A diocesan Family Month will take place from Mother’s Day through Father’s Day, May 14 to June 18, the Diocese of Columbus Office of Marriage and Family Life has announced.
The month is meant to strengthen and enrich diocesan families and celebrate the family as God intended. Each week will focus on a family member.
The first week of Family Month, May 14-20, will celebrate the mother as the bearer of new life and one who is receptive, generous, sensitive and maternal.
The second week, May 21-27, will celebrate the gift of children as the beloved, needing to be nurtured from birth through adulthood.
The third week, May 28-June 3, will celebrate grandparents as repositories of wisdom.
The fourth week, June 4-10, will celebrate the extended family as being integral to a healthy family.
The final week of the month, June 11-18, will celebrate the father as the spiritual head of the household.
“We wanted to draw attention to each role and the importance of each role,” said Jennifer Fullin, the diocese’s natural family planning and fertility appreciation coordinator. “Not all families will have a mother and a father, but that is the ideal, and so it’s important to recognize.”
The idea for a monthlong celebration of God’s design for the family was presented to the Marriage and Family Life office by Michele Coldiron of Columbus and Christie McVicker of Delaware.
“A monthlong celebration of the family as God intended, the union between one man and one woman, for life, and any children that are the fruit of their union along with any adopted into the family – there are so many celebrations of the family in the liturgical calendar, yet nowhere is the family lifted up in so obvious a way,” said Coldiron, who is the co-founder of Creative Catholic Works and Theology of the Body Minutes, which are aired on St. Gabriel Catholic Radio.
Resources will be available for parishes and families on the diocesan website (columbuscatholic.org), and events taking place throughout the month will be posted there.
Families can find videos and guides for each week, including “Bringing Children to Adoration,” “Beginners Guide to Adoration for Teens” and “Helping Kids Make a Holy Hour.”
A Respect Life: Spiritual Bouquet activity for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops can also be found on the Family Month webpage (https://bit.ly/3Vedl8Z).
Themed content will be posted on the diocese’s social media pages, as well as video messages from Bishop Earl Fernandes speaking to the importance of family.
“As the basic unit of society, the importance of maintaining an intact family amidst the struggles of life has lost the luster it once had,” said McVicker, who has actively served the Church in a variety of ministries.
“We want to remind people that the joy of keeping the family intact, growing together in holiness while raising the next generation of citizens, will outweigh the, at times, intense struggles couples undergo. Remaining married is worth it.”
Families are the “backbone of our Church” and “we need families to create more vocations,” said Brooke Warren, marriage formation specialist for the diocese.
The month will be a time of celebration and appreciation for families. It will serve as a reminder that families are a part of the Catholic Church, and the Church is there to support them.
“Our hope is to be of help to the diocese as it starts a movement to bring the eyes of America back to focus on a man and a woman in a monogamous union with any children that are born of their fruitful love by bringing attention to the need to focus on the foundational unit of society – the family,” Coldiron said.
Celebrating the role of families in society and the Church from May to June will tie families into events planned by the diocese for the month.
“There’s a lot going on with Eucharistic processions and things that are already happening,” Fullin said. “So, we’re trying to bring that family lens to what the Church already does, and particularly, welcome families to these things.”
For the first week celebrating mothers, there will be a foster care awareness information session, A Family for Every Child, held at Columbus St. Patrick Church on Thursday, May 18, from 6:30-8 p.m.
The event will be sponsored by Springs of Love, Catholic Foster & Adoption Support, and the Office of Marriage and Family Life.
Foster and adoptive families will be present to discuss welcoming foster children into their homes and how the decision has changed their lives and the children they fostered.
Fullin suggested that families consider attending the event “maybe not necessarily to become a foster family, but even just to support the (foster) families because it’s a hard thing, and the Church community, the parishes, are really uniquely able to offer support, whether it’s just cooking meals or (offering) a little bit of respite for the moms and dads who are 24/7 with the children.”
There will be a Family Day at the Museum of Catholic Art and History, located at The Catholic Foundation in downtown Columbus, on Saturday, June 10, from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. The museum will have faith-based activities for children.
Families are encouraged to participate in Eucharistic processions, which will take place in the diocese from June 2-11.
“I think that these different opportunities, and the Eucharistic processions that are going to be happening, are such a great way to share your faith with your kids and to show them you believing in Christ and having a relationship with Christ,” Warren said.
“The Eucharistic processions especially are a beautiful way … for the faith to come alive for kids. This is all very abstract to (children), but to have this tangible way of sharing the faith with them is going to be great.”
The processions will tie into the “Extended Family” week of Family Month to show that the Church family is part of the extended family.
“I think that really brings in the idea that, our Church family, they’re part of our family and welcoming everybody in, especially the children and families with children, including them and building up this community of our parish,” Warren said.
Fullin said she hopes Eucharistic processions will be a community event that families are not intimidated by, but feel welcome to and comfortable bringing young children to Eucharistic processions and Adoration.
“I think sometimes it’s just that initial trepidation of taking your family somewhere,” she said. “The Catholic Church can come across as a little bit solemn, a little mysterious and maybe not particularly welcoming to the raucous nature of young families.
“And so, maybe this will just get them into (feeling) like, ‘Been there, done that, I think we can do it again.’”
