La Iglesia Domestica (The Domestic Church)

 

Something important was missing.  Home after home, I could not find it- not a crucifix, not a cross, not an image of Jesus was to be found.   This is something we take so for granted, that every Christian home has some holy image on their wall.  Not here.  Thus, a ministry was born- installing prayer altars, teaching family prayer, promoting the Domestic Church.  Every family is called to be a place of prayer, service and love- a little church of the home.

The pandemic challenged us to get creative in how we were going to minister to the people.  The church closed not allowing us to do any formal ministries there.  We decided that if we cannot invite them to church, then we will bring the church to them.  Poco-o-poco (little by little), we are hoping to visit the homes of those interested in learning how to pray as a family.

The idea is not to try to evangelize the entire town all at once, but rather to focus in on a few families, teaching, mentoring, and discipling them into a life of prayer in the home.  To encourage the parents to set a time each day to gather around their prayer altar as a family to pray.  To empower the parents to model a life of prayer that will inspire their children.  To help the parents recognize that the most important school of faith is in the home. 

Our goal is to teach the parents prayers that they in turn teach to their children.  It has been a trial-and- error process as we are discovering what prayers the parents need to learn. We are realizing that it will take much repetition before they can lead the prayers without help.  Some of the prayers we are teaching are the Divine Mercy Chaplet, the Rosary, Lectio Divina, Prayers of Gratitude, The Stations of the Cross, and how to put on the Armor of God. 

Our hope is to find some local faithful to join us on these visits teaching prayers to families.  As they grow in being discipled, we can start reaching more homes.  Alba is our first local teacher. She is still learning herself how to pray these prayers, but she is motivated to learn them and to share them.  We meet each week, training her in the prayers one week and then taking her with me the next to teach the same prayers to another family.

Our deepest goal in this ministry of teaching family prayer and promoting the domestic church is to encourage each family as well as our own to ask the questions: “How do I develop a deeper prayer life?”  and “Can I love God more?”  We pray God will move hearts to desire prayer, because as Father Peter John Cameron said, “It is God himself who prompts us to want to pray more meaningfully and to love him more authentically.”