There is No Church Without Living Family

 

A man with his child on the mountain in Medjugorje. Exposing your children to holiness is the best security one can have for their family and future. Our Lady of Medjugorje said on August 25, 1996:
 

“…Teach your children, because if you are not an example to them, children depart into godlessness…”

One then becomes active in building the Church, in a real, live way, for it is in the family that the Church begins. Medjugorje visionary Ivan, from a talk on July 8, 2014, tells what the living Church consists of:
 

“Mother, Gospa, our Blessed Mother comes as Mother of the Church and She wants to fortify us all as the living Church and She says, ‘Dear children, if you are strong, the Church will be strong. If you are weak, the Church too will be weak because you are my living Church.’ All of us together here today, we are the living Church. In a special way, the Blessed Mother is calling us to return prayer in our families. Each family should be today the chapel in our homes, should be the chapel in which family prays. Each family should be the domestic church, a small church. There is no church without living family. The family today is bleeding, is tired, exhausted, hurt, wounded, broken. The family is spiritual and Mother is calling us to prayer, so that with prayer, our family may spiritually heal. The world and the society today cannot heal without family getting its healing in the first place. Family has to spiritually heal and that is the condition for the healing of the world. Our Lady is clear, super clear when She speaks about that. Therefore, She continues to call us so many times and for such a long time. She comes to us because She wants to encourage us on this path, to comfort us on this path. She comes to us because She wants to heal our wounds with so much tender, loving mother’s care. In one messages, She said, ‘Dear children, if only you know how much I love you, you would cry for joy.’ That great is the love of Mother. She wants to guide us toward peace, toward Her Son and true peace is only in Her son. She is our peace.”

-Medjugorje visionary Ivan