Obstacles to Living the Movement

one

The cell is the smallest structural and functional unit of living organisms. That is why it is the building block of life.

When we consider the Body of Christ which is the Church, the parish is the heart because it is there that we receive the Eucharist, and the bishop is the head. But the vital cell of the Church as we are told in Acts 2:42 is a little group of family or friends in a home, gathered around Mary, devoted to the teaching of the Apostles, to prayer, to friendship and the breaking of the bread. That is where the Body of Christ lives or dies.

And that is why our aim in the Movement of the Holy Family is for everyone to have a little group of family or friends who gather around Mary in the Rosary to learn the teaching of the Apostles and to learn how to meditate and who practice hospitality by opening their homes and their hearts to people so they too might experience the love of God.

Satan wants to kill the Body of Christ by dividing and isolating. We give in to his tactics by making all kinds of excuses: We can’t get out of our comfortable routines; or we fear what others will think of our home or what we serve or what we will talk about; and we are deeply afraid of inviting others to pray the Rosary with us.

What prevents you from…

two

We struggle with the virtue of Hospitality for various reasons

We are body and soul. Through hospitality we are to care for both the body and soul of others. When we have someone over, we serve their body by giving them food and drink and a place to relax. We serve their soul by good conversation and prayer.

Identify what part of hospitality causes you fear. Is it the fear of what others will think of your home? Or maybe you are overwhelmed by what to serve. Or maybe you are not comfortable with conversation. What is the real issue?

Maybe you stress out over what your house looks like. It’s all about the style you’re going for. Maybe your going for the Addam’s family look. It worked well for them. Personally, I like a manger scene. A nice cozy stable. I’ll be the ox and you can be the ass and maybe Mary, Joseph and Jesus will join us.

If you derive joy from cooking and feeding others – then invite me over. If cooking stresses you out, then order out or just provide something very very simple.

Here we must remember three things: you are good; your family and friends are good; and you being together is good. All that goodness is incalculably more important than the food because its about family and friendship.

three

What will we talk about?

Again, through hospitality we care for both body and soul; food and drink to feed the body; good conversation and prayer to feed the soul. We have stripped the soul out of our relationships. It’s time to put it back.

Like anything else, we get better at conversation with practice and the only way to practice is by having people over.

Jesus was a master at the art of good conversation because he was good at asking questions and listening.

The best thing to ask is this: Tell me your story. Where did you grow up? How did you come to live and work here? How did you meet your spouse? How did you come to be involved with your faith? Stories are much easier to talk about than ideas and a lot less divisive and controversial.

If you think you know a person’s story then ask them the story of their life since the last time you spoke with them. Be a good listener, pay attention to details and ask them how they felt about the things going on in their life. They will reveal much to be discussed.

four

Routines

What may prevent us from building our domestic church, from sharing life and faith with our little group in our homes may simply be the routines we already have in place. It is just not in our routine to do this and it is really hard to start something new.  

The only way to make a new routine is to schedule it. Put it in your schedule until it becomes the new routine. Invite your spouse, your kids, your friends to a meal, to have conversation and to pray the rosary together. Schedule it. Make it a regular thing and then it becomes your routine, your way of life and then it is easy.

five

Invite People to pray the Rosary with you

When you invite someone into your home life you are inviting them into a whole new world they have never seen. And they are fascinated. One pilgrimage I led to Israel, my bus driver Mohammed invited me over to his home. Before this, I had never been in the home of a Muslim family to share a meal and share their life. I was totally fascinated by their family meal routine, the conversation afterward and then they invited me into their family prayer. I felt honored. We held our conversation in English, but they prayed in Arabic. Maybe they were praying for Allah to kill the infidel in the room. Who knows? But I felt honored to be invited to participate by just staying and listening. It was beautiful.

If your habit is to pray the Rosary with whoever you live with, then why would you change that when guests are there. Just say: Hey we pray the Rosary every night, it’s just what we do. Would you like to stay for the Rosary? Then leave them free to do whatever they like. But have extra Rosaries on hand and the prayers to make them feel more comfortable.