Tag Archives: Families

Families: City or Country Dwelling?

21 Wednesday Mar 2012

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In class last week, we discussed the history of the Early Modern City, and how it influenced family life.  Most families would live in the country, and the young children would make their way to the cities, usually as a way to try and get rich fast.  Women ended up working as prostitutes, while the men usually ended up finding themselves in debauchery.   The city dwellers usually found themselves sicker  and dead earlier as well.

Man could not find the perfect balance until centuries later, with the advent of the suburbs.  Give me the suburbs any day!  You are close to the city to take advantage of all it has to offer, but are not living in the city and thus avoiding all the problems it represents, while not living in total isolation that the country was either.

First Comes Love, or does it?

01 Thursday Mar 2012

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In a homily preached on September 8, 2011, the Feast of the Nativity of the Most Blessed Mother, in the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, in Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania, His Excellency, the Most Reverend Charles J. Chaput, OFM Cap., the newly installed Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Washington mentioned arranged marriages.  Specifically, he said,

A married friend told me last week that getting ready for today reminded him of planning for a very, very,very big wedding.  He was being humorous, but he was actually more accurate than he knew.  The relationship of a bishop and his local Church is very close to a marriage.  The ring I wear is a symbol of every bishop’s love for his Church.  And a bishop’s marriage to the local Church reminds me, and all of us, that a bishop is called to love his Church with all his heart, just as Christ loved her and gave his life for her.

Of course, my appointment to Philadelphia is an arranged marriage, and the Holy Father is the matchmaker.  The good news is that romance is a modern invention — and given the divorce rate, not everything it’s cranked up to be.  In fact, history suggests that arranged marriages often worked at least as well as those based on romantic love.  When arranged marriages were common, there was an expectation that people would get to know each other and then come to love one another.  Good matchmakers were aware of the family history of each of the spouses and their particular needs.  And the really wise matchmakers could make surprisingly good choices.

In the Church, we believe that the Holy Spirit guides the decisions of the Holy Father.  And the results are always joyful if we commit our wills to cooperating with God’s plan.  For any marriage to work, two things need to happen.  People need to fall in love, and together they need to be fruitful.  That’s what we need to dedicate ourselves to today – to love one another and be fruitful together in the new evangelization.

Getting to know each other is a great adventure.  Our life together is part of the story of salvation, which God continues even into our own time.  Mary didn’t expect the Annunciation.  She didn’t expect to be mother of the Redeemer.  And yet her act of obedience changed the course of history and led to a new covenant of love and fruitfulness.  I have no illusions of being worthy of this ministry, but I do trust in the wisdom of the Holy Father.  So I’m deeply grateful for his confidence and the privilege of serving this Church.

His Excellency, the Most Reverend Charles J. Chaput, OFM Cap., at his Installation Mass

This idea of arranged marriages has been in my mind more and more these past few weeks, as we have been discussing not only arranged marriages, but marriages that happened out of love.  It is true that the higher you went up the noble food chain, the less love was involved. This is important while looking at history, because those marriages that were unhappy, in which the bride and groom never did learn to love each other, led to adultery, on both sides of the issue.

I happen to agree with the His Excellency here that maybe there was something to arranged marriages, and not marrying for love.  People learned to love each other, there was less divorce, and families thus stayed together.  Maybe its time we bring this back, at least partially.

Maybe then we wouldn’t have marriages like that of Giovanni and Lussana.  There marriage was one of so-called love, where Lussana cheated on her husband with Giovanni, and maybe even had her husband killed, in order to marry Giovanni.  Giovanni later divorced her after he became the sole heir to his family’s fortune, and left Lusanna out cold.  This is just another marriage based on love failing.

Then again, you never truly know…

The Family and The State

15 Wednesday Feb 2012

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In my history class today, we were discussing Calvinism, and, in part, how it led to the growth of not only the State, but also the State’s involvement in Family life.  As I was contemplating this idea, I jotted down on an extra sheet of paper the following:

Calvinism leads to the Consistory in Geneva
Consistory in Geneva leads to State Intervention in the Family Life
State Intervention in the Family in Calvinism relates to The Obama Administration
One of the many atrocities of the Obama Administration is the HHS Mandate
 

So, before I can get all the way through this, I guess that I had better start at the beginning.  While in the midst of starting a new religion, John Calvin fled to Geneva, Switzerland.  After a number of years, began to reform the city.  This led to the creation of the Consistory.  The Consistory was the judicial body in Geneva, and, due to the strict order that Calvin wanted in his city, chances are that one would be called before them for one reason or another within a ten year span.  

