The Authority of Scripture in Marriage and Family Life - Kimberly Hahn - Deep in History

[Music] it is such a joy to be with you this weekend I looked around it almost as like a little bit of a homecoming because I recognized different people who we've seen either here or up in Steubenville some have come on trips with us and so it's a joy to be with you and enjoy to meet new people it's emotional because so many of us have loved ones and friends who are not Catholic and we know how great the cost is for those of us who venture out not knowing if we'll ever share the fullness of the faith with our own physical families and yet of course the Lord provides so much for us within the church so anyway it's a great privilege to be here am i doing something wrong to do the feedback are you okay all right if I could just say one quick prayer Lord thank you for the privilege of being able to have these moments together thank you Lord for owaisi's in which you fill us with your very self in the Eucharist where you fill us with your word and give us the charge to go out and live for you and even more challenging ways and we ask o God that you will help us to know not only how to live our faith more deeply as an individual person but also in the context of our families and we pray this in Jesus name Amen all right a priest came into a second-grade catechism class and wanted to know something about what they had learned and so he said who can tell me what Jesus said about marriage and of course the little children furtively looked the ceiling and the floor and not me not me and then one little child Oh Oh and the priest said yes honey what what did Jesus teach about marriage and he said Father forgive them they know not what they do I you know it wasn't the right answer to that question but there's some truth in that it probably is even helpful that we don't know everything we need to do when we sign on and there is grace as we work in this vocation 51 years and I'm sure still working at the vocation to go deeper and to learn more now just a quick question how many people here are actually catechists can I just see a quick show hands okay yes how many of you are parents oh okay let me ask the first question again how many are catechist yeah you got that right what are our qualifications okay well first of all if you were married in the church it was part of your vow because the priest doesn't just ask you if you're open to life but to receive children lovingly from the Lord and teach them now some of us weren't married in the church but we come to understand that as we enter the church that our sacramental Union still has that calling to faithfully teach our children secondly through the sacrament of holy matrimony we are strengthened for this task and in addition we receive sacramental Grace's through confession and then through receiving the Eucharist to go back and continue to be faithful to this task third the love we have for our children you know we we teach them from the moment they place that child in our arms you know I'm your mommy this is your daddy you have three brothers at home you know to be a parent is to teach and so this is a part of just what is natural for us then the Catechism in 2252 says quote parents have the first responsibility for the education of their children in the faith prayer and all the virtues so the Catechism has clarified for us that in fact this is our responsibility and not that we can't be assisted by other catechists and CCD and the parish priest but we do need to understand that God has placed this responsibility squarely on our particular shoulders for our children in fact Pope John Paul the second and familiar consortio number 36 said quote their role as educators is so decisive that scarcely anything can compensate for their failure in it how many catechists in our parishes are frustrated because they try to teach the children and then they go home and the parents don't even take them to mass they just drop them off you know they don't live it at home they don't pray with them at home they don't read the scriptures at home and so they're trying to make up in a few minutes every week for what is a failure at home so we have the opportunity to do it differently and to inspire and encourage other Catholic couples to take on this responsibility of teaching the faith now what example can we follow well I thought an interesting question would be how was Jesus taught the faith how did Mary and Joseph impart it and not knowing how many times Bruce Sullivan would say words and deeds it fits perfectly it's in my notes that's how they did it first of all we know they knew Scripture have you ever compared the Magnificat to Hannah's prayer in for Samuel two sections of it are the same I believe she knew the scripture she didn't have a copy at home but I believe she knew that prayer and so much of Hannah's prayer is reflected in her own prayer one of the typical prayers for Jewish mothers when they would put their little children to bed was from psalm 31:5 into thy hands I commit my spirit you know just like we see now I lay me down to sleep well they would say into my into thy hands I commit my spirit and imagine Mary at the foot of the cross hearing Jesus say that nighttime scripture with the fullness of all that that meant Mary and Joseph were faithful to circumcise Jesus to include him in liturgical celebrations like when they took him to Jerusalem for Passover they taught Jesus as Saint Luke says in 252 Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man and marries yes to God at the Annunciation and st. joseph´s yes to God in the dream so that he took Mary and Jesus to Egypt there yes to God for the will of God is echoed in Jesus words in the Garden of Gethsemane not my will but thine be done so Mary and Joseph taught Jesus through their words and their deeds and Jesus likewise taught his disciples in the same manner he instructed them in small sessions where it was just intimate either the the top three disciples or the just the group of disciples or then in large crowds of thousands but in addition he taught them to minister and to pray by doing it with them and not only taught them the words of how to pray but he also pulled away from them and had moments of prayer and solitude so that they understood they needed time apart from the crowds if they were really going to be able to faithfully minister this is the same message for us in catechizing within our families we need to impart the faith by our words and our deeds now some people's perspective is I'm just gonna live the faith I'm just gonna live the faith and the problem with that is that our lives are simply too imperfect for our children to simply look at the way we live and walk away understanding what God wants from them is inadequate some people so faith their faith is so private they don't even know it exists and then it's not enough just to simply teach the faith and say our example doesn't matter because of course there's always more caught than taught and it yes we don't match up to what we teach them we can teach them out about being gentle and kind and say it very harshly but we have that opportunity then to say wait a minute I really blew that I'm sorry please forgive me and even when we blow it and this is what's so beautiful about our faith even when we blow it and we acknowledge that even in that we're teaching them something Porton which is you will blow it by ask forgiveness get right with God then continue the catechism in 1666 says this the Christian home is the place where children first receive the proclamation of the faith for this reason the family home is rightly called the domestic Church a community of grace and prayer a school of human virtues and of Christian charity now that's the goal that's the goal and we're all at different stages of doing that faithfully but we have that as the goal in fact Pope John Paul said family catechesis precedes it accompanies and it enriches all other forms of catechesis so how do we make a home for the word having the authority of Scripture in our homes well when Jesus was getting ready to leave in the Great Commission he spoke to the disciples words that we can apply in our own families Matthew 28:19 2:20 he said all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me therefore go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and lo I am with you always to the close of the age it is wonderful that we bring our children to baptism but that is not the end of our obligation that is the beginning then once they are made children of God we need to teach them everything that Jesus taught them that Jesus taught and we don't do it alone we don't have to do it in our own strength because Jesus is with us Jesus is with us and so we pray we ask him for wisdom and guidance say Lord I don't even know the questions to ask let alone the answers part of why you're here this weekend is to get more so you can give more that's the purpose of having the books and the tapes because you can't just stay here at a conference for a long time but you can take more inspiration home with you to learn more about how to bring your life into conformity to Christ and then how to teach and train your children to do the same in fact Pope John Paul in his letter to families said this quote raising children can be considered a genuine apostolate there's nothing wrong with having other apostolates but realize in your own home you have been given an amazing Commission how do we make a home for the Word of God we want to build a home that doesn't just look solid but it is solid proverbs 12 7 says the wicked are overthrown are overthrown and are no more but the house of the righteous will stand we want our homes to stand how do we make a home that's gonna stand by wisdom proverbs 24 3 and 4 says by wisdom is a house built by understanding is it made firm and by knowledge or it's rooms filled with every precious and pleasing possession we build with wisdom we build on the foundation what is the foundation it is Jesus and the Apostles that's the part that more or less wasn't talked a lot about in my growing up I'm so grateful to God for my parents and for the Christian home in which I was raised but there wasn't a lot of emphasis on the teaching of the Apostles and how that laid a foundation and certainly not anything about succession in Ephesians 2:19 2:22 it says so then you're no longer strangers and sojourners but your fellow citizens with the Saints and members of the household of God built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Holy Spirit this is the foundation this is what we can tell our children is the foundation of our family Jesus and the apostles then we're to build on that we're to respond to the grace of the baptism we've received were to respond to the graces of the sacraments of confession and the Eucharist 1st Corinthians 3 12 to 13 now if anyone builds on the found with gold silver precious stones wood hay straw each man's work will be made manifest for the day will disclose it because it will be revealed with fire and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done we are saved by grace we are saved by faith working in love we respond it is by the grace of God that we can do the works that he has given us to do so we're not taking credit for it but we do have to do it we do have to do it and he has given us His grace in order to do that and then the covering of this home for the word of God the roof is our consecration in particular in a family it's the father in the fear of the Lord one has strong confidence and his children will have a refuge proverbs 14 26 in jesus high priestly prayer to the disciples he said in john 17 19 for their sake i consecrate myself that they may also be consecrated in truth as jesus for the disciples so father's for their families provide a covering a spiritual covering and we need to not leave future generations out in the cold and there were to open the door were to open the door we believed our children through baptism have entered into a relationship with God but they have to mature in that they're going to be ongoing conversion moments and we celebrate with them as they realize that there's this invitation to go deeper and deeper with Christ I used to use this in evangelizing you know it's Revelation 3:20 but I only did the first half of the verse because the second part didn't make sense to me it was revelation 3:20 behold I stand at the door and knock If any man hears my voice and opens the door I will come into him and eat with him and he was me and the meal thing didn't make sense so I just would share revelation 3:20 a and without gardening a couple of weeks after coming into the church and I was like Lord it just seems so complicated like do we have to bake people like Christians and then we go after the Protestants to become Catholics can't we just like go with the angel eyes and have people become Catholic Christians you know it's just I don't I don't understand how to share my faith differently and I just felt like he said how about if you do the whole verse what I thought you know and so it is it's opening the door of our heart and not only inviting Christ in but allowing him to be the host and the meal that he wants intimacy with us so much it's not just a deep friendship but he wants to come in us to dwell in us to reside in us and so to our children we want them to understand that on a regular basis they need to welcome Christ into the into their heart of hearts to acknowledge his presence to feast on him Jesus was asked to summarize the law and he quotes the most important passage that even today if you go to Israel you will see there in little scrolls outside of even hotel rooms it's called the schwa and it is a summary of the law here o Israel the Lord our God is one Lord and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your might and these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart and you shall teach them to your children excuse me diligently to your children and shalt talk of them when you sit in the house when you walk by the way when you lie down and when you rise this is the summary of the law and then of course Jesus said and the second is like unto it you shall love your neighbor as yourself the words were to be on their hearts they were to think about them to meditate on them throughout the day and they were to teach them to their children diligently okay love the Lord your God with all your heart part of what I think so many teams struggle with is is they don't see the meaning behind church behind you know continuing to go or continuing to be a part and I have to be honest by the grace of God that has not been our children's perspective but I see plenty of teens struggling with that I think they don't think the faith is something worth living for because they've never been convinced that something worth dying for they think that God is interested in an hour on Sunday and they just aren't sure they're into it and what we need to communicate is he wants your Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday and Saturday he wants all of your mind all of your strength all of your talents God isn't looking for a little donation to hold him off at bay he wants to transform us he wants us to live marriage in a way that others don't know how to live it he wants us to understand sacrifice and service in a profoundly renewed way I believe we owe our children much more than what we give them by sort of allowing them to slip into a mindset of what does it take to get God off my back to do the minimum you know you know what I'm saying yeah okay how are we to teach them diligently throughout the day when you're walking when you're you know when you're in the car and you hear a siren go off what do you do pray you go by a cemetery or Church you make the sign of the Cross to acknowledge the very presence of the Living God dwells in that tabernacle and Scott says our faith should make the difference in the way we comb our hair and brush our teeth not that there is a Christian hairstyle but in other words we want every cell of our body responding god I am yours I am yours the whole idea behind teaching your children to tithe is again not - just hold God at bay it's because it's a symbol of giving everything we are to him and it should be joy we try to teach our children when we give them a dime for an allowance I give them you know like a nickel and five pennies so they can take a penny to church and we all know the value of a penny you know I mean the widow gave only two little mites which equaled one penny so a pen don't you know I never think all of that just be - that's kind of silly no it's a tenth of what they got and that's really good because when they make a hundred dollars they're going to be in the habit of giving ten and one of my kids said so if I make a thousand dollars will I give God a hundred I said yes and he will let you have 900 that is so generous of God he wants to be Lord of our strength there's some teens in our area that are really weighing giving God a year after high school on net which is an evangelization mission that young kids do high school graduates or college students and for a whole year they give their lives to leading retreats for high schoolers if we don't know the Word of God we won't know how to integrate it into our lives to be able to help our children integrate them into our lives we don't want them to just recite the Creed we want to them to believe it you know do they understand that fist fights broke out on the floor among the theologians when they were trying to figure out the definitions of things truth matters do they get that we don't want them to just know the ten commandments we want them to obey from the heart we don't want them to just know prayers or recite them but to pray them sincerely and you can pray a memorized prayer from the heart it doesn't mean that it's all extemporaneous but do they know how to talk to Jesus can they pray extemporaneously now we have to in our teaching make sure they understand what we're teaching you know there have been a number of little little examples of how children don't fully understand one child praying the Lord's Prayer thought he was saying Howard be thy name okay or one little girl told me she was not young then when she told me but she said that her sister had taught her the Lord's Prayer and she whenever she was in trouble her older sister would call her a snot and she thought it read lead the snots into temptation but deliver us from evil I had another friend in high school who her mother had taught her Psalm 23 and she remembers turning around in the hallway at her elementary school and trying to see if surely goodness and mercy were really following her and I don't know how many of you have ever experienced this I think it's common in Catholic homes but I remember Hannah leading the Rosary for the first time and she began Hell Mary full of grace and it's got and I kind of looked at each other and closed our eyes very piously you know hail Mary full of grace it when she said at the third time we both said Hannah what are you saying and she goes you know hell Mary and it was like no no it's hail like hi so we have to check it to check now these teachable moments don't always come when you plan them we were in the kitchen one day and my son Jeremiah walked out and he said when does God sneeze I thought that was a very good question I was about to answer it when Hannah walked in and she said God doesn't have a body so he doesn't sneeze and before I could respond to that Scott walked in and he said 2,000 years ago we all looked at him and he said we've been to Israel remember how dusty it is well when God became a man and walked in Israel it was dusty and when Jesus sneezed God sneezed Wow I mean how many concepts did we touch on in just a little brief conversation one of the things that st. Paul says to st. Timothy about how prepared he was to receive the fullness of the faith was the diligence of his mother and his grandmother to teach him the scriptures 2nd Timothy 3:14 2:17 but as you know continue in which you have learned and have firmly believed knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching for reproof for correction and for training and righteousness that the man of God may be complete equipped for every good work I want to break that down and look briefly at what those four elements are that Sacred Scripture is able to do before I do I want to touch on one other thing about it being God breathed literally God breathed inspired we've received two gifts with the Word of God we've received the written word of God so that we have probably multiple copies of the Bible in our home I think my husband has one shelf of something like 50 translations just one full like on a shelf I mean a shelf of shelves you know and I think of how many Christians for so many hundreds of years only were able to have access to it in the mass which is the most important place for everyone to be able to have access to it but what a gift we have that we can have the Bible right with us at home but not only do we have it inspired and without error as Bruce so brilliantly shared we have the gift of the church so that we're not going to be continually wondering what the correct interpretation of it is you know I remember being in systematic theology 1 2 & 3 at gordon-conwell and we would discuss the variety of views of different Protestant denominations we didn't even deal with the Catholics because we were trying to stick with truth here and you know we would go over them you know baptism and communion and what a variety of opinions and looked up scriptures that backed one or the other you know looking it over and yet second Peter 1 20 and 21 says first of all you must understand this that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation because no prophecy ever came by the impulse of man but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God so this is this is the text that we then bring to teach our children scriptures are valuable for teaching which would have to do with correct doctrinal formation of the truth of the faith he quoted Romans 15:4 which I was going to this has been given to us for our encouragement we have Jesus own words and deeds in the gospel and they are reliable and we can soak in them we need to soak in the scriptures and then explain the mysteries and the great thing is we do not have to have all the answers before we begin to share with our children and our grandchildren if they raise a question we don't know all we have to do is honestly and humbly say I'll look it up I'll try to find it out we give them a sense of the adventure that we are all on you know even Scott is just excited to find something that can't answer because then he can go back and do more study we're communicating to our children it is never too late to learn and we'll never learn at all but we can learn more then secondly along the lines of needing to be sure that they understand we had a little incident in the car it would have been now seven years ago our youngest was four years old and we were on our way to Cincinnati I'm probably going near here at the time Joe who was five years older so he was nine had not done well on his catechism lesson and in you know understandably I mean how do you understand Jesus is fully God and fully man one person two natures that you know it was complicated for you know what a nine year old but anyway I showed Scott how many wrong answers he got and so Scott