MARFAM FAMILY WEEKLY E-NEWSLETTER 29 OCTOBER 2025

During this month with FAMILIES ON MISSION It’s been very busy. We have presented different types of mission and missionaries in the Church. The domestic church,  the little church of the home, is where God lives in every family, the first missionaries, whether we are aware of it or not.   

NOSTRA AETATE. The recent Season of Creation was essentially Christian. I have recently been exposed more to the Church’s relationship with other religions.  Nostra Aetate, one of the Vatican II documents dealing with this topic commemorated its 60th anniversary on 28 October. There was a beautiful celebratory event at the Vatican, highlighting the cultural aspects of different faiths too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq1kEqIUmHw

The document refers to Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism and others. Its invitation is to greater recognition and acceptance of differences beyond mere tolerance.  A NA conference held in Johannesburg focused mainly on Catholic-Islam.  It was held at the Catholic Cathedral and ended with a visit and a gala dinner at the Nizamiye Mosque in Midrand and was co-presented with the Turkish Turquoise Harmony Institute.  As is well known here, the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas involved Jews and Palestinians who are mostly Muslims. It has been stressed that it is not a religious but a political war, as explained by Fr David Heuhaus, a South African born Jew, with a German background who converted to Catholicism and is a Jesuit priest.     

RELIGION AT HOME. Each of the various faith families has their own beliefs and traditions and many do have practices in their family homes, whereas the Catholic Church’s focus is mainly on the Mass, the parish and liturgy. In my own family-focused reflection I considered and spoke to families where members attend different Christian churches and also some other faiths.  A fellow elderly Catholic has a Hindu background, and is the only Catholic among her own extended family, while her husband and children are Catholic.  A good friend has a daughter who converted to Anglicanism, becoming an Anglican priest. I know from experience and discussions that it can be a painful challenge for Catholics when family members, often children, drop out, leave the Church or participate in a Pentecostal church for various reasons. The warm welcome and the worship may be more attractive to them, and the message less challenging on issues of justice.   

THE CHURCH OF THE HOME. My focus today however is on the church of the home.  Is it made up of all family members, or only those who are baptized Catholics? Is there a possibility for prayer, dialogue, faith sharing and participating in celebrations and practices of our and other traditions, e.g. fasting, Jewish New Year, Ramadan, Divali.  In promoting healthy families and strengthening their relationships I ask myself how can all our religions’ experiences be enriched by dialogue in the form of synodal sharing?  The main synodal principles are sharing from the heart and attentive listening to better understand and accept one another.

DIALOGUE. In my view, taking synodality home should be a priority for the church and its families.  Clearly, it is a challenge,  as too often today religion is a personal and private matter for individuals.   Communal devotions like the Mass or praying the Rosary can be an imposition of one tradition on others, but what can also be found that is both common and acceptable to everyone?  Nostra Aetate mainly addresses the religions of the book,  the Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christiany and Isla, as having much in common particularly in the Old Testament, that can profitably be used in family dialogue.

 What does Scripture say to us today for our personal, family, community, parish or society’s life?  Today I sang to myself an old favourite, a simple hymn.  “Go the Mass is ended, take his word to others,…… take his love to others,…….. fill the world with love and give to all what you’ve received, the peace and joy of Christ.  Do google it and sing along.

MARFAM,  I, in many MARFAM publications and resources have promoted family dialogue by different names,  a family hour, family faith sharing and most recently family synodal faith sharing, which is not liturgical, but is life-based, scriptural and – as I regularly do – uses quotations from Pope Francis in Laudato Si,  a document that was addressed to the whole world about every person’s responsibility to Care for Creation, from whatever religious background one originates.   This issue is relatively easy to generalize to everyone, but its special spiritual focus is very valuable. The Season of Creation from 1 September to 4 October had a Christian focus,  but  the UNEP Faith for the Earth project is wider and the general Earth Charter is mentioned in Laudato Si.   “Raising Hope” was the focus of the Laudato Si conference held in Rome earlier this month and draws attention to COP 30 coming up soon.

It is important, necessary even, that we dialogue, share and listen to one another on such universal topics, BECOMING AN ECO-FRIENDLY FAMILY,  on which there need not be division.  Families have massive needs for improving our communication, between couples, parents and children, the elderly and youth.  We can dialogue on every topic under the sun to build and strengthen our relationships and that with God, or Allah or the Higher Being whom each one has a right to venerate.  

In the workshop I presented at the Archdiocesan Leadership conference in Johannesburg this month I unpacked this matter, by highlighting what a family is, its tasks in the Church and society and the elements of life-giving dialogue – conversations in the Spirit as the synodal process is known.  Years ago Marriage Encounter, from a relational angle, highlighted dialogue. Later on a study of the book  Human Life is Cultural  by Stuart C Bate was helpful for me in approaching the subject.  https://books.google.com/books/about/Human_Life_is_Cultural.html?id=jH6ezwEACAAJ

Such resources can only be beneficial if we – starting in the smallest church – share our deepest truths in love. As a catechist I taught from a vision of God’s kingdom, which is one of love, justice, truth, peace and freedom and is our common home not only for humans but for every creature in  Our World, a Family of Families.           

RESOURCES.   Powerpoint presentation useful for schools, parish family teams.     MARFAM booklets on ecology and the family.     

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY.

October 30.   During the last days of Mission month and towards the close of the Jubilee year a special family mission was held in the diocese to thank them for their commitment and encourage them to follow in the way of the Christian churches of today that are striving for unity in the light of the 1700 anniversary of the Nicene creed. The Adams family agreed, “If only the Jewish people who were Jesus’ people after all would see the light and strive for peace in the Holy Land between Jews and Palestinians.  That will remain our constant prayer too. Surely Pope Francis in heaven continues to intercede for that.”

Reflect, share, act. Scripture: If God is for us, who is against us?  He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him?   JUBILEE   By his perennial presence in the life of the pilgrim Church, the Holy Spirit illumines all believers with the light of hope. He keeps that light burning, like an ever-burning lamp, to sustain and invigorate our lives. Christian hope does not deceive or disappoint because it is grounded in the certainty that nothing and no one may ever separate us from God’s love.. Here we see the reason why this hope perseveres in the midst of trials: founded on faith and nurtured by charity, it enables us to press forward in life. As Saint Augustine observes: “Whatever our state of life, we cannot live without these three dispositions of the soul, namely, to believe, to hope and to love”. [1] Act and Pray for the needs of families and our calling to become true missionary disciples.