Denver Catholic

9 DENVER CATHOLIC | SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 9, 2015 Rosary Crusade OCTOBER 7, 2015 OUR LADY OF THE HOLY ROSARY 6:00 P.M. TO 7:00 P.M. "Give me an army saying the Rosary and I will conquer the world." – Pope Blessed Pius IX Please join us at one of the following parishes on October 7th, 2015 for Exposition of Blessed Sacrament and Prayer of the Holy Rosary for the following Prayer Intentions: • Prayer for our Archbishop Aquila, all Priests, Deacons, Religious Brothers and Sisters and Seminarians. • Prayer for all Families. • The sanctity of marriage between a man and woman. • Prayer for life from conception to natural death. • Prayer for Religious Freedom. • Prayer for Peace in our hearts, family, country, the Middle East and throughout the world. Our Lady Mother of the Church 6690 East 72nd Avenue Commerce City 80022 St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church 12735 West 58th Avenue Arvada 80002 St. John The Evangelist Catholic Church 1730 West 12th Street Loveland 80537 Spirit of Christ Catholic Church 7400 West 80th Ave. Arvada 80003 Church of the Risen Christ 3060 S. Monaco Pkwy Denver 80222 St. Martin De Porres Catholic Church 3300 Table Mesa Dr. Boulder 80305 All Souls Catholic Church 4950 South Logan Street Englewood 80113 St. Rafka Maronite Church 2301 Wadsworth Blvd Lakewood 80214 Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church 3900 Pierce Street Wheat Ridge 80033 St. John Vianney Theological Seminary (Private) Will participate earlier in the day due to their schedule Our Lady of the Mountains Catholic Church 920 Big Thompson Ave. Estes Park 80517 PARTICIPATING PARISHES: Sponsored by Queen of Peace Center | Ar vada, CO 80001 | (303) 431-7034 I n October, the Ordinary Synod of Bishops on "Vocation and Mission of the Family in the Church and Con- temporary World" will wrap up a trilogy of major Vatican-sponsored meetings in a period of 13 months focused on the family. In 2014, Pope Francis convoked an Extraordinary Synod of Bishops to discuss "Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization," and this month the Pope visited the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia, organized around the theme "Love Is Our Mission: The Family Fully Alive." Ahead of the upcoming synod, which will take place in Rome Oct. 4-25, Denver Catholic asked Father Luis Granados, a priest of the Disciples of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary and assistant professor at the St. John Vianney Theological Sem- inary, to talk to us about all this attention to the family. Father Granados, a native of Spain who has three brothers who are also priests with the Disciples, has a doctorate from the John Paul II Pontifical Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Rome. He presented at the World Meeting of Families on "Radical Surrender: Living Our Vocation According to God's Will." Q: Why is so much importance being placed on the family? Father Granados: The vocation of the family belongs to the heart of the mes- sage of the Gospel. Christ transformed the human love between the spouses into a "great sacrament," the permanent reminder of his radical surrender to the Church. Through their faithfulness and fruitfulness, Catholic spouses are icons of Christ's love. The family is the "human space of our encounter with God, the place where faith is passed on; and the transmission of the faith is the goal of the evangelization. The consequence is clear: the Church is in trouble if she is not family-focused. As Mary Eberstadt has shown in her book "How the West Really Lost God," the decline of the faith is deeply related to the undermining of the family. Q: There has been a lot of media attention to addressing divorced and remarried Catholics, and homosex- ual unions. Apart from these high profile issues, what are the major challenges facing the majority of families that are important for the bishops to address? Father Granados: The two topics you mentioned are important, but the real problems of the majority of families are others. The major challenges facing the majority of families happen right before and after their wedding. First of all, couples need support in their first years of marriage, when the vir- tues and vices of the family life are forged, and when the majority of divorces and separations happen. It is urgent [to have] a family ministry with priests and couples that accompany and support the couples, remind them the beauty of their vocation, and invite them to pray together, to for- give each other, to address the problems of their relationship, to be open to life. Second, couples need support before their wedding. One of the most important issues is the preparation for marriage. A couple willing to get married in the Church receive a very superfi- cial and short preparation for the most important promise of their lives. If the wedding is the beginning of something so important, we need a longer, richer and deeper preparation. Of course, this would a¤ect also the formation of the future priests in the seminaries. Q: Each Catholic family is called to give an authentic Christian witness to the world. What would you say are the fundamental characteristics of an authentically Christian family? Father Granados: Joy/Gratitude: One of the fruits of the Spirit is permanent and serene joy. A Christian family is called to be a place of joy. In the family, in the unconditional love of our parents we learn the unconditional love of God. (Nobody can "fire" us from our family.) This "lesson" is called to fill us with deep gratitude and joy. This joy remains also when we experience the struggles and su¤erings of life. Prayer, the source of joy and grati- tude: The authentically Christian family is a family which prays together. With- out our connection with God, our love cannot remain faithful and strong. Missionary zeal: This joy of a prayer- ful family needs to be communicated. The missionary potential of the Chris- tian family is huge: There is a sleeping giant in our Catholic households. Forgiveness: The "family fully alive" is a family made by sinners forgiven by the Lord and by each other. There is no such a thing as a "perfect Christian family." There is a pilgrim family, walking, work- ing, forgiving each other, frequently going to confession. Synod 2015: There are no perfect families, just pilgrim families BY KARNA SWANSON 303-715-3230 | karna.swanson@archden.org www.twitter.com/KarnaSwanson Q&A with FATHER GRANADOS

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