picked up the conversation we're all in the car the whole family going down to join my family for Thanksgiving and and so Scott taught a few of the concepts and then he began to ask a series of questions for Joe and each time Joe answered David echoed which we thought was kind of cute and then and and it kind of went like this is Jesus fully God yes he is and then David's little echo yes he is it is Jesus fully man yes he is yes he is is God eternal and Joe said yes he is and David said no he's not and we all turn around you know with the definitiveness that can be spoken by a hon and we said what do you mean he said I have seen a turtle I know what a turtle is and God is not a turtle oh lord have mercy he was right not only a scripture profitable for teaching us the truth but also in reproof which is clarifying incorrect doctrine and when we are convinced that someone is embracing doctrinal error we want out of love and it needs to be done lovingly but we want to share the truth not for the purpose of setting them straight or for some kind of a pride thing of proving them wrong but so that they can embrace the truth Ephesians 4:14 we need to grow in knowledge quotes so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the cunning of men by their craftiness and deceitful wiles every rosary we say the Apostles Creed every Sunday Mass we restate recite the Nicene Creed but do we understand what these phrases mean and why they were formulated the way they were we need to understand though why and our children do third the Scriptures are profitable for correction improper behavior is examined in the light of God's truth and I think what's so important is to communicate to our children it isn't just us teaching them it is both of us being taught by God they are not allowed to lie I cannot lie they're not allowed to steal I cannot steal my behavior has to be brought under the same values the same scrutiny and as our children mature and hopefully they'll do it gently but there will be times that they will truly be our brothers and sisters in Christ and point out our flaws and weaknesses and the ways in which we are not being faithful you know the other day one of my children said to me how can you go from smiling to looking so mean like yeah I'm sorry I'm sorry I can still be ticked off at what you did but I don't have to look mean so our children need to understand we are on this journey too and we want our lives to match up with what we're reading and studying and then it's it's good for training and righteousness or how to grow in virtue it's not just about not sinning it's about being loving being kind being gentle one of the things that I have done is trying to take some of the scriptures and apply it in a situation where I'm correcting this behavior and and I think memorizing Scripture is so important in this life by the way Protestants do not have an extra gene that makes it easier to memorize scripture than Catholics we need to memorize Scripture we need to memorize Scripture because often Scriptures aren't quickly available at a time we need it whether it's a counseling moment with one of our children whether it is a correction moment with one of our children or if it's just a scripture we want to we want to meditate on while we're driving the car or in a carpool or out gardening and we can do what the psalmist in in chapter 1 talks about you know meditating on the word day and night we want his words to abide in us to dwell in us and so memorizing Scripture makes that easier to have those meditation moments I actually put this to a little tune and if you'll indulge me I'm gonna sing it for you it always makes it easier to memorize the word at least for my children and for me if I put it to a tune how shall a young man keep his way pure by guarding it according to thy word I have laid up my word in my heart that I might not sin against thee how do young men stay pure by guarding it according to God's Word and memorizing it laying it up in their hearts understand the internalizing the purity that God desires so if you want to give your children one of the tools to be able to resist temptation and to be able to embrace right behavior teach them the word and teach them to memorize it 20 years ago my father made a decision that he was going to really devote himself to Scripture memory he had been a part of navigators he had done different things throughout his ministry but he realized he would memorize Scripture and by not reviewing it he kind of lose it and I talked to him recently about it and he said I now have more than a thousand verses that I review every week more than any is always learning new ones and when our children want some wisdom they pick up the phone and they call their Papa and dad always has scripture to give them and then he'll say you know can I lead us in prayer and he'll go into prayer and the scriptures are always just interwoven into his prayer now we can have a scathingly brilliant idea about how to apply scripture in a disobedient situation and it may not always come out the way we plan it I I had a child who she was seven years old at the time and I homeschool and her attitude was really affecting our school room she was just ticked off and upset and frustrated and you know she would do math and and have this explosion I would say okay a for drama can we get back to math you know kind of thing and so I got this idea I'm gonna have her go and write 10 things that she's thankful for and we're just going to turn this around you know and so I knew we were in trouble when she dramatically walked into the room 7 years old and says I'll read this myself I I thought I would read and she said I thank God I'm none of the following balled homeless a idiot earless she had just had her ears pierced dead selfish shy terrible stupid or a Muslim and you know with each word my sons and I were like starting to fight