The Valley Catholic
Marriage & family Life
Marriage Minute
Community - Why does it
matter to married couples?
By Paul & Stephanie Francois
Worldwide Marriage Encounter
The dictionary defines “community” as: a group of people having cultural, religious, ethnic, or other characteristics in common. To some people, this means living
in the same town. To others, it is a reference to cultural similarities and practices.
As our view of community morphs and changes into something closer to what
God intends it to be, we can’t help but think about the responsibility we have to
reflect the face of Christ to others seven days a week, 24 hours a day. In order to
do this, we have to move ourselves out of the way and allow the Spirit to work in
and through us. We have to become more Christ-Conscious.
We have come to understand that community is not just people we live near or
people we prefer to hang out with. We are striving to be more warm, welcoming,
and accepting of others even if we would not normally associate with them.
We enlarge our “community” when we help out at church. If you have ever
served on a committee or at an event with other people, you know that often you
wind up making a connection and that when you see them again, they are no
longer just a face in the crowd.
If you are like us you may tend to sit in the same section of church each Sunday.
We do this and week after week we would sit right in front of Sam and Inez. We
began by just smiling during the Sign of Peace, but eventually we started to talk
with them before and after Mass. They would ask about our young adult children
and we about their health and grandchildren.
One week we found out that Sam was going in for surgery. We assured them
of our prayers, sent a card and went to visit him in the hospital. After that gesture,
our relationship took on a more personal dimension. We look forward to seeing
them each week and to catching up when we are away.
How does all of this affect our marriage? We believe that one of our primary
responsibilities to each other as a married couple is to help each other grow in holiness, to become, as Matthew Kelley says, “the very best version of ourselves.” By
expanding our view of community, we have grown in ways we had not anticipated.
We now have a much broader spectrum of people helping us to become the
very best version of ourselves. We began serving in our parish and larger Church
because of people in our faith community.
We are striving to be more warm, welcoming, and accepting of others because of
the influence of people with whom we have entered into a community of friendship.
Expanding our community gives us the opportunity to become more Christ-like in
our simple and unexpected daily interactions with others. Ultimately, that makes
us a healthier, more vibrant example of sacrament.
Visit www.sanjosewwme.org for more information on creating a joy-filled marriage.
Allow Holy Spirit to lead, pope says,
even when Spirit is unpredictable
By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Christians
must recognize that they do not lead
or guide the Church, but that the Holy
Spirit does and the Holy Spirit can be
unpredictable, Pope Francis said.
“If, for example, an expedition of
Martians arrived tomorrow,” and one
said he wanted to be baptized, “What
would happen?” the pope asked May
12 during his early morning Mass at the
Domus Sanctae Marthae.
Explaining that he really was talking
about Martians, something unimaginable, he said he meant beings that are
“green, with long noses and big ears,
like in children’s drawings.”
Pope Francis said that if the Holy
Spirit prompted the most unusual being to seek baptism, who would we be
to hinder that person?
From the very beginnings of Christianity, the pope said, Church leaders
and members have been tempted at
times to block the Holy Spirit’s path or
try to control it.
“When the Lord shows us the way,
who are we to say, ‘No, Lord, it is not
prudent! No, let’s do it this way,’” he
said. “Who are we to close doors?”
“The Holy Spirit is the living presence of God in the Church,” he said.
Jesus sent the Spirit after his ascent into
heaven to guide the Church and lead it
forward into uncharted territory.
The Spirit “makes unthinkable,
unimaginable choices,” the pope said.
“We Christians must ask the Lord for
the grace of docility to the Holy Spirit”
in order to follow the Spirit’s lead.
May 27, 2014
11
Cardinal hopes synod will find new ways to
share teaching on family
By Dennis Sadowski
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Initial reviews
of responses from around the world on
questionnaires about Church teaching
on the family in advance of this fall’s
extraordinary Synod of Bishops on
the family show that the teaching is
misunderstood, said a cardinal who will
run one the synod’s sessions.
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle