The Synod on the Family opened and closed its first session this past October. Pope Francis called for the synod shortly after having started his pontificate. Families are key to the now and the future of the Church and we find that families face many challenges in today’s society. It’s not that families haven’t faced challenged before, but they are different and many of the coveted support systems that have once existed are no longer as strong or in existence. So, the Pope Francis along with many bishops and lay couples from around the world gathered to start talking through these issues. It seems to have been a fruitful event with many of the key issues being discussed.
What does this have to do with us? Well, first of all it calls our attention to how we at St. Francis de Sales support families. It gives us the opportunity to reflect on how we support parents to live as disciples who raise disciples. Disciples simply put are people who follow Christ in order to know, love, and serve him. There are many more layers to “discipleship,” but let us begin there.
Since I’ve began my ministry here in July, I have learned from our faith formation staff, parents, and various leaders in the parish many of the challenges that our families face in our community. It can be daunting, but I have seen great hope in all of these conversations. Why? Because all of this have been shared with great love and care. Our parish wants to help in the best way we can to support our families.
While I don’t pretend to know how to address all the challenges, there are two areas that have glaringly stuck out in all of these conversations...weekend nursery during liturgies and weekend pre-school programming during liturgies.
Parents coming to Mass as the primary catechists of their family need to be spiritually fed as do their young children. The challenges that many families face with have young children in Mass with them through the duration of Mass often distract them from digesting this spiritual food. So how can we help them? Well by working on the two above areas.
Together with Fr. Charlie, we have asked Shawn Byrne and Rhonda Ortiz to lead a task force to pray, research, and plan a new “kidzone” that would serve this population of our parish. The end result is not clear, but we have high hopes as we already have dedicated space in the Lower Level of the church and we have great people stepping forward to reach our goal. Please pray for this process and contact me in the parish office if you would like to help in some way.
By Ricardo Valdez, Director of Faith Formation (rvaldez@stfrancisholland.org)
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