laughter and when she said or a Muslim and I think we had prayed for a Muslim country that day and it was on her heart I mean we just busted a gut we laughed so hard which had no positive effect on Hannah at all but I tried okay why do we study God's Word because one at one of the reasons and they're many but one of the reasons is our own power of self-deception is phenomenal depending on who we compare ourselves to we can really look very good to ourselves and scripture is one of those tools of the Holy Spirit to bring into sharp focus what are our failings our flaws our weaknesses you know you're so generous in this way but are you giving me full permission to share your car to share your house to share your time and so we it's like allowing the Holy Spirit to do that surgery that we need him to do Hebrews 4:12 the Word of God is living and active sharper than any two-edged sword piercing to the division of soul and spirit of joints and Morrow and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart one time someone asked Mark Twain doesn't it bother you how much scripture you don't under the understand and he said no what bothers me is the Parts I do understand and so we want that sword of the Spirit doing that surgery showing me my shortcomings 2nd Timothy 2:15 do your best to present yourself to God as one approved a workman who has no need to be ashamed rightly handling the word of truth the word of truth you know in a lot of Baptist circles and I don't know how many of you are from a Baptist tradition but you know what they call their scripture memory challenges sword drills yeah I love that you know Catholics are like what does that mean sword drills you know well it comes from the scripture being the sword of the Spirit and the whole idea of you know checking each other out how well do you know the scripture on family vacations my father has always suggested a memory verse and we get together in the morning our family goes to Mass first and then they delayed their activities and we get together and we have about an hour every day of family vacation for singing and prayer and praise and then some Bible teaching and it's been a very sweet it's been a very sweet time there's so much we wish we could share my mom said you know do you have to go to Mass every day I said well if God gives us a whole week of vacation the number one thing we want to do is get to go to Mass and she said can't you do something different I said yes you all could come into the church dad could be ordained a priest and we could have masks for family worship and she said it's never gonna happen give it up I just thought I'm just saying okay anyway anyway one vacation we were off at Mass and we were actually on our way back home and we heard a siren and so you know just that's just the norm when you hear a siren whatever it's for somebody's in trouble and needs prayer and so we we were in the process of praying oh lord help whoever it is and I looked up ahead and I saw one of my sisters out in the road frantically waving in a fire engine into the area that only our family was and so our prayer went from whoever's needed help health up workers oh god oh god oh god oh god help we pulled in and jumped out of the car and realized when we got out of the car that the most intense part of the crisis was over and the paramedics were just checking out my nephew two years old who had fallen into one of the pools he was facedown in the pool when my sister and I do think it was the Holy Spirit that nudged her she looked out a window and saw him there and flew out of the house screaming jump down the stairs jumped into the pool and shoved up under him and then he began to sputter and and he didn't die no but he certainly could have and so the paramedics checked him out and we all gathered as our family and dad said you know let's just pray over Tim and Sally and Steven and then they're gonna take him on to the hospital to make sure he's okay so we prayed over them and then my dad said let's see our family vacation verse for the week and it was for me to live is Christ and to die is gain now you know those words are true and if Steven had died it would have been his game it would have been a terrific loss I think God that my dad in his spiritual leadership in our larger family brought us back to Christ brought us back to prayer brought us back to the word and the truthfulness of the word spoke so deeply to our hearts in our home the authority of the word can be shared in so many ways from simply sharing Scripture stories and helping our children see themselves in those pictures especially picturing themselves in the Gospels and trying to to do in a sense spiritual reading walking alongside Jesus in the details but we also praise so much Scripture in our in our individual family prayer times and also as they reflect throughout the day first Corinthians 13 4 to 7 has been invaluable for me in disciplining children and again bringing them back to the standard and then the Rosary is really a very scriptural meditation I remember the first time that I picked up this little booklet Scott had left out on his dresser accidentally oh gosh I'm just I mean I almost felt tainted picking up the thing I'm not talking about the rosary I'm talking about the description of the rosary and I he was gone and I remember just opening it up and really being shocked that the little pictures throughout were Bible stories you know his stories of Christ's life and you know except for the last two and and it was tough because you know it was very intense in our home very very tense and I knew the sound of those beads you know like we would be in pitched battle and we go to our separate corners you know and then I would just hear this tinkling off in the corner of my ear as he went into our bedroom and then walked out the door to take a walk and I knew that she was gonna be all nice and loving