| Written by Deborah Gyapong, Canadian Catholic News,
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Views : 659  |
 OTTAWA - “Families, where are the saints of the third millennium?”
That question forms the title of the Catholic Organization for Life and Family’s (COLF) annual message to families for 2007, challenging families to pass the faith on to the next generation.
The eight-page leaflet describes introducing children to the love of Love as a “marvellous adventure,” and offers practical suggestions on how to introduce children to a relationship with Jesus Christ and to prayerful communication with Him.
It suggests some ways prayer can be easily introduced to children, such as praying for “those we pass by on the street, for the injured person who is being taken by ambulance,” and incorporating simple, spontaneous prayer into mundane trips to the supermarket or on family hikes. It suggests children can be given a personal journal while on holidays in which they can write or draw, “telling Jesus about the adventures of the day.”
“We dare to invite them to become saints, co-operators with Christ in building a better world,” the leaflet says.
Quoting various sources, from Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical God is Love to the theological document for the 2008 Eucharistic Congress The Eucharist: God’s Gift for the Life of the World, COLF lays out a hope-filled message for fulfilling the mission of raising saints in the “humdrum of everyday life.”
“In entrusting His children to parents who are the bearers of Gospel values, God hopes that sooner or later He will reap an abundant harvest of vocations to holiness; in marriage or single life in lay apostolate, and in priestly or religious life,” it says.
The leaflet urges parents to show Christ’s love by example, and families to fulfil their role as a “domestic church that lives in God’s presence.” In addition to Baptism, it stresses the other sacraments such as Marriage and the Eucharist.
The leaflet does not ignore the difficulties families face in a society that “lives as if God did not exist.” It exhorts them to celebrate and defend family values publicly.
The leaflet can be viewed and ordered at www.colf.ca; by e-mail at
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; by calling (613) 241-9461 ext. 161; or by fax at (613) 241-9048.
COLF is co-sponsored by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Supreme Council of the Knights of Columbus.
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