How to Make ‘Sacrifices of Love’
Someone said to me the other day that your Lenten sacrifice should be your secret with God. That sounds fine, to a point. I also know that in my family over very many years,...
Author: Toni Rowland
Every Family Matters!
It’s quite a number of years now that I have been submitting this column under the heading “Family Friendly”. Apart from the feedback I get from time to time, I do sometimes wonder whether...
Is Ubuntu is Jesus’ Worldview?
This will be the last of my columns for 2018, a journey that has attempted to “Catholicise” the concept of ubuntu. At a conference early in the year I asked sodality members if ubuntu...
Joy of Families is the Joy of the Church
The Australian writer and gender activist GD Anderson observed of that empowerment: “Feminism isn’t about making women stronger. Women are already strong. It’s about changing the way the world perceives that strength.”
Family: What More Can be Done?
Participating in a conference of the Department of Social Development was enlightening and for me also affirming. I know that those in the DSD Family Directorate and the family services forum understand and base their...
May: Month of Mary and Mom
Ideally two parents belong together, ideally too a dad and a mom. But this is not necessarily the case today as more children are being brought up by single moms than in two-parent families.
Do Families Have Rights?
Rights and responsibilities balance one another out, but when it comes to rights and respect, which comes first? Do rights flow from respect, or do rights lead to respect, or both?
A Family Liturgical Cycle?
Christmas may be over, but before we know it, it’ll again be Advent and Christmas again. And then it will be good to remember that the 12 Days of Christmas are those after the feast of the Nativity, not before.
Our Christ-Centred Traditions at Christmas
No doubt traditions at Christmas, like much else in life, has changed. My own childhood memories are of setting up our family crib, without the baby until Christmas night of course, as well as music and singing.
How Do We Deal With Death and Loss?
Do you and I feel at peace with those we have loved and who have died? What about us who are left behind after a death or a separation or divorce?
What is Our Real Mission?
I am a lay person involved in ministry, aware of the role of the laity in the temporal domain. This self-description sometimes clarifies the idea of mission for me and at others totally confuses it
Where Did You Come From, And Where Are You Going?
‘Where on earth did you come from and where in heaven do you think you’re going?” This question is the core of a little booklet with the title “Our Catholic Heritage”, produced by MARFAM some 15 years ago. These questions are still as relevant but the situations of families and of our countries and our world are changing continually.
