Page 29 - Michael Journal — 2019 October

Depicted is the family of St. Therese of Lisieux with parents, Saints Zelie and Louis Martin.
Pope St. Paul VI called the Christian home and family “the domestic church”
Restoring the Domestic Church

One Family at a Time

Yves and Anne Marie Jacques travelled to Guaya- It was a great grace and a privilege that my hus-
quil, Ecuador in August 2019, as guest speakers at the band, Yves, and I were both called to do apostolate
invitation of Carlos and Teresa Reyes, directors/edi- work through the Pilgrims of St. Michael in the years
tors of the Spanish edition of MICHAEL, San Miguel. that we were single. Then from the very beginning of
The conference was an encounter for Catholic forma- our marriage, we decided to continue that apostolate,
tion, entitled: For the Reign of Christ and the Common but obviously by finding ways to do the work without
Good, Social Credit, the Liturgy and Holiness. it interfering with our new vocation of marriage and
By Anne Marie Jacques family. We had both come to realize that to have a bet-
ter world we need better families. And by “better” I
n the United States we hear of many disturbing mean: families in love with God.
things — the media keeps us continuously inun- Christ was born into a family — He was raised
Idated with horror stories of drugs, school shoot- by a mother and a father — and He began His true
ings, legalized abortion, gender ideology and now the mission among men only after He had grown up in a
acceptance of same-sex unions, recognized as “mar- family; the Holy Family of Nazareth. Christ showed us
riage”. The list could on — and sadly, this is a reality in the importance of family. He actually showed us that
our country at the present moment. But what the me- it is through the family that our own missions need to
dia does not tell us about are the many, many beau- begin. This is why Yves and I decided that our family
tiful things happening that are the result of strong, become our new “Mission”.
faith-filled Americans who are “fighting back”, so to Pope St. Paul VI, when speaking about the Chris-
speak, at this anti-culture, in order to permit that Christ tian family, referred to the home as the “domestic
reign in our families, in our homes, in our cities, and church”. He said that “It is in the context of the family
throughout our entire country. that we first learn who God is and to prayerfully seek
There is HOPE… Christ is NOT defeated, and the His will for us”. The Christian home is a “Domestic
enemies of His Church have NOT prevailed. Church”. I also use the word “sanctuary”; domestic u

36 MICHAEL October/November/December 2019 www.michaeljournal.org