Family life must rise again to take back the nation

“What do you think God is saying about us as families today?” “Is God saying, ‘my children making me proud?’. You think God boasting?”

Deborah de Rosia put forward this question to participants during her talk ‘Arise Domestic Church and take back the nation’ for the 47th Annual Rally of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) of Trinidad and Tobago, June 12 at the Centre of Excellence, Macoya, Tunapuna. The event had as its theme: Repentance and Conversion.

In delivering her talk, de Rosia underscored that families must embrace the plan of God to “rise again”. “Are we allowing our family life simply to slip by?” she questioned.

“You and I as domestic Church have abdicated our responsibilities as teachers of God. We have left it to the school, priests on the pulpit and then we complain….it is your responsibility,” de Rosia stressed, to educate the child in the ways of God, not only by the words spoken, but by the life lived.

“This must change. It must change…set yourselves to teach them about Jesus Christ, to read Bible stories to them. Set yourself to guide and direct their minds into the ways of the Kingdom of God.”

She opined that if one person commits to this practice, “could you understand the rippling effect? No weapon, nothing can ever go against the Church or Jesus Christ….We cannot wait for things to happen; we have to plan it,” de Rosia said.

Persons were invited to ask themselves “what is God’s plan for my family?”. She said if persons value that all have been transformed by the water of Baptism into the Kingdom of Light, then it should be ensured that the light we receive at Baptism is kept burning “and as the light continues to burn, the light gets brighter and brighter so that in our families there should not be darkness anymore”.

On the other hand, darkness has been entertained de Rosia said. “We have said it’s okay and sometimes…we allow anything to pass…but while we may love our children, our spouses…you can’t let everything pass….When the spirit of truth comes, He shall lead you into all truth and it is the truth of God that you and I must speak to one another.”

While we may not be able to “reach it”, we must “aim” for it. De Rosia invited all gathered to “give way” to choosing what’s right, including the right partners for marriage.

She believed if persons would pray more, there will be less breakdown in marriages, fewer divorces, and less separation. De Rosia stated that Caribbean families must pray that sons and daughters would want to get married and procreate.

Commenting on the latter, she observed that many families do not want children. She also spoke of comments from persons that there should be a limit of how many kids are acceptable.

“That language has to stop because there are only two ways to populate the Kingdom of God. That is Catholic, Christian people having babies in marriage. So, when we have six children, you don’t ask them ‘Allyuh doh sleep?’, you say ‘Thank God allyuh does wake up’,” to laughter.

She continued, “the less we have, the enemy, they keep multiplying. It means they are foot soldiers…going to outnumber the soldiers in the Kingdom of God.”

The second way is through evangelisation, where every family sees it as their responsibility to bring other families to know Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Lord.

“Our whole idea of procreation, of uniting ourselves one with the other… is that you will have children and that you will educate them, not in getting PhDs and Masters, educate them in the ways of God…and if they are being educated in the ways of God, they will get all that they need to get for this life and for the life to come.”

De Rosia further pinpointed that if the nation was taken back, repentance is necessary, and so is internal conversion. Often, she said, when hard truths are spoken, people are not happy.

“They think we have something against them, but the reality is what we sing, we must believe, and what we believe, we must teach and what we teach, we must live. Even if you and I are far from the mark, it is necessary to lift our vision higher,” she said. —KJ