Due to the fact that most people were called before the consistory for one thing or another, the Consistory not only slowly began to get more involved in family life.  Because of this, punishments became much more harsher.  There were small penalties for things like not knowing your prayers in French (God help the poor woman who goes and recites Ave Maria, gratia plena… in Latin) to death for repeated adultery.  I get that it’s the 16th century and there were different beliefs about punishment, but really?  Death because someone couldn’t keep their damn pants on???   

I continue, lest I begin digressing about this.  So we see that the Consistory led to state intervention in family life, especially since the Consistory was certainly running the show in Geneva.  How does this connect to today, you may be asking.

Well, in November of 2008, a very confused American People, and in that group, the majority of Catholic voters, elected a man named Barack Obama to the White House.  Since day one, he has been doing all he can to interfere with the private life of families in America.  Fast forward to January 20, 2012.  Kathleen Sullivan, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, a “Catholic”, [For the record, due to her clear public stance on Abortion, I fully support the Prelates of the Church that have told her not to receive Holy Communion, but I digress yet again.] decreed that the Obama administrations original mandate requiring all institutions to provide birth control at no cost.  This isn’t the state intervening in family life, per-say, but it is intervening instead on RELIGIOUS LIBERTY.  One of the founding principles of this country.  We see history repeating itself.  The state interfering in things it really has no right to interfere on.  Religious Liberty is why we are fighting the Obama administration on this.  Yes, being forced to provide birth control is horrible, but it is not the heart of the issue at stake here. Religious Liberty is.  

So, history always seems to repeat itself.  500 years ago, we had the consistory of Geneva interfering in people’s lives and killing them for not being able to keep their pants on.  Now, we have the Obama administration interfering in people’s lives, and ultimately, Religious Liberty, forcing those who object to artifical birth control to pay for it so their employees don’t.  Ironically, this also leads to people’s deaths, yet again because people can’t keep their pants on.  There is no need to be providing birth control, let alone free birth control.  But, yet again, I start digressing… This is a topic for another post.

P.S.  The only good kind of Consistory will happen this Saturday.  That is the Elevation of new Cardinals to the Sacred College of the Holy Roman Church.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us!

The Reformation Family

09 Thursday Feb 2012

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Today in my history class, we focused on The Reformation Family.  Now, the family during the Reformation was pretty similar to the family after the reformation.  Before the Reformation, men and women got married, had children, and did whatever line of work they were in, whatever it happened to be.  The average marriage lasted fifteen years, and ended because one spouse died, either during childbirth, or of an illness, or war.  In addition to this, chances are that the living spouse would remarry ASAP, especially if there were surviving children.

The biggest change to the reformation family was an increased light shown on the family.  In Catholicism, the family was there, and the more children that there were, the less likely it was for all of the children to go off and get married.  Because of this, there was a huge increase of people joining Monasteries, Convents, and the Sacred Priesthood.  While this, in and of itself, is a great thing, they were entering for the wrong reason- because the family had too many children and thus not all were able to get married.

Following the reformation,  there were many more marriages, because the reformers took the humanist ideals that marriage is good and celibacy is bad.  This led to a huge number of priests and nuns leaving the priesthood and convents, respectively.  This meant that there were many more people getting married.

So, more people getting married, yet Luther gets rid of marriage as a sacrament.  Can anyone figure that one out???  I get that he is all for sola scripture, but can anyone show me how marriage isn’t a sacrament???? I mean, Jesus states that

But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female. For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother; and shall cleave to his wife. And they two shall be in one flesh. Therefore now they are not two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

Here, in Mark 10:6-9, Jesus not only clearly establishes Marriage as a Sacrament, but also forbids divorce.   Divorce… what a fun idea, one to tackle in a future post…

Families: A Modern Attack on a Historical Institution

01 Wednesday Feb 2012

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Be attentive to our prayers, O Lord and in your kindness uphold what you have established for the increase of the human race, so that the union you have created may be kept safe by your assistance.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.
(Collect for the Nuptial Mass, Editio Typica Tertia, ICEL 2010)

In my prior post on families, I quoted the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which states that a family is a covenant by which a man leaves his family and takes a wife, in which they become one, and their purpose is to procreate the world.  The Catechism goes on to say that the family is a “domestic church.”  Specifically, it states

 1656 In our own time, in a world often alien and even hostile to faith, believing families are of primary importance as centers of living, radiant faith. For this reason the Second Vatican Council, using an ancient expression, calls the family the Ecclesia domestica.168 It is in the bosom of the family that parents are “by word and example . . . the first heralds of the faith with regard to their children. They should encourage them in the vocation which is proper to each child, fostering with special care any religious vocation.”1691657 It is here that the father of the family, the mother, children, and all members of the family exercise the priesthood of the baptized in a privileged way “by the reception of the sacraments, prayer and thanksgiving, the witness of a holy life, and self-denial and active charity.”170 Thus the home is the first school of Christian life and “a school for human enrichment.”171 Here one learns endurance and the joy of work, fraternal love, generous – even repeated – forgiveness, and above all divine worship in prayer and the offering of one’s life.