and sweet to him and then have to come back and face me and it was really hard but anyway the Catechism says this because of Mary's singular cooperation with the action of the Holy Spirit the church loves to pray and communion with the Virgin Mary to magnify with her the great things the Lord has done for her and to entrust supplications and praises to her and so by drawing her family together and if your family is young there's nothing wrong with you praying a decade of the Rosary we called it our after dinner decade you can do it in about three and a half minutes it's not long and then finish the rosary you know as a couple later in the day but then as they get older and you have more older than younger ones you know really having them pray a full rosary together it becomes quite a reflection on the scriptures and that's beautiful we hear more Scripture at every mass then I recall hearing in most of the Protestant services that I went to and yet just hearing it isn't enough we want to go home and talk about it sometimes during Lent we we always read the Gospel as as part of our family devotion but sometimes during Lent we've had our children journal you know we'll read the gospel together and then take about ten minutes where they pray and think and write something down in their journal come back and share it their own reflections on the Gospels is beautiful and will really challenge you as they as they make their applications and finally I want to highlight what a necessary tool it is for spiritual warfare I don't know that Scott mentioned this last night but one thing that we've noticed recently and he's the one who noticed it first the the longest teaching st. Paul does on marriage is Ephesians 5 and the longest teaching on spiritual warfare is the very next chapter one of the overwhelming feelings as I have watched our first two sons mary is having the sense in the midst of this service and their their pledging themselves to each other into God that they have now in a sense made a strike for good they are part of the kingdom of light going into the kingdom of darkness and in essence have bull's-eyes on their backs we need our kids who are married to be aware that it is it is vital for the health and well-being of their marriage that they be committed Catholics and take the fullness of the grace that they have so that they don't just survive but thrive and truly bring more and more of the kingdom of light into the kingdom of darkness but Ephesians 6 says this finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil for we are not contending against flesh and blood but against principalities against the powers against the world rulers of this present darkness against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places therefore take the whole armour of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand stand therefore having girded your loins with truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness and having shod your feet with the equipment of the gospel of peace besides all these taking the shield of faith with which you can quench all the flaming darts of the evil one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God pray at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication there are two offensive weapons at our disposal one is the sword of the Spirit the Word of God and the other is prayer these are integral in enabling our families to be holy families to be oases of the kingdom of light and a foray into the kingdom of darkness we have to know the word well so that it's not twisted because we know if Satan tried to twist Sacred Scripture to tempt Jesus why wouldn't he do the same with us and what a haven we have in the church to know the Spirit is leading and guiding the interpretation of this word so we need to study the faith in the light of Scripture we need to study Scripture in the light of our faith and finally from John 15 if you if I abide in me this is Jesus speaking and my words abide in you ask whatever it will and it shall be done for you by this my father is glorified that you bear fruit and so prove to be my disciples we need to abide in him we need to rest in him we need his words to make a home in our hearts and for us to make our homes a home for the word for our children so that we have a christ-centered marriage and a Christ focused family so that our children can truly be the disciples Jesus has called them by virtue of their baptism to be and then we will equip them with this very important weapon that they must have to do the spiritual warfare that they themselves are in the midst of waging let's close him prayer in the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit Oh God we thank you and praise you for the privilege it is to be called a son or daughter of God you have given us the gift of the Holy Spirit and your spirit has given us the treasure of the church and the Scriptures we ask o God that our lives will truly reflect the graces you have given us may we make a heart excuse me a home for your word in our heart and in our homes and help us to live faithfully as you have called us to live and marry we ask for your prayers hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with thee blessed art thou among women blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus Holy Mary Mother of God pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death amen the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit amen god bless you god bless [Music]

Channel: The Coming Home Network International

Views: 3,678

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Marriage, Family, Christianity, Catholicism, Protestantism, Kimberly Hahn, Scott Hahn, Domestic Church, Jesus, God, Holy Spirit, Deep in History, Bible, Christ, Children, Pope John Paul II, Apostolate, Charism

Id: helov9IjJuk

Length: 51min 35sec (3095 seconds)

Published: Thu May 24 2018