Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/661462
Spring 2016 — www.ncsf.com 29 Family prepares us for life in the world. Spring and early summer is a time of family gatherings during which we celebrate Mother's Day, First Communions, graduations and similar events. Our families are our first encounter with relationship, trust, joy, hurt, togetherness, aloneness, cooperation, and separation. It is the training ground for the rest of our life in the world. It's a very human enterprise but it is also a very real experience of God with us. We can feel our humanness, our needs, our wants, but also we can move beyond ourselves to recognize the needs of others – their wants and their giftedness to us. As human beings we need to get along and as God's children we need to become one. Relating to the Holy Family. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph lived in Nazareth as did many other families. In material terms, Joseph and Mary gave Jesus the best home they could afford. In spiritual terms, they gave him a home life blessed with faith, prayer, and worship. When the teenage Jesus gives Mary and Joseph a scare, their response is typical of many frightened parents – they retrace their steps, filled with anxiety, and scurry to find him. Mary's frustration is clear: "Why have you done this to us?" Jesus answers like many teens who wonder why their parents worry about them. Their family was complicated and very much relatable. Jesus loves his parents. But they have also guided him to love God, whom he has discovered as Father. One gets the impression that Jesus also discovered, while in his Father's house, a new depth of delight in God's law. He wanted the temple doctors to tell him everything about it. His spiritual side was nourished in the temple in a way he had not yet experienced. Family as a domestic church. This past October, the Synod on the Family was held in Rome. One of the images that was prominent in the three weeks of discussions and dialogue was the family as a domestic church. We learn how to relate with one another and build relationships in the family. We learn how to love, care, and forgive. On a spiritual level, we learn the meaning of faith and prayer. We learn that we are loved not only by our parents but by our God who is Father. The Father gave us Jesus to show us how love can be totally self-giving. Jesus, even at twelve years of age, recognized that he needed to be in his Father's house. Luke says that Jesus returned to Nazareth and was obedient to his parents while, at the same time, "advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man." He was pulling both pieces together. He brought his family to total unity with each other in God. We need God to form us as one, to sanctify our love and bless our unity. FATHER CURT SPIRITUAL ADVISOR FAMILY ~ a very real experience of God with us ~ FATHER CuRT'S REFLECTIoN WISconSIn, cont. Julia Lukasik St. Casimira 750, Milwaukee, WI Germaine M. Ritger St. Mary 850, Marathon, WI Leona Bembenek St. Elizabeth 879, Stevens Point, WI Audrey Heinzen St. Joseph 898, Phlox, WI Nancy Haak St. Cecelia 955, Madison, WI Barbara A. Kamrowski St. Mary 968, Fountain City, WI LeRoy P. Wantock St. Mary 968, Fountain City, WI Yvonne G. Smith Sts. Peter & Paul 985, Green Bay, WI Mary E. Mueller Sts. Peter & Paul 985, Green Bay, WI Angeline Baumgart Sts. Peter & Paul 985, Green Bay, WI Clarabell See St. Mary 998, Rudolph, WI Helen V. Deml St. Mary 1066, Colby, WI Trudy Niedzielko St. Hedwig 1069, Arcadia, WI Tersa L. Mader St. Florian 1095, Milwaukee, WI Barbara A. Wegner St. Mary of the Lake 1095, Belgium, WI Amelia V. Pickart Sacred Heart 1176, Oshkosh, WI Joann B. Bella St. Thomas 1180, Kenosha, WI CONT. FROM PAGE 18 DEPARTED MEMBERS Dec. 2015 - Feb. 2016