new edition of Spiritual Dwelling (9) is timely, for such is the transient nature
of our times that the family is questioned and a growing proportion of
young people are fearful of a long term commitment. Thus they deny
themselves that very structural frame that is essential if they are to
meet and overcome the many difficulties that will surely face them. This
book deserves a wide readership and could well be read by those preparing
for marriage or who in later years need the support of someone who has
trodden a similar, difficult path, and has been able to find a voice for
their concerns. Wendy Wright is to be thanked for sharing her insights
into her own family life and by so doing, illuminating ours.
NOTES Master's in Leadership for Family Ministry and Faith Development This is a new distance learning course delivered online and through an annual ten-day summer residency at Dominican University, Chicago, Illinois, USA. Three years long, church sponsored students may receive a one-third waiver on course fees. Visit the college website.
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Newly
available - a four page A4 leaflet that affirms
the role of families as sources of life, love, social values and faith in
God. 