By Maureen Smith
JACKSON –The Knights of Columbus in Mississippi have provided a limited number of resource books to parishes and families throughout the state. “Building the Domestic Church, the family fully alive,” is a year-long program for families.
It comes in the form of a book of prayers, activities and reflections put together by the Knights of Columbus on a national level.  The program, which runs from October to September, contains a monthly theme, a suggested family movie and service projects. It also has prayer cards and suggestions for council activities.
“As the saints have shown throughout history, holiness in life leads inevitably to witness in our daily lives. In our time, the work of evangelization is not reserved only for an elite few, but is the responsibility of all baptized Christians.
“In a very real sense, we are all called to be missionaries. We are called to ‘proclaim’ the Gospel to those around us through our lives each day, and the privileged place for most of us to do this is within our own families,” writes Karl Anderson, supreme Knight in his introduction.
“To help our families better become what they are called to be, the Knights of Columbus has launched this initiative entitled ‘Building the Domestic Church, the faith fully alive.’ Through this program our families can realize more fully their mission to be an authentic domestic church through daily prayer, catechesis and Scripture reading, as well as through monthly charitable and volunteer projects they can do as a family,” he added.
For example, the theme for October, “Because the Lord is God of our ancestors, we want to strengthen the relationship between our family’s generations,” suggests families make a family tree together, visit relatives or send a letter to a loved one. The book suggests watching Disney/Pixar’s movie ‘Up’ to reflect on relationships between generations. The service project for the month is centered on providing food for a family in need.
“This initiative can help all families, whatever their difficulties, deepen their relationship with the Lord. It can especially help divorced parents meet their obligation to raise their children in the Catholic faith and reassure them that their communion with the Lord is not severed, but rather can continue to grow stronger through prayer, scripture reading, participation in the parish community, service to others, and evangelization. In these ways, they too can be a part of our initiative and grow in their faith,” wrote Anderson.
The Knights of Columbus in Mississippi provided 500 copies of the books to different parishes of the Diocese of Jackson through the Office of Family Ministry, but anyone can download a free digital copy on the national website at www.kofc.org/familyfullyalive.