6th. World Meeting of Families

I almost missed this but the 6th World Meeting of Families will take place in Mexico beginning January 13 and goes on till the 18th. Organised by the Pontifical Council for the Family, this year's meeting will center around the importance of the family, as the answer to the challenge of individualism. Zenit news agency expects more than a million people to attend.

The online newspaper AsiaNews, reporting from the Vatican quotes Cardinal Ennio Antonelli, president of the council as saying: "The family today must confront, with creativity and a proactive spirit, the challenge of an individualist and mercantilist culture, based on production and consumption. Unfortunately, we have a mistaken concept of freedom, understood as an autonomy closed in on itself; other forms of cohabitation are privileged that obscure the value of the family, based on the marriage of one man and one woman."

"With this mistaken mentality," he continued, "very often laws are made - without widespread social consensus and under the impulse of small but active groups, strongly ideological and with extensive economic resources - that permit easy abortion, rapid divorce, and euthanasia. Responding to these challenges," he concluded, "is a difficult moral obligation."

The program includes a theological-pastoral congress and other initiatives like the "Mosaic" and the "Forest'" of families, and a competition on "A letter to my child," for unmarried and single mothers who want to send a letter to their children.

More information at the official website here.

Meanwhile, here's a reflection presumably from a mother to a child. Author unknown.

GIFTS and REFLECTIONS

We gave you life but we cannot live life for you.
We can give you directions, but cannot be there to lead you always.

We can share and tell you lofty goals but we cannot achieve them for you. We can teach you to share but we cannot make you unselfish.

We can teach you respect but we cannot coerce you to show honour. We can teach you right from wrong but we cannot decide for you.

We can teach you kindness but we cannot make you gracious. We can buy you beautiful things but we cannot make you beautiful inside.

We can give you love but we cannot force it upon you. We can advise you about friends but we cannot choose them for you.

We can advise you about sex but we cannot keep you pure. We can advise you about alcohol, drugs, injustice, dishonesty, and etc. But we cannot say NO for you.

We can offer you advise but we cannot accept it for you. We can take you to worship but we cannot make you believe. We can pray for you but we cannot make you walk with God. We can share and tell you how to live but we cannot give you eternal life.

Do not hurt anyone....just love!, and remember... We will surely love you with unconditional love all our lives..... And all that papa and I really want.... is that you be happy!

And, a prayer for families from the World Meeting of Families website:

Our God, indivisible Trinity,

you created the human being “in your image”

and You admirably formed him as male and female

that so together, united and in reciprocal collaboration with love,

they fulfilled Your project of “being fecund and dominate the Earth”;

We pray to You for all our families

that so, finding in You their initial inspiration and model,

that is fully expressed in the Holy Family of Nazareth,

can live the human and Christian values

that are necessary to consolidate and sustain the love experience

and to be the foundations of a more human

and Christian construction of our society.

We pray to You for the intercession of Mary, our Mother, and Saint Joseph.

For Jesus Christ our Lord.

AMEN.

First Things First

It may be we are just a few days into the new year, and that a little more than a week ago we were celebrating the birth of another year with high expectations and hopes for a better year, a more rewarding year, one filled with great joy, peace, and etc. But even as we pray and hope and believe, we continue to be disturbed by that great "leveller" of all things human - death, happening all around us.

The fighting and bombing in Gaza by both Hamas and Israeli forces have now gone on for almost two weeks with seemingly no end in sight. In the meantime, innocent people from both sides, especially local Palestinians continue to pay the price. In the days just before the new year and since, we have read about the rising number of untimely deaths due to road accidents. For some strange reason, last night before knocking off to sleep, my mind kept recalling people in my life who have passed on. Some were relatives, others were close friends and acquaintances.

A few hours ago, I checked my mail and learnt that Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, the founder of the online journal First Things, had passed away earlier this morning Malaysian time. He had been suffering from cancer for the past few years.

Fr. who? I hate to admit it but it had been just recently that I'd become familiar with Fr. Neuhaus' writings. And, off and on, I'd browse his website. So, while he was someone whose writings and thoughts I came to admire, he was not someone whom I knew, even remotely.

Maybe others, like the CNA (Catholic News Agency), can paint a more accurate picture. According to it, the tributes have been pouring in from all across America for someone who's been described as mentor, advisor, friend, and spiritual father. In addition, Fr. Neuhaus had also been involved in many intellectual and spiritual pursuits culminating in the First Things journal, which tackled both secular and sacred issues.

Also, Fr. John Malloy, S.D.B., in his blog A Shepherd's Voice writes that Fr. Neuhaus was "a holy priest, prolific writer, founder of Frist Things, and fierce defender of life he will be deeply missed by his countless friends and by the pro-life movement of the USA".

It's strange and at the same time gratifying to know that someone can have so much influence over another. Even over me.

Incidentally, Fr. Neuhaus had written an essay entitled "Born toward Dying" which was first published in the February 2000 issue of First Things. I think it's almost the most "complete" dissertation on the subject of dying. It's thought provoking, emotional, at times even a "struggle" to understand. Read it here.

In the same way, I rather like the following words (believe it or not!) from Pope Paul VI (1897-1978):

“Somebody should tell us, right at the start of our lives, that we are dying. Then we might live life to the limit, every minute of every day. Do it! I say. Whatever you want to do, do it now! There are only so many tomorrows.”