TNT002: The Domestic Church

This week we get to delve into a huge topic that is at the foundation of our podcast and our trenches.  The Domestic Church.  What is the Domestic Church?  You’ve heard the term but are wondering how that applies to you?  Single? Married?  Kid or no kids, we all live in the Domestic Church because we are all part of the family of God.  Our guest, Bill Donaghy, completed the Theology of the Body Institute Speakers Training program in 2005, Head & Heart Immersion Course in 2006. He is a Theology of the Body Institute Certification Program instructor, international speaker, and curriculum specialist. Bill worked in mission, evangelization, and education, and has a background in visual arts, philosophy, and systematic theology. He can also juggle almost any three objects.

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Links and Quotes:

“The well-being of the individual person in the human and Christian society is intimately linked with the healthy conditions produced by marriage and family.” Gaudium et Spes   “The Holy Family is the icon of the domestic Church, called to pray together.  The family is the domestic Church and must be the first school of prayer.  It is in the family that children, from the tenderest age, can learn to perceive the meaning of God, also thanks to the teaching and example of their parents; to live in an atmosphere marked by God’s presence.” -Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, December 28th, 2011, Feast of the Holy Family “The family is the domestic church”. The meaning of this traditional Christian idea is that the home is the Church in miniature. The Church is the sacrament of God’s love. She is a communion of faith and life. She is a mother and teacher. She is at the service of the whole human family as it goes forward towards its ultimate destiny. In the same way the family is a community of life and love. It educates and leads its members to their full human maturity and it serves the good of all along the road of life The family is the “first and vital cell of society”. In its own way it is a living image and historical representation of the mystery of the Church. The future of the world and of the Church, therefore, passes through the family.” APOSTOLIC PILGRIMAGE TO BANGLADESH, SINGAPORE, FIJI ISLANDS, NEW ZEALAND, AUSTRALIA AND SEYCHELLES HOMILY OF JOHN PAUL II Perth (Australia), 30 November 1986 “As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live.”  St. John Paul II What is a Home Enthronement? Lumen Gentium The USCCB Call to Action –

Aesthetically:  What can we do this week to create that feeling of a domestic church in our homes.  Is it hanging an icon on the wall? A framed picture of your favorite Scripture verse?  Putting up that holy water font by the front door?  Find one simple way to make more visible the reality of the sacredness of the Domestic Church.  

Spiritually:  What can we do to be the domestic church to someone else?  Could we serve a neighbor in some way?  Invite the widow/er over for dinner or take her a bouquet of flowers.  Sit and have tea or coffee together and just listen to them talk about whatever they want to talk about.  Hug them to ease some of their loneliness.  Or maybe it is really listening to your teen when they walk in the door.  

Scripture – Matthew 18:20

 “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

“Love begins with a smile” – St. Mother Teresa