Studia Pastoralne
Rocznik Wydziału Teologicznego UŚ

FAMILY AS COMMUNION OF LIFE AND LOVE IN THE HOME CHURCH OF LIGHT MOVEMEN.
Summary
Family in itself is the fulfilment of one of the most basic human needs, since a man in his ontological dimension is homo familiaris. It may serve its purpose due to the fact that it is a privileged place of realization of human love and at the same time a place opened to receiving life. Thanks to this family is able to fulfil the need of an emotional bond with one’s neighbours, mutual understanding, security, a desire to have children as well as religious needs, including initiation into mysteries of religious and ecclesial life. In order to meet these aims a family must become „a community of life and love” (KDK 48). The foundation of this community is a communion of spouses with God which in turn will manifest itself in communion between spouses and communion between parents and their children. This personal vision of marriage and a Christian family, based on the idea of father Franciszek Blachnicki, is the aim of the Home Church. For families participating in the movement a nuptial communion is the foundation of communion of the whole family, and from even broader perspective, an opportunity to build an ecclesial community. This is why a family can and should call itself a home Church. In view of the above the basic aspect of the charism of the Home Church was described as „the self-gift in a marriage and a family”. The basis of formation of a marriage and a family is a nuptial spirituality, which is aspiring to holiness together with one’s spouse. The nuptial communion is built through the so called obligations. They are as follows: daily private prayer, daily family prayer, monthly nuptial dialogue, the rule of life and participation, at least once a year, in a formation retreat. Thanks to implementation of these tasks spouses get closer to one another and to God. The obligations are met by a daily effort of spouses and mutual support of other married couples gathered in the circles of the Home Church.

DIE HAUSKIRCHE ALS GRUNDLEGENDES GEBIET DER FAMILIENKATECHESE.
Zusammenfassung
Die Lehre der Kirche über die Hauskirche beruft sich heute oft auf den Hl. Johannes Chrysostom, der die Familie als „kleine Kirche” benannte, in sie die religiösen Tätigkeiten aus der liturgischen Vereinigung überträgt und die Fortführung des Lesens und der Lehre in der Häuslichkeit empfiehlt. Im Vaterhaus soll nämlich die Anfangskatechese, wie auch die Vertiefung der religiösen Kenntnisse und Ergänzung der religiösen Erziehung stattfinden, das ist die Familienkatechese. Keine andere Katechese wird heutzutage die erwarteten Resultate, ohne eine bewusste und verantwortungsvolle Mitwirkung der Familie erlangen. Dem hat auch Papst Johannes Paul II Ausdruck gegeben, indem er unterstrich, dass sogar das einfache Treffen von Eltern und Kindern nicht nur eine Gelegenheit zum gegenseitigen sich Öffnen und zum Dialog ist, sondern auch zur gemeinsamen tiefen Reflexion, die gewisse formative Elemente einführen kann. Besonders ein in der Familie herrschendes angemessenes Klima schafft eine Chance für die Aufnahme der Familienkatechese.
Eine weittragende Bedeutung hat hier auch die ständige Zusammenarbeit der Eltern mit den Seelsorgern und Katecheten in der Pfarrei. Diese Zusammenarbeit sollte dazu aus dem Rahmen der Katechese herauslaufen, das heißt inhaltlich und formell die humanistischpädagogischen Gebiete des Wissens und der Formation umfassen, die die Familie zur Ausfüllung bestimmter erzieherischer und religiöser Funktionen vorbereiten.
Mit der Wiedereinführung der Katechese in den Schulen stellte sich in Polen eine Lage ein, die die Katechese nicht nur im Pfarr-Kontext, sondern auch im neuen Familien-Kontext darstellen muss. Das Gebiet der Bildung und Erziehung gehört nämlich ohne Zweifel zu den wichtigsten Gebieten des Menschenlebens. Die erste und entscheidende Stimme in der Erziehung muss man der Familie geben. Diese Katechese ist auch durch das II Vatikanische Konzil als wichtigste behandelt. Durch ihre Erfüllung in der Familie wird ein eigenartiges „Katechumenat” geführt, welches die Kinder in die Anfangs-Christenheit einführt und sie lehrt, das ganze Leben mit Christus weiterzugehen.

CONCERN FOR A RELIGIOUS CLIMATE IN A FAMILY
Summary
Pope Benedict XVI in the Encyclical Caritas in veritate says that „there are certain religious cultures in the world today that do not oblige men and women to live in communion but rather cut them off from one other in a search for individual well-being” (No. 55). This well-being leads people to rejection of God and a religious life. „Without God – in the pope’s opinion – man neither knows which way to go, nor even understands who he is” (No. 78). For human creation, having a spiritual nature, accomplishes itself In the fullest way most of all in relations with God and interpersonal relations. This relates in a special way – as we read in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen gentium – to a family community in which every child through the sacrament of baptism enters the living relation with God and the Church. It is at home where parents are to be witnesses of the faith and love of Christ to one another and to their children (see No. 35).
A family has got special capacities to fulfil its didactic functions. They result from the fact of responsibility of a family for a young person. The Declaration on Christian Education Gravissimum educationis underlines the fact that „since parents have given children their life, they are bound by the most serious obligation to educate their offspring and therefore must be recognised as the primary and principal educators” (No. 3).
Therefore from the earliest years Christian parents should teach their children respect and reverence to God and neighbours. As the first educators and catechists of their children they should be aware of their religious knowledge, educational skills, responsibility for their child and its religious upbringing. They should also understand the need of creating a Christian climate in their families. Pope Benedict XVI calls Christian parents to help their children to believe, to accompany them on a road to Jesus and with Jesus, because life in a family – according to the pope – becomes more open and joyful if God is present in it and if one experiences His closeness, especially in a prayer.

