Lifelong Formation

Family Faith Formation

“Education in the faith by the parents should begin in the child’s earliest years. This already happens when family members help one another to grow in faith by the witness of a Christian life in keeping with the Gospel. Family catechesis precedes, accompanies, and enriches other forms of instruction in the faith. Parents have the mission of teaching their children to pray and to discover their vocation as children of God.” (CCC 2226)

“The family is a proclamation of faith in that it is the natural place in which faith can be lived in a simple and spontaneous manner. It ‘has an unique privilege: transmitting the Gospel by rooting it in the context of profound human values…It is, indeed, a Christian education more witnessed to than taught, more occasional than systematic, more ongoing and daily than structured into periods.’” (DC 227)

Focusing on the faith development of entire families, family faith formation inspires all family members as missionary disciples while it also encourages, equips, and supports parents in their mission of teaching the faith to their children. Recognizing that God is actively present in family life and that the family is the first community in which God forms his children, we encourage parishes to offer family faith formation programs as a primary form of catechesis that serves to engage all family members in lifelong faith growth and witness.