Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Amoris Laetitia - Par. 16



16.   The Bible also presents the family as the place where children are brought up in the faith. This is evident from the description of the Pass- over celebration (cf. Ex 12:26-27; Deut 6:20-25) and it later appears explicitly in the Jewish haggadah, the dialogue accompanying the rite of  the Passover meal.   One of  the Psalms celebrates the proclamation of faith within families: “All that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us, we will not hide from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders which he has wrought. He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children; that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children” (Ps 78:3-6).  The family is thus the place where parents become their children’s first teachers in the faith.  They learn this “trade”, passing it down from one per- son to another: “When in time to come your son asks you… You shall say to him…” (Ex 13:14).Thus succeeding generations can raise their song to the Lord: “young men and maidens together, old and young together!”(Ps 148:12).



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