Today's sessions were very informative. We listened to Cardinal Robert Sarah speak about how Christ is the light in our dark world. Darkness came in the book of Genesis through the fall of man, but baptism and the Gospels' pull us out of the darkness. God chose and created families as a place where faith is transmitted and grown. "The world needs heroic families to defend the family, open to God's grace and allow goodness to enter the world."
Dr. John Grabowski spoke on the topic of "The Other Side of Mt. Sinai: Growing in Virtue". His discussion focused on our present day encounters with God and our call to holiness. He highlighted that Jesus is our Mt. Sinai, and that the Eucharist is its "source and summit". Eucharist is the center of family life... everything comes from the Eucharist and everything leads back to the Eucharist. He emphasized a few areas that can lead to holiness and virtuous lives including, witness, service, friendship community, and the resistance of our consumerist culture.
Dr. Gregory and Mrs. Lisa Popcak provided very practical advice in their talk titled "See How They Love One Another: The Family and the Faith". A few of the pieces of advice that really resonated were: be deliberate with your time together as a family- actually schedule out time to work together, talk together, pray together and play together. Be sure to ask your family how you can make their life more pleasant each day. Be affectionate in the family, how you show affection will carry over in children’s relationship to God and others in their adult life. Pray together- not just at meals and bed times, but ask family to pray for each other. It’s important to set priorities in your relationships- Faith comes first, then family and finally extracurricular. If this isn’t the priority, then the family won’t be either.
Before, in-between and after the speakers today, we were able to see some more of the sites of Philadelphia. We briefly saw the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. Spending so much time in such a historic city is pretty amazing. Knowing that our country’s founding fathers walked the same streets we walked on is absolutely incredible. We saw the Museum of Art- yes we climbed the same steps Rocky did, took pictures by the Rocky and Love statues, and we got an up close view of the stage where Pope Francis will say Mass on Sunday. We ended the evening having dinner with a former student of ours (Julie 4th grade, Doug 7th grade) who attends college in Philadelphia.
We looked at our pedometers at the end of the day... 20,000 steps!
With the spotty internet connection we seem to keep getting, the pictures aren't uploading. We'll keep trying to add today.
Dr. John Grabowski spoke on the topic of "The Other Side of Mt. Sinai: Growing in Virtue". His discussion focused on our present day encounters with God and our call to holiness. He highlighted that Jesus is our Mt. Sinai, and that the Eucharist is its "source and summit". Eucharist is the center of family life... everything comes from the Eucharist and everything leads back to the Eucharist. He emphasized a few areas that can lead to holiness and virtuous lives including, witness, service, friendship community, and the resistance of our consumerist culture.
Dr. Gregory and Mrs. Lisa Popcak provided very practical advice in their talk titled "See How They Love One Another: The Family and the Faith". A few of the pieces of advice that really resonated were: be deliberate with your time together as a family- actually schedule out time to work together, talk together, pray together and play together. Be sure to ask your family how you can make their life more pleasant each day. Be affectionate in the family, how you show affection will carry over in children’s relationship to God and others in their adult life. Pray together- not just at meals and bed times, but ask family to pray for each other. It’s important to set priorities in your relationships- Faith comes first, then family and finally extracurricular. If this isn’t the priority, then the family won’t be either.
Before, in-between and after the speakers today, we were able to see some more of the sites of Philadelphia. We briefly saw the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. Spending so much time in such a historic city is pretty amazing. Knowing that our country’s founding fathers walked the same streets we walked on is absolutely incredible. We saw the Museum of Art- yes we climbed the same steps Rocky did, took pictures by the Rocky and Love statues, and we got an up close view of the stage where Pope Francis will say Mass on Sunday. We ended the evening having dinner with a former student of ours (Julie 4th grade, Doug 7th grade) who attends college in Philadelphia.
We looked at our pedometers at the end of the day... 20,000 steps!
With the spotty internet connection we seem to keep getting, the pictures aren't uploading. We'll keep trying to add today.