Catherine of Siena (1347 - 1380), Theresa of Avila (1515-1582) and Theresé of Lisieux (1873 -1897) represent three ladies who lived in very different ages (over a span of 500 years) and with different family environments. Catherine, born into a lower middle-class class of tradesmen, at the age of 16 years entered the tertiary order of the Dominicans. Theresa, born into a family of cloth merchants, entered the Carmelite Order at the Convent of Avila at the age of 20 years. Theresé, born into a middle class family as her father was a watchmaker, entered the Carmelite order at the Convent at Lisieux at the age of 15. Each of them received most of their religious and formal education from their family. If each were asked if they considered themselves to be theologians, they would have rejected the idea. Theresa of Avila constantly presents herself as being nearly totally uninformed in the ways of theologians.

Without limited formal education, these three ladies in both their lives of sanctity and their teachings unique understanding of the revelation of Scripture and Teachings of the Church. Because of their teachings they have been recognized as Doctor’s of the Church. This is important to all Christians, because it represents both the impact of their family life and their personal openness to the inner teaching by our Lord in their souls.

Throughout the past 2000 years, there have been only 33 proclaimed Doctors of the Church. Catherine, Theresa and Theresé are the only women who have been assigned such a high office. A Doctor of the Church is first recognized as leading a life of great sanctity and is declared to be a Saint in heaven. Secondly a Doctor is recognized as having produced writings through which the entire Church gains great advantage. It is important to recognize that through the lives and teachings of the family members, they were each schooled in ways of spiritual life that surpasses that of the most important of Universities.

CELEBRATION - Growth in love- 4th stage
MEDITATION- SACRAMENTS-79-MATRIMONY 9

The Church has through the ages of the Old and New Testaments, up to the present age has emphasized the need for family in the formation of its children in the ways of the world and in the ways of God. The Hebrew family of the Old Testament was a close knit group, who learned the ways of the world by working with the father and the mother within the household and most daughters became mothers and fulfilled the role taught by their mothers and sons learned their trade from their fathers. In the transmission of spiritual knowledge, the entire family followed the rule of their faith and expressed their devotion through communal, family and personal prayer. As the first Christians, including Jesus, were Hebrew, these traditions passed into the Christian discipline of life.

The important of family life is well expressed in the Book of Genesis, where, “in the beginning” when God created Eve from flesh and blood of Adam while he was in an ecstatic state. The ecstatic conjugal union of husband and wife assuring the begetting of children at the same time provides a source of joy and happiness passed on to the children.

This teaching is expressed by the Bishops of the world in the Second Vatican Council document Gaudium et spes (Joy and peace) in 1965. In this document article 50 states; “While not making the other purposes of matrimony of less account, the true practice of conjugal love, and the whole meaning of the family life which results from it, have this aim: that the couple be ready with stout hearts to cooperate with the love of the Creator and the Savior. Who through them will enlarge and enrich His own family day by day.”

In 1981, Pope John Paul II in article 28 of his Apostolic Exhortation; “The Role of the Christian Family in the Modern World.” Writes the following. “The fruitfulness of conjugal love is not restricted solely to the procreation of children, even understood in its specifically human dimension: it is enlarged and enriched by all those fruits of moral, spiritual and supernatural life which the father and mother are called to hand on to their children and through the children to the Church and to the world.”

It is important that during preparation for celebration of the Sacrament of Matrimony that both members of the couple clearly understand that this sacrament is not a matter of their personal fulfillment. Although it is important that each partners are fulfilled through marital union is most importantly about a total giving of self to the spouse throughout life and when children are born, a total giving of both “selves” to each of the children. When this is done with intention and care, not only will children be successful in the world of industry, but they will also be successful in the spiritual world. It is from such determination that saints are made.

NEW CATHOLIC CATECHISM
Article No. 1430

Jesus’ call to conversion and penance, like that of the prophets before him, does not aim first at outward works, “sackcloth and ashes,” fasting and mortification, but at the conversion of the heart, interior conversion. Without this, such penances remain sterile and false; however, interior conversion urges expression in visible signs, gestures and works of penance. (Cf. Joel 2:12-13; Isa 1:16-17; Mt. 6:1-6; 16-18)

Article No. 1431

Interior repentance is a radical reorientation of our whole life, a return, a conversion to God with all our heart, an end of sin, a turning away from evil, with repugnance toward the evil actions we have committed. At the same time it entails the desire and resolution to change one’s life, with hope in God’s mercy and thrust in the help of his grace. This conversion of heart is accompanied by a salutary pain and sadness which the Fathers called animi cruciatus (affliction of spirit) and compunctio cordis (repentance of heart). (Council of Trent (1551): DS 1676-1678; 1705; cf. Roman Catechism II, V, 4)

Flowing Spring of Charity
Rev. Dcn. Jim Breazile

“Repent” was spoken loud and clear
His message when Jesus first appeared
Was also spoken by the prophets of old
When faith in a savior was foretold

A call for an interior transformation
Through faith and life integration
A meaningful change in life to impart
Calls for a genuine change of heart

Effective works of charity
Rely upon an inner verity
Our turning to God in all things
Is font from which charity springs