I discovered the “Adventure of the Family”I met the Work in 1981 through Julia, who was then my fiancée. Up until then I had a purely naturalistic concept of what a family was. It had never crossed my mind that I could form one – I couldn’t square the idea of having a family with my own life, either in theory or in practice.It’s true that I’d known a model Christian marriage, with the commitment to mutual fidelity, in my own parents, but I’d grown so far away from the faith that the philosophical ideas of Seneca, which I’d met in my studies, were more congenial to me. All that changed when I came in contact with Opus Dei. Then my own decision to form a family with my wife Julia was a decisive step in discovering what the “adventure of the family” really consists of. Our Lord’s words to Peter, “Duc in altum – launch out into the deep!” are so appropriate here, and for me those words are connected with Saint Josemaria, because he often used them in his preaching. The main part of the adventure begins when I see the way our five children are growing. As they were born, one after the other, I saw them as a gift from God to us, their parents. I had and have the privilege of seeing my children as beings created by God who do not ultimately belong to us, but only to the Lord, and for whom I as their father have the privilege of being responsible. Saint Josemaria said: “In conversations I have had with so many married couples, I tell them often that while both they and their children are alive, they should help them to be saints, while being well aware that none of us will be a saint on earth. All we will do is struggle, struggle, struggle. And I also tell them: you Christian mothers and fathers are a great spiritual motor, sending the strength of God to your own ones, strength for that struggle, strength to win, strength to be saints. Don’t let them down!” (The Forge, 692). My deepest desire is that all our children may lead lives worthy of Christians. And that through their own lives they in their turn can pass on the light of the faith as a gift to many other human beings, thus become wonderful multipliers of what we, strengthened by Saint Josemaria’s teachings, have been able to give them. http://www.josemariaescriva.info/article/pi-discovered-the-93adventure-of-the-family94- |