A Retreat for the entire catholic family

What is a Home 2 Home Holy Family Encounter?

Several families gather for a day retreat at the parish or a retreat place to learn more about how to Safeguard, Reveal and Communicate the Faith, Hope and Love of Christ to one another as a family. Father, mother, and child(ren) will listen to host families share the challenges and joys they have experienced in their own family life.

Later, to compliment the sharing, a short talk will be given to the family retreatants in order engage them into a deeper understanding of the beauty, truth and goodness of the Church’s teaching.

Family retreatants will then be given the opportunity to reflect on and discuss, within their own family, particular questions that will assist in building a more meaningful, intimate and virtuous family relationship with God and one another.

The family retreatants will then participate in a fun family activity they can work on and complete together. Here, each member of the family will be given a chance to discover one another’s gifts and share these gifts to complete the activity at hand well.

In order, for the family retreatants to concentrate more fully during the retreat, childcare will be offered throughout the day for any newborns or toddlers up to the age of six.

Throughout the retreat there will also be fun competitive activities where all family retreatants will get to know one another as families and build small but firm community of families. Families will pray together and be given the opportunity to receive the sacrament of reconciliation. At the end of the retreat, the family retreatants will be invited to attend Holy Mass with entire parish. Depending on the availability of pastors and the event schedule of the parish, Eucharistic adoration for the family retreatants is also an option that can be incorporated in the Holy Family Encounter.

At the end of the Holy Family Encounter the pastors and host families will encourage the family retreatants to live-out their catholic faith and to continue to gather in community to celebrate the Eucharist and the other sacraments, Church activities and engage in the joy-filled and abundant life of their parish.

What other opportunities are there for those families who have attended the Holy Family Encounter? What other ways can these families grow to know, love and serve Christ and His Church?

The Home 2 HomeTM Catholic Family Gatherings is a great opportunity for families to gather in the home of a host family to share, grow and encourage one another in love and faith. The main purpose of the gatherings is to safeguard and nourish the communion of life and love of the family and to strengthen the bond between catholic families in the Church.