Brother Knights,
Dear brother Knights: Less than a year from now, we hope to welcome Pope Francis to Philadelphia for the 8th World Meeting of Families. As you know from current news reports, a gathering (Synod) of Bishops in Rome has been in the process of preparing an updated, comprehensive presentation of Catholic teaching about marriage, the family and the Church. The documents of Vatican Council II speak of the Christian family as “the domestic church” the primary unit of society intended to reflect the church in all its aspects of prayer, teaching, witness to others and service. To help your families become what they are called to be. and in anticipation of the 8th World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia next September, the Knights of Columbus is offering a twelve month program to help your own family become what its called to be.
Beginning this month, and for each of the next consecutive eleven months, a specific theme with suggested activities is proposed for implementation by your family. By following and implementing these themes and suggestions, your family will come closer to being a reflection of the church and its mission; in other words to becoming a “domestic church.”
The program theme for October is aimed at celebrating your own family’s history by learning more about it and by doing things to strengthen the relationships among your family’s generations – your parents, grandparents, great grandparents and branches thereof. You can make a family tree, decorate it with old photos or era-related items; bring joy to a relative who lives a distance from you by sending a “Thinking of You” card signed by your whole family; perhaps you could take a ride to the cemetery to visit the graves of deceased relatives and to pray for them. You get the idea! Strengthen your gratitude as a family to the past generations who by their choices, especially by choosing life for you in the first place, made it possible for your family to be here today.
Because God is the God of our forebears, we should want to deepen our gratitude and be more conscious of our connection to them. Doing so will strengthen our present family connections and unity. So for October, with gratitude and appreciation, bring the past generations to bear on and enrich the present generations of your family. Make October a great month of remembrance, reflection and appreciation of your family generations.
Monsignor Edward Surwilo, Chaplain