Faith Formation Session 2021
The above event was held on 13 November 2021 from 2pm to 4 pm via Zoom. 25 participants attended the Session. The Session consisted of two talks, one on the Vocation of the Family by Father Dominique Deme, our Spiritual Director, and the other by CFSM Exco Member, Clarence Sundram who spoke on the Catholic Social Teachings (CST). This was followed by a breakout session where the participants were divided into five groups to discuss the application of CST to one of the following topics using the Review of Life method:
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Foreign Domestic Workers;
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Industrial Accidents; and
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Mental well-being of Students.
The event ended with a group photo taken via Zoom.
Some takeaways from Father’s talk:
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Father pointed out the website “Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life” (www.laityfamilylife.va), a Vatican website, where there are materials to read and videos to watch and reflect on the vocation of the family.
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The family is the light in the darkness of the world, married couples are married saints and the Church is the “family of families”.
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We reflect on Psalm 133:1 and put it into practice. We are called to love by our Lord, as we know our Lord is commanding us to love our neighbor and we look to the Holy Family as a model of love in the family.
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In the videos in the above website, couples recount the family as a blessing and strength to the Church, a path of holiness and a pillar of evangelization.
Some takeaways from Clarence’s talk:
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CST is deeply rooted in our Catholic Church and the Holy Bible. We only need to look at the parable of the Good Samaritan, the story of Lazarus, etc to realize the importance of the principles of CST and how close it is to our everyday lives.
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CST is to build a just and merciful society and to protect the vulnerable, the poor, the marginalized, the widows, as we can see in the Holy Bible itself.
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In our present context, now we are having the pandemic but yet many poor countries do not have enough vaccines. Are we sharing our stores of vaccines with them?
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CST covers Human Dignity, Common Good, Solidarity, and Subsidiarity. These are the themes of CST. However, Human Dignity, is central to all these four themes.
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CST has been systematically developed over the years by the various Popes to what it is today. It has always been basic to the Catholics in living their lives.
CFSM base groups are to discuss further and reflect on these topics in their base group meetings.
