Page 9 - Emailing SANTITA FAMIGLIE_ENG

Some of these couples lived during the last century, others before
that, but as we read through the pages of their diaries and the testimonies
of those who had met them, we realize that each one of those families could
be our own. They have the same problems with love, misunderstandings,
difficulties related to work, the education of children, and the challenges
imposed by a society – present in every age – not very inclined to sharing
Christian choices. We could have chosen other married couples for whom a
cause of beatification is underway, but we preferred to prepare a short, easily
accessible booklet, which does not claim to be either complete or exhaustive,
but rather to show the similarity of these families with the families of today.
And through anecdotes, memories and testimonies, it will show that the
holiness to which we are all called is a possible reality!
Not only that, but we will discover that, in the end, the instruments
that the Lord makes available to us are always the same: prayer, sacraments,
research and entrustment to the divine, gestures of charity and service to
others.
Our hope is that each one of us be encouraged to seek, as did these
couples, the original and only way of holiness that the Lord wishes to give to
our family, reminding us that «the measure of our holiness» does not depend
on our greatness, rather «from the stature that Christ achieves in us». (GE
21).
There is, in fact, a fundamental difference between a good marriage
and a holy marriage: in a good marriage husband and wife strive to love one
another; in a holy marriage the couple places their efforts in the hands of God
and so their gestures go beyond what they are capable of doing, showing
what God can do. With this in mind, we can put aside all concern about the
complicated family situations we experience today that seem to make our life
in God impossible: in one way or another, the same difficulties have been
experienced by married couples of all times. Our hearts are, in fact, thirsty
for God’s love in the same way as the Alvira couple in Spain, the Beltrame
Quattrocchi couple in Italy, or the Rugamba couple in Rwanda. What counts,
says Saint Paul, is that in whatever circumstances we find ourselves, we must
always behave in a manner worthy of the vocation we have received (cf. Eph
4:1). And these families were able to do just that. One can, in fact, grow in
virtue and grace even in the midst of poverty, sickness and difficulties of
every kind.

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