Table of Contents
The Joy of Love 9
Chapter 1 In The Light of the Word 13
You and Your Wife 14
Your Children are as the Shoots of an Olive Tree 17
A Path of Suffering and Blood 20
The Work of Your Hands 22
The Tenderness of an Embrace 23
Chapter 2 The Experiences and Challenges of Families 27
The Current Reality of the Family 27
Some Challenges 40
Chapter 3 Looking to Jesus: The Vocation of the Family 47
Jesus Restores and Fulfills God's Plan 48
The Family in the Documents of the Church 51
The Sacrament of Matrimony 53
Seeds of the Word and Imperfect Situations 57
The Transmission of Life and the Rearing of Children 60
The Family and the Church 63
Chapter 4 Love in Marriage 65
Our Daily Love 65
Growing In Conjugal Love 81
Passionate Love 93
The Transformation of Love 105
Chapter 5 Love Made Fruitful 107
Welcoming a New Life 107
An Expanding Fruitfulness 115
Life in the Wider Family 120
Chapter 6 Some Pastoral Perspectives 127
Proclaiming the Gospel of the Family Today 127
Preparing Engaged Couples for Marriage 131
Accompanying the First Years of Married Life 138
Casting Light on Crises, Worries and Difficulties 147
When Death Makes Us Feel Its Sting 160
Chapter 7 Towards A Better Education of Children 165
Where are Our Children? 165
The Ethical Formation of Children 167
The Value of Correction as an Incentive 170
Patient Realism 171
Family Life as an Educational Setting 173
The Need for Sex Education 177
Passing on the Faith 181
Chapter 8 Accompanying, Discerning and Integrating Weakness 185
Gradualness in Pastoral Care 186
The Discernment of "Irregular" Situations 188
Mitigating Factors in Pastoral Discernment 193
Rules and Discernment 196
The Logic of Pastoral Mercy 198
Chapter 9 The Spirituality of Marriage and the Family 203
A Spirituality of Supernatural Communion 203
Gathered in Prayer in the Light of Easter 205
A Spirituality of Exclusive and Free Love 206
A Spirituality of Care, Consolation and Incentive 208
Discussion Questions 213
Endnotes 227