“Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you” (Mt 17:20).
St. Valentine
By Dan and Mary Je...
Love and family
St. Valentine was actually a saint of the early Christian Church traditionally associated with the exchange of messages of love, thus fostering relationships of love.
John Paul II, “the Pope of the Family,” wrote, “A family cannot live, grow and develop as a community of persons without true mutual love; for it is love that brings the gift of life to children and leads to rapport and communion with other families.”
“What is God’s plan for the family?” In response to this question, Focolare founder Chiara Lubich said, “God, who is love, thought of the family as an intertwining of relationships of love: nuptial love between the couple, maternal and paternal love towards the children, filial love toward the parents and so on. The family is a repository, a jewel, a mystery of love.”
A friend of ours shared his experience: “In the course of a conversation with my wife, we started to become defensive about our own points of view. At that moment, our daughter came into the room and said, ‘We forgot to roll the Cube of Love today!’ So we rolled this cube (it has six sentences about loving on each face, and we try to live out what comes on top), and what came out was, ‘We love one another.’ It was an immediate reminder for us. We started listening to each another with the desire to love and we reached a harmonious compromise. Another day my wife wanted to talk to me about something of concern. In the past I would have tried to solve the problem, give her an answer and move on to what was next on my mental to-do list. This time I chose to be open to her. We experienced intimacy in a new and beautiful way.”
In this year of 2009, love and family take on a special meaning for us. Fifty years ago among our wedding gifts was a framed prayer from a woman religious. The prayer asks the Lord to bless us so we might see our children’s children, even to the third and fourth generation. We married too late in life to see all those generations, but we have the joy of having 5 children and 11 grandchildren. It is heartwarming to experience how our daughter and sons keep in communication with each other and how they reach out to others beyond our family. Our framed wedding gift reminds us of the source of love, God.
Happy St. Valentine’s Day!
© 2010 by the Focolare Movement (New York) •