FAMILY CATECHUMENATE IN THE DOMESTIC CHURCH
Summary
In the present article the role of the „Church of the Home” in the exhortation Familiaris consortio is analysed in the aspect of Christian initiation defined in the post-Council Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (Ordo initiationis christianae adultorum). The Christian initiation has a special character in the life of family, because Christian parents in the sacrament of Matrimony are consecrated to educate their children in a really Christian spirit. The Church that is a community united in the Holy Spirit – koinonia – is realized in the dimension defined by the terms martyria, leiturgia, diakonia and similar it is in the Church of Home.
In the history of the Church we find the two basic forms of introducing new members into the Christian community. The first one is the catechumenate of adults who personally, consciously accepted the Gospel. This is a process aiming at accustoming them to Christian life stage by stage (cf. OICA 4), and leading to receiving the sacraments of initiation along with the mystagogy accompanying them. The other form is accustoming children who were baptized in infancy to Christian life; this is done parallel to their biological, social, psychological and spiritual development. This process also happens gradually as a natural element of educating children in a Christian family, and it is called „family catechumenate”. Here is the place of preparation children for receiving the sacraments of the Eucharist and the Confirmation.

DURCH DIE SAKRAMENTALE EHE ZUR HAUSKIRCHE.
Zusammenfassung
Heutzutage wird viel über die Position und Bedeutung der Ehe und der Familie in der modernen Welt diskutiert. Diese Wirklichkeit berühren auch die postmodernistischen Strömungen. Die Kirche verteidigt unaufhörlich die Würde der Ehe und unternimmt verschiedene Bemühungen um der Familie, bei Erfüllung ihrer Mission, mit Hilfe zu dienen.
Die Ehe ist vom Schöpfer beabsichtigt und erwünscht. Er hat die Menschen in das Werk der Übertragung des Lebens einbezogen. Den Eltern hat er die Begabung zum Erleben der menschlichen, treuen und einzigen, sowie vollen und fruchtbaren Liebe gegeben. Die Ehe ist der Weg zur Heiligung von Mann und Frau. Christus hat der Ehe die Unzerreißbarkeit (Unlösbarkeit) wiedergegeben.
Die Ehe ist auf die Neuschöpfung ausgerichtet. Die Familie wird zur Hauskirche. Sie ist mit Macht der Eucharistie aufgebaut. Zum Zelebrieren werden die einzelnen Familienmitglieder durchs Gebet und fromme Praktiken vorbereitet. Die Andachten zur Verehrung von Christus, der Gottesmutter oder von Heiligen haben als Ziel, die Gläubigen zum Hören des Gottes Wortes während der Liturgie einzustimmen und um mit Christus ein, dem Himmlischen Vater angenehmes Opfer zu werden.

TOWARD THE MINISTRY OF THE „DOMESTIC CHURCH”.
Summary
We are making an attempt to outline the foundations of the ministryministry of marriages and families, which lead to the formulation of our basic thesis, expressed in the title: „Toward the ministry of the domestic Church”. There is no intention of this study to postulate changes concerning names or transformation of existing structures. Its essential aim, is to point out the practical dimension of marriage and family as a domestic Church, functioning in the teaching of the Church and in the theory of the ministry of the family.
The idea of the domestic church, deeply rooted in Church tradition, contains very vaulable intuitions for a pastoral vision of the ministry of marriages and families. The analysis of the concept brings to mind the authentically ecclesiastic character of a Christian marriage and a family growing out of the marriage. This analysis points at principled spheres of activity in aid of marriages and families, what was first done by John Paul II. The Pope, by continuing the thought of the Second Vatican Council and of Pope Paul VI, emphasized the role of bringing up children, evangelical missionary tasks of families and the dimension of families’ engaging in ministry as a sign of the ecclesiastic character of Christian marriage and family.
These observations lead to the specification of postulates of ministry, which aim at the authentic discovery of a family as a domestic Church. What seems to be the most important in preparation for marriage is faith formation of an engaged couple, who start building a marriage and a family community. Next of analysed spheres is sacramental life of members of a Christian family and the interpretation of the reality of a domestic Church as a space of the administration of the sacraments. And finally, this analysis closes with an attempt to verify universal ministry actions, while building a domestic Church and pro-family sensitivity among people who still live in different kinds of family relations.