By FR. TOM McHUGH
Like every parish, St. Joseph’s is a family of families. We all know that families come in different shapes and sizes and that we each belong to one of them. Increasingly, individuals and families feel isolated and sense the need to belong to a support group that will enrich parish and family life.
It is with this in mind that the Parish Pastoral Council has invited a team of five people who belong to the Family Group Movement to tell us about their experience and how the movement has enriched their lives and the life of their respective parishes.
The following excerpts from their brochure give us a flavour of what they will be saying. Have you ever heard this before? “I wish I could be more involved in our parish” or “I wish I really knew some of the people I see in church” or maybe you have said to yourself, “How can we show our children what it means to be Christian?”
Joining a family group is about putting names on faces and where the ‘faces become friends’. It is about drawing on the wisdom and experience of our contemporaries in the parish as well as the first Christian communities. Their motto was, “We love one another as Christ loves us”. Jesus invites us to a life of friendship. Pope Francis urges to move out to those on the “margins” and draw them into our circle of friendship and love.