at home with jesus
"If you are convinced that I believe in the Lord, come and stay at my house." —Acts 16:15
Your house is one of your most important resources for evangelization. The Church teaches that your home should be a "domestic church" (Catechism, 1656). You should be able to look at a chair in your kitchen and remember when your neighbor, John, sitting in that chair, gave his life to Jesus. You look out at the porch and remember when Kathy from work was filled with the Holy Spirit in that very spot of your house. Over there is the couch where Ted and Cindy sat, three years ago. They had come to announce their divorce. They left your home forgiving, forgiven, and reconciled.
Next to the family-altar is the table where you taught your children the Scriptures from their infancy (2 Tm 3:15). At the front door, you can see the holy water font where you blessed the kids a thousand times. On the buffet stands the statue of Mary — a little worse for wear. (You told the kids to be more careful.) Above the doorway hangs the crucifix. You still sometimes cry when you see His crucified love.
This is home. This is love. This is life in Jesus. Amen!
Prayer: Father, make my home a house of prayer (see Is 56:7), evangelization, repentance, healing, hope, love, and life.
Promise: "When the Paraclete comes, the Spirit of truth Who comes from the Father — and Whom I Myself will send from the Father — He will bear witness on My behalf. You must bear witness as well." —Jn 15:26-27
Praise: Andrew, age fourteen, discerned a vocation to the priesthood as a child and has followed it unswervingly for several years. (Editor's note: This praise was composed by a teenager at the kitchen table in her home.)
Nihil Obstat: Reverend Robert L. Hagedorn, November 9, 1996
Imprimatur: †Most Reverend Carl K. Moeddel, Vicar General and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, November 15, 1996