Tag: family

columns2021

Strengthening marriage and family

Post author By Web administrator
Post date July 25, 2021
Sticky post

Amoris Laetitia

By Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ & AMMR

“My hands used to be sweaty, but Grandma didn’t mind. She would hold on to my sweaty hand as we walked; chatting with me about what I had done at school that day. I always felt safe in her care.”

As my niece spoke, I could still visualise her holding on to her Grandma’s hand as she walked her home from school as a child.

This week our Archdiocese is observing Marriage and Family Life. Today, July 25, we also observe the first World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly, which Pope Francis instituted to take place each year on the fourth Sunday in July, close to the feast of Sts Joachim and Anne (Monday, July 26), the grandparents of Jesus.

Tags family, marriage

columns2020

Reach out in love to all families

Post author By Web administrator
Post date May 10, 2020

By Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ & Director, CREDI

Sunday, May 10 is Mother’s Day. Let’s celebrate, affirm and honour our mothers – not only today, but throughout the year.
I remember my deceased mother, Ruby Ramdeen, nee Manning, who was a radiant example of love, service, patience, self-sacrifice and generosity. She had an unfailing sense of duty to her family. She was a woman of faith, wisdom, and common sense. Let’s thank God for the gift of our remarkable mothers, and for their steadfast love.

Tags family, family life, mothers

columns2016

The ‘Joy of Love’ challenges us

Post author By Web administrator
Post date April 23, 2016

by Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ and Director, CREDI

“When a family is welcoming and reaches out to others, especially the poor and the neglected, it is ‘a symbol, witness and participant in the Church’s motherhood’. Social love, as a reflection of the Trinity, is what truly unifies the spiritual meaning of the family and its mission to others, for it makes present the kerygma in all its communal imperatives. The family lives its spirituality precisely by being at one and the same time a domestic church and a vital cell for transforming the world. [1, 324]” (Pope Francis, The Joy of Love)

CCSJ welcomes Pope Francis’ second Apostolic Exhortation: Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love), published on April 8. It is the result, inter alia, of two synods on marriage and the family (2014 and 2015).
Key social justice principles are embedded throughout this important 325 paragraph document. The Church is aware that although “The life of every family is marked by all kinds of crises…these are also part of its dramatic beauty” (232). The Church continues to “promote marriage and the family and to defend them against those who attack them.”

Tags document, family, Pope

columns2014

Lessons of our ancestors

Post author By Web administrator
Post date December 28, 2014

“Let us fervently call upon Mary Most Holy, the Mother of Jesus and our Mother, and St Joseph her spouse. Let us ask them to enlighten, comfort and guide every family in the world, so that they may fulfill with dignity and peace the mission which God has entrusted to them.” (Pope Francis, December 29, 2013)

Today is the feast of the Holy Family of Nazareth and Holy Innocents Day. I recall Pope Francis’ words in his Angelus on this Feast Day last year:

“Today our gaze on the Holy Family lets us also be drawn into the simplicity of the life they led in Nazareth. It is an example that does our families great good, helping them increasingly to become communities of love and reconciliation, in which tenderness, mutual help, and mutual forgiveness is experienced. Let us remember the three key words for living in peace and joy in the family: ‘may I’, ‘thank you’ and ‘sorry’.” He reminded us to be “mindful of the sacredness and inviolability of the family, and its beauty in God’s plan.”

Tags family