Objective:
The goal of this session is for the middle school youth to understand the importance of evangelizing within their families.
Overview:
The Church speaks frequently about the importance of family, especially the role of parents in the evangelization of their children.
Through the grace of the sacrament of marriage, parents receive the responsibility and privilege of evangelizing their children. Parents should initiate their children at an early age into the mysteries of the faith of which they are the “first heralds” for their children. They should associate them from their tenderest years with the life of the Church. A wholesome family life can foster interior dispositions that are a genuine preparation for a living faith and remain a support for it throughout one’s life. Education in the faith by the parents should begin in the child’s earliest years. This already happens when family members help one another grow in faith by the witness of a Christian life in keeping with the Gospel. […] Parents have the mission of teaching their children to pray and discover their vocation as children of God […] (Catechism of the Catholic Church 2225-2226).
Children also have the responsibility of giving back to their parents and their families. Children have the power to also be evangelists in the home.
Children in turn contribute to the growth in holiness of their parents. Each and everyone should be generous and tireless in forgiving one another for offenses, quarrels, injustices, and neglect. Mutual affection suggests this. The charity of Christ demands it (2227).