These two quotes pack a large amount of information in them, and they go back a long time, even before the Catechism of the Council of Trent was published.  The church truly believes that the family is, first and foremost, the place of education and learning, one of nurturing, one of the witness of the love that Christ gave for his bride, his family- The Church.

The family has been a generally protected institution until modern times.  This is seen all throughout history, especially in the Medieval Era.  Throughout the High Middle Ages, one saw the family getting the respect that they deserved, even if they happened to be very different practices than we today are used to.  The families of old were very oriented towards protecting themselves, which is the opposite of what we see today.  Yes, they were worried that the name might not continue or that money might be lost.  Heck, most of the time love wasn’t even the main concern.

Today, we see many different attacks on the family from all different parts of society.  It is no longer considered the sacred institution that it once was, no longer understood as a domestic church whose sole purpose is to protect the children.  Chances are, these days, that one runs into someone trying to redefine what marriage is, and, by proxy, the family.  To protect the family, marriage must be protected as a Sacred Institution between one man and one woman.  The state MUST stop interfering in families, and must respect Right of the Religious Institutions to protect the family, especially since the State is dead set on destroying it.

I would like to end this post with two things.  The first is a quote on the Holy Family from Father Z.  He says, on the Holy Family, that,

God Incarnate chose to begin manifesting this sacrificial love, which reached its culmination on the Cross, in the family home.

Together with Mary and His earthly father Joseph, Christ began to reveal something of the unity of love within the most perfect of communions, the Holy Trinity.

It is fitting to celebrate the Holy Family within the Octave of Christmas when we contemplate the coming of the Lord in imitation of that final, perfect communion with God to be enjoyed only by the blessed in heaven.

The family is a paradigm of all other human relationships. The Holy Family teaches us, who are still in this world but moving inexorably toward our judgment and final goal, how to live – together – in this present state of “already, but not yet”.

The second is the Collect for the Feast of the Holy Family.

O God, who were pleased to give us
the shining example of the Holy Family,
graciously grant that we may imitate them
in practicing the virtues of family life and in the bonds of charity,
and so, in the joy of your house,
delight one day in eternal rewards. Amen

(Editio Typica Tertia, ICEL 2010)

Holy Mary, Mother of God, Ora pro Nobis

St. Joseph, the Most Chaste Spouse, Ora pro Nobis

St. Anne, Ora pro Nobis

St. Joachim, Ora pro Nobis

Just a short aside:  As you may know, the Department for Health and Human Services gave Religious Institutions one year to comply with regulations that violate their consciences.  Regulations that force religious institutions to demean families, and, specifically women, by forcing them to provide free birth control, and eventually, abortion, to these women who deserve much better.  Please take 5 minutes to sign this petition to rescind the HHS mandate.  Every signature counts.

Families: The Early Church

25 Wednesday Jan 2012

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For so many in society today, when one hears the word “family” in conversation, it evokes a number or reactions. They can be good, or bad. Happy or dad. Exciting or boring. No matter what the reaction is, everyone has one when they hear the word family. For my history class, I will be adding a couple of posts a week about families, and how they relate to Catholicism.

For this past class, we read thoughts on Marriage and Families from two great saints of the Church, Sts. Augustine and John Chrysostom. Because the class started with the Church, I figured it would be fitting if I started with Holy Mother Church as well, and see how she not only defines a family, but what intrinsically makes up a family. For this, I can think of no where better to look than the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The Catechism, quoting the Codex Iuris Canonici, defines Marriage as

The Matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament.

It is clear that Marriage is meant to be between a man and a woman, who are joined together as one in Holy Matrimony, to procreate. This idea that man and woman are to be joined together in Holy Matrimony is see in the teaching of many different people in the early Church. One of these is St. Augustine, who, in his Confessions, recounted the days before his conversion. St. Augustine, in writing These confessions, mentions not only that he had a concubine of many years, with whom he had a child, but that he was also engaged to be married to a 10 year old. Instead of going through with this wedding right away, St. Augustine decided that he would wait until she was of legal age, an age in which she could bear children.

So, basically, Holy Mother Church defines marriage as a sacramental bond between a man and his wife, in order to bear children. The saints, especially St. Augustine, helped the Early Church through writing his confessions, and thus, bringing the fact that he was to marry a 10 year old, but didn’t because she was not able to bear children, an important part of the Church’s definition of marriage. in fact, the same Church that went on the declare him a Saint.