Family Fully Alive

Building the Domestic Church

The family is the training ground where virtues and character are formed

The Family Fully Alive booklet available in the SKD Church Narthex

On November,1 we celebrated the Feast of All Saints Day and so it is fitting that the final Family Fully Alive Theme for November and the year is The Communion of Saints. Many of us find it typical to think of Saints as people who lived long ago and are far removed from us. However, if our common goal is to achieve everlasting life in Heaven then there must be Saints all around us. If we accept our respective jobs are to insure others get to heaven then there must be Saints all around us! Becoming a Saint is like running a race, where the family is the training ground, where virtues and character are formed. Becoming a Saint is to cooperate with God and allow Him to mold us into the person he had in mind. Let’s work on never beginning or ending the day without a brief contact with God! For more information on this month’s theme please go to page 44 in the Family Fully Alive Booklet located in the church narthex.

We hope you have enjoyed these monthly devotions sponsored by the Knights of Columbus in support of the domestic church, the Family. The Family Fully Alive Program was designed to help families become more centered on their tasks of serving God, neighbor and our parish. The future of our Church is the FAMILY! Let’s do all we can to fulfill the mission of the family: “To guard, reveal and communicate love”.

The Knights of Columbus support the Family Fully Alive Initiative.

In the Spring of 1988, Bishop William D. Keeler formed a new parish to accommodate the rapid growth in Silver Spring Township and named Reverend James R. O’Brien as the founding pastor. That same year, Mother Katharine Drexel was beatified by Pope John Paul, II. At Bishop Keeler’s request, the Holy Father gave his permission to name the Parish in Silver Spring Township as the first parish in the world to be named in her honor. Eighteen years later, on October 1, 2000, Blessed Katharine Drexel was canonized and the church’s name changed to Saint Katharine Drexel.

The Saint Katharine Drexel Parish Family, guided by the Holy Spirit, commits itself to reaching out and sharing with all people the love and service modeled by our patroness, with the Eucharist as our source of strength. Through prayer and action, we will serve God, our Lord and Savior, and our community, exhibiting a special concern for the poor, oppressed and marginalized of our society, especially those among the African-American & Native-American peoples.