'The Family Table' is an Advent Preaching Series led by Fr. Michael Delcambre and Fr. Kyle White in 2018.
Life seems to gain speed during the holidays. The faster pace and digital distractions can cause us to lose focus of our family and Jesus who are right before us, and if we’re not vigilant the meaning of our celebrations could be lost.
There is a deep connection between what happens around the family table and what is experienced at Mass. Theology tells us that grace builds on nature. The natural life is not unrelated to the supernatural life. Our experience around the family meal is the school for our participation in the sacred meal at Mass. Lessons around the family table and the Altar nourish us to be better parents, students, and children. These lessons allow us to live into the plan God has for us more deeply and to become fully alive.
This Advent's preaching series, using Familiaris Consortio, a Papal letter written by St. John Paul II as our guide, will look at how our participation around the family table and the heavenly table can restore our families and help us all enter into the full plan that God has for us.
WEEK 1: PRESENCE
We will reflect on how we are present to each other as a family and how family meals can be a place to encounter each other.
WEEK 2: GRATITUDE
Gratitude builds us up to see God’s blessings and turns a potentially ordinary meal into a deep sharing of our common connection with Jesus.
WEEK 3
See the connection between our ordinary meal and the extraordinary sacrifice of Jesus in the Eucharist as we examine what we bring to the table and what we offer to others in conversation.
WEEK 4
Unpack communion and ways we open our family tables up to friends and family as we follow the example of Jesus who called all people into communion with himself.