The Family: natural place of the affections

The answers to the questions are prepared by the theologian Monsignor Costantino Di Bruno, Central Assistant of the Apostolic Movement.

The theme of the meeting: The Family natural place of the affections.

Q. What is the meaning of the word Love in the Family?

A. In marriage love is manifested through concrete acts of justice: marital fidelity, is a precise duty of justice of the spouse having made voluntarily a gift of all his body to the other person. Another concrete gesture is the care, material and spiritual care. Not seeing the other person as a thing but as a person that must always be respected, must be cared for, helped and supported. Another concrete gesture is forgiveness: one cannot live without forgiveness because we are all fragile, sinners, in a journey; and forgiveness is the foundation of our Christian existence. We need to forgive and be forgiven. The concreteness of love imposes us to live in a harmonious

Q. How to prepare a wedding?

A. It is prepared by asking God to make you a person of great charity and that He is the one to send you the man / the woman of your life.

Q. Since when does one begin to build love?

A. The Holy Spirit is asked to send you the right companion for the construction of a Holy family. Every day, this grace must be asked and even after having been married, we daily need to build each other in God’s love. Love must be continually built also, and especially, in the state of suffering and evil by always granting forgiveness for the evil received and starting over again.

Q. Why does conjugal love die down?

A. Every day, when you get married you have to draw true love: prayer, Eucharist, Sunday Mass, H. Rosary, spiritual reading and meditation are all ways that allow you to renew conjugal love. Otherwise conjugal love fades and you can also get to the destruction of marriage. A society without God has already failed in marriage because it lacks the source of true love.

Q. How do you reach family happiness?

A. In marriage, happiness is knowing that from your highest good depends also the salvation of the other person and the great joy is knowing that through your sacrifice a new man was born in the life of grace. That is why we must be able also to atone for the spouse who is not yet converted, and the sin of the other is atoned with an offering, a sacrifice and forgiveness.

Q. How can you tell if the advice of a parent is a good thing?

A. We are never obliged to follow a council against the law of God. Parents are guardians are not masters of life of their child. With the prayer you ask the Spirit to enlighten those who advise you so that they give you a holy advice. After having heard you must then operate a holy discernment because life is yours and the final choice belongs to you. We cannot eliminate the supernatural dimension of life because it is the essence of life itself; therefore, one prays so that the Lord may give us this help from above in order to make the right decision.

Q. How do you understand if your girlfriend/boyfriend is the right person to marry?

A. A sound discernment is operated. The engagement is a right time to know each other. It is recognized if one is capable of loyalty towards the other; if characters are appropriate; if there is the capacity for forgiveness, for understanding, for accepting the other in his particular moments. But even here we must let ourselves be helped by God, the supernatural way is crucial and we have to ask the Lord to give us a complete vision on the other, which enlighten us about on the truth on the life of the boyfriend/girlfriend.

Directions given by Monsignor Costantino Di Bruno for the preparation of the meeting:

– Genesis 1, 26, 31

– Genesis 2: 1-25

– Genesis 3, 1-24

– The letter to the families of John Paul II