“A family is an intimate community of life and love, bonded together for life by blood, marriage or adoption.”  “Families become what you are, the little Church of the Home.”        Pope John Paul II

Blessed are the poor in spirit .. who value their relationships with their children and families as their most prized possession, who recognise their dependence on God and make God part of their family life

Blessed are the gentle, men and women, who recognise that gentleness is the essence of motherhood and that fatherhood is a test of a true gentleman

Blessed are they who mourn, who grieve, because they have known what it is to love and be loved in their closest relationships,   who carry their burden of grief as an offering for others

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, who teach the truth about the rights and responsibilities of all family  members who uphold the cause of family unity who defend the right to life from conception to death

Blessed are the merciful who are able to forgive their parents, their children, their spouses and others because they know their own failings too.  

Blessed are the pure in heart who value their sexuality as God’s great gift to his creatures.  who do not use or abuse those in their care, who live all their relationships with honesty and integrity,

Blessed are the peacemakers who through learning to manage the day-to-day conflicts of family life learn the true nature of peace, who strive to restore broken relationships within and between families

Blessed are those who are persecuted for the cause of right those who suffer, but continue in difficult relationships those who are ridiculed and rejected because they uphold the truth in their families and society

…………  for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

 TR August 2001