Welcome to Family Life Ministry in the Diocese of Leeds! This site was launched on the Feast of the Holy Family (always the Sunday after Christmas Day).
What is Family Life Ministry?
Family Life Ministry (FLM) is a special ministry within the church which seeks ways to help families in their mission to 'become what you are' (Pope John Paul II).
What then 'is' family?
Family is a 'sacred and sanctifying place' and 'a grace from God, which reveals what He is: love' (Pope Benedict XVI)
What is the mission of the family?
The mission of the family is to 'guard, reveal and communicate love' (Familiaris Consortio).
There you have it in a nutshell: families are God's guardians of love in the world!
So, the vocation of all family people, especially parents and married couples, is: love
Mgr Peter Rosser, Episcopal Vicar for Christian Life, said recently that his message to engaged couples is: Your vocation is to be 'in love'.
How wonderful is that?
The task of Family Life Ministry is to help all us ordinary family people to realise that vocation to love.
Whatever helps us to love God and to love each other: couples to love each other; parents to love their children; family people to love each other, and to love our neighbours and to love the wider world, is the business of Family Life Ministry.
What, though, is ‘love'?
It is both shockingly banal: When Jesus needed to show his disciples what he meant by his new commandment to 'love one another as I have loved you' he took a towel, wrapped it around his waist and knelt down to the apparently menial task of washing the dirty feet of one of his followers! and shockingly difficult: Jesus loved us enough to die a cruel, violent, public, criminal's death for us.
When do you love and care for yourself or another human being in that way? Do you wash tired and dirty feet? nappies? school uniforms? jeans? Do you comfort a sick or distressed child, wife, brother? Do you cook? clean? grow or buy food? Do you guide in love an errant child? Do you talk to your children, family and friends about the wonder of God and how God's love, shown by Jesus, inspires and informs everything you do? Do you forgive? or struggle to forgive?
If so, however imperfectly (remember, despite what the epistle tells us, only God is perfect), then you are living your vocation to 'be what you are'...guarding, revealing and communicating love!
Family Life Ministry is here to proclaim that vocation, to celebrate it and to affirm the value of your special place as ministers of the home (or 'domestic church' as some call it) and the first evangelisers of your children.
How? You do it by loving your family, we do it by by proclaiming this truth wherever we can. Also, we gather and share with you the resources you need to be the best lovers you can be! Browse the site for what you want and get in touch.
Remember, God knows us inside out, knows all our weaknesses and imperfections and, get this, He still loves us, just like we still love our families (in all our glorious imperfections and graces)!
"What you do in your family life is very close to the heart of the Church and therefore to the heart of Christ. I want to thank all those involved in the building up of marriage and family life, bringing life to one another. Family is the cement of society, the cradle of the Church" Bishop Arthur Roche, June 2004
The Power of Love
“Love has the power to reveal again the depth and truth of our humanity. This is achieved in the enduring love of parent for a wayward child, in the love of friend or spouse faithful through every crisis, and in the unconditional love given by the saint, often to the poorest and most forgotten. This is the love given supremely in Christ, and in him crucified. In Him we find an unambiguous declaration, a manifesto, of our humanity in its full stature. And this manifesto is not a pamphlet but a person. It is, therefore, an invitation to know Him and be known by Him, to love Him and be loved by Him and so with Him find the fullness of life.”
From the homily of the Most Rev Vincent Nichols at his installation as 11th Archbishop of Westminster, 21st May 2009
