What is Family Pastoral Care about?
This movement seeks to support, strengthen and accompany the family lives of our students, whether married or single-parent. We want to support the richness of family life at the School, since we are convinced that when the family remains united, strong and with Jesus at the center, our students grow and develop in better conditions.
Several reflection groups of married couples have already been formed. In each year or generation, between four and five new groups of married couples are formed, which indicates that this proposal is positive, fruitful and promising.
For more information write to: [email protected]
Groups
Cana Movement
The Cana Movement seeks to support the gift of marriage and reinforce its sacramental character. To work towards this goal, the marriage groups address monthly topics about couples, the marital relationship and general family issues from a Christian perspective, which always help the marital bond.
The reflection groups for married couples are led by other “guide couples” (parents of students at our school). They are not experts, but they are interested in the subject of the family, they believe in the marriage bond and defend it. In this way, they have generously committed themselves to accompanying, motivating and strengthening the interested couples and have taken on a pastoral mission.
The groups operate once a month for a period of one and a half hours.
Betania Group
The Betania Group seeks to support the mothers and fathers of our students who belong to single-parent families, that is, those who are separated, widowed or divorced. The group is concerned with providing a space for fraternal sharing, healing personal realities, also inspired by the Word of God or some suggestive text.
We support these mothers and fathers and strengthen the gift of family and the education of children from a Christian perspective.
Family Party
In September, the Family Ministry organizes Family Day, in which both the Betania Group and the Cana Movement participate. On this Day, we share a day of knowledge, coexistence, games between adults and children; lunch and we end with the Celebration of the Eucharist. It is a day of great joy for the family, where the children meet again in other spaces and enjoy themselves a lot. It has become a space highly valued by the whole family.
Reflections on family and links of interest
The Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia (“The Joy of Love”) by Pope Francis was recently published, which compiles the fruits of the Synods held in Rome on the Family. It provides a diagnosis of the reality of the family and its main challenges. I would like to mention only: growing individualism, the balance between work and family, loneliness in the family, the lack of marital commitment, the lack of strong emotional ties, the loss of shared leisure time.
The fourth chapter of the exhortation highlights a detailed analysis of the Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians in its thirteenth chapter, in which reference is made to the characteristics of Love: patient, helpful, without envy, without inner violence. There are simple, profound spiritual notes that allow the reader (especially married couples and families) to delve deeper into the challenges of love.
The notes inviting parents to remain in their place, taking charge of their children's education, especially in the formation of ethical conscience and the transmission of faith, are suggestive. Finally, I would like to highlight the conception of a Church based on mercy, which goes out to seek and accompany families who are going through some difficulty or have experienced the pain of personal separation or widowhood.
Our school echoes the Pope's invitation to strengthen the family by fostering spaces for encounter and reflection. In this regard, we would like to invite you to participate in the Cana and Bethany movements that seek to reflect in their itineraries the merciful face of the father and the beauty of love.
The Cana movement aims to strengthen marriage and family. There are currently 26 groups in operation, accompanied by coordinating couples (parents of the school), who suggest themes and encourage group reflection. The meetings are held monthly and work on various topics, each of them enriched by the diversity of views, illuminated by the Word of God or some inspiring text from the Church's teachings.
Betania, for its part, supports the reality of single-parent families and is concerned with providing a space for fraternal sharing, healing personal realities, also inspired by the Word of God or some suggestive text. This group is developed with the accompaniment of parents from the School and with the close presence of a priest.
Monsignor Fr. Fabian Antunez, SJ
