How often have we heard this phrase or pronounced it ourselves? How often do we keep postponing? In this modern world, life runs very fast and procrastination is a big deal in today’s families.
Sometimes, we open our eyes at the right time and realise what we are giving up but what would happen if we realise too late? Moreover, what if we do not realise at all and never perceive what is holding us back?
Regrettably, some people realise when the children are teenagers or when the couple has drifted apart.
The family is the foundation of society. It is the basic cell of society and a precious gift to each one of us. “We don’t get to choose our parents and parents don’t get to choose their children. But we do get to choose how hard we’re willing to work in order to make the best of what we’re given,” Colleen Hoover said.
Unfortunately, there is a myriad of thoughts that occupy our mind and keep us busy and away from our beloved family members. Michael J. Fox once said: “Family is not an important thing. It’s everything.” We all need the family to go on in life and we cannot survive on our own.
Yes, family is just as important as it ever was. No matter how much life changes, it will surely continue to be the pivot of a healthy society. It is in the family that we mature and are schooled in the art of living together. It is our protective shell where we develop interdependence. It is in the family that we learn the art of forgiving and sharing and where faith, knowledge and wisdom are transmitted from one generation to the other.
“Living together is an art, a patient, beautiful, fascinating journey. It does not end once you have won each other’s love… Rather, it is precisely there where it begins! This journey of every day has a few rules that can be summed up in three phrases which you already said, phrases which I have already repeated many times to families and which you have already learned to use among yourselves: May I – that is, ‘can I’, you said – thank you, and I’m sorry,” Pope Francis said while addressing engaged couples preparing for marriage.
These three simple phrases evoked by the pope are food for thought. Basic and simple things can really make a difference in our families.
The family is the foundation of society- Fr Joseph Mizzi
We need to rediscover the joy of family time and fully commit ourselves to our families. We all need to disconnect to connect in order to allow more quantity and quality time to engage in more positive interactions within the family.
Giving more attention to each other’s needs, supporting, caring and respecting each member of the family helps us overcome selfishness, individualism, loneliness and isolation. This requires patience and goodwill.
No family is all wine and roses and each family encounters challenges and difficulties. However, with some effort from each and every one, all the family can benefit. In his apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love) issued five years ago, Pope Francis urges the Church to keep in touch and support families while understanding the complexities of married life. As Fr Patrick Peyton said: “A family that prays together, stays together.” Praying together as a family creates a unique occasion for deeper connections and building up of family faith.
“And we need simplicity to pray as a family: simplicity is necessary! Saying the Our Father together, around the table, is not something extraordinary: it’s easy. And saying the rosary together, as a family, is very beautiful and a source of great strength! And also praying for one another! The husband for his wife, the wife for her husband, both together for their children, the children for their grandparents, praying for each other. This is what it means to pray in the family, and it is what makes the family strong: prayer,” Pope Francis said in a homily in 2013.
On May 15, on the International Day of the Family, we are called to celebrate the importance of our families and to renew and strengthen our commitment to its well-being.
Fr Joseph Mizzi, parish priest, Santa Luċija