Earlier this year Archbishop Peter A Comensoli delivered his annual Patrick Oration. Focussing on the family as leaders and facilitators of church in the home, the oration is an acknowledgment of how we worship and express our faith as leaders within our families and in the community.

The Oration shares insights into the early missionary work of Jesus as he moved through communities, getting to know families and encourage them to be the leaders of his mission in their homes and broader community. 

Archbishop Comensoli shares, "when you read through the four gospels, it’s striking how much time Jesus spent in family homes. They were the familiar and life-giving households along the pilgrim way of his mission. There, he ate and slept; rested and played; taught and healed; laughed, cried, sang, and prayed. From them Jesus set out on the road ahead."

"Perhaps not surprisingly, then, family households became the ordinary locations in which the Church gathered in the early years. Families of believers would meet regularly in the domesticity of someone’s home, rather than in some dedicated building. Household churches were the locations where the community of believers would gather for fellowship, for the Breaking of the Bread, for the teaching of the Apostles, and for the care of those in need." (Acts 2.42-47)

I recall myself as a child that my parents often had mass in our home. We shared communion and had several family friends attend our home and then share a meal. At the time I thought it was unusual but there is nothing preventing this in homes today. Even the sharing of a meal as a family is becoming something of a luxury these days but one tradition that you could bring back or introduce into your home to nurture the art of sharing, of being together and learning from each other.

We've included an article in this newsletter about having a family meeting around the dinner table that provides you with some tips on how to engage with family in conversation to share ideas and family values, create new traditions and genuinely get to know each other, especially as your children get older and our lives become busier.

Click on the link below to read the full Patrick Oration and the messages that Archbishop Comensoli shares about the importance of "all of us here making contributions to the lives and needs of those who live in Melbourne (and across Victoria). Whilst I speak to you today from the heart of the Christian Gospels, each of us are called to live our lives for the good of each other – a life of holiness that witnesses to a more human way of living in our society. A domestic priestly life is yours to claim, by the grace of baptism, and yours to live as a leaven, a ‘Mother dough’ that brings life to others.