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WEDDINGS: To Invite,
or Not to Invite
(That is the Question)
BY GREG SCHLUETER
We’re coming up on wedding number two. We’re delighted. We love our growing family. Below are some prominent thoughts.
SITUATION:
We love family, but our children have over 100 first cousins.
Each of our children has many meaningful connections.
There’s only so much space and money.
We are guided by a vision/perspective we own.
PRINCIPLES:
1) Invitation decisions are 100% theirs. Regardless of what we gift them. (It's a gift!) Regardless of our sensibility. It’s their wedding.
2) We’re grateful for the honor they may extend us in consideration of whom to invite.
3) Weddings are occasions to build up our nature and mission.
GUIDANCE:
- Marriage is not a glorified party. Not free admission to a dressed-up drinking festival. Not an occasion for people far too old to be acting in ways they should have left back in high school.
- I risk great disagreement because I recognize respective outcomes: If marriage is what anyone wants it to mean, it means anything. Which is to say, nothing. It’s absurd. And will run the course.
- Marriage is not something we determine, but Someone in Whom we are determined. Man and woman made in God’s image. (Gen. 1:27) Not merely contractual, predicated of the power of each to fulfill, and dissolvable upon the whim of either… but a covenant, predicated of the total, mutual, exclusive, irrevocable exchange of Three. God Himself. Participating in God.
- God’s magnificent design: Participation in His Trinitarian Nature. With an unsurpassed mission: To make Him, who is Love and Life, known.
- Accordingly, all invited play an integral role. They don’t simply witness, they participate in the nature of the union. They pledge to the couple in fulfilling their vows. Through the duration of their relationship.
THUS, GENERAL RULES:
1) All are loved and regarded, invited or not.
2) We are about inviting family and friends, within our capacity, who share the above perspective, who are most engaged in our lives. If someone hasn't reached out in the past year, and are unlikely to do so in the coming year, they’re really not a part of our lives.
3) “Family Rule.” As Chesterton suggests, each of us are assigned families as occasions to be forged for our nature. To become the best versions of ourselves. Regardless of how messy. Accordingly, based upon space, barring excessively unhealthy, disruptive, abusive (etc.) connections... we recognize the value of including close family as much as possible. God has His purpose of forging us for our shared, God-assigned nature and mission.
What say ye?
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LORD JESUS CHRIST,
may we more fully recognize and live Who we are. You.
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We're very excited about Supreme Makeover: Home Edition beginning in September, leading into Sanctus: Eucharistic Family Revival. We need your help. Your prayers, your engagement, feedback, and yes... your financial partnership. Help us build. Spread the word. Pray. Become a monthly partner or share a one-time gift. Please, call us at any time to discuss any of this!
Greg & Stephanie Schlueter
Image Trinity | Mass Impact
Greg@MassImpact.us | (814) 449-8808
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We could really use your help. Please partner with us. Thank you. |
| | | | LIVE IT THIS WEEK: "SOWER & SEED" | July 10-16, 2023
A simple guide to help your family grow in holiness. (full version)
FUN QUESTION:
"Design the perfect Summer day." (submit your fun question)
LIVE IT TIDBIT
View our new, fun, 60 second story and message at ILoveMyFamily.us.
GOSPEL | Matthew 13:1-23
On that day, Jesus went out of the house and sat down by the sea.
Such large crowds gathered around him
that he got into a boat and sat down,
and the whole crowd stood along the shore.
And he spoke to them at length in parables, saying:
"A sower went out to sow.
And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path,
and birds came and ate it up.
Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil.
It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep,
and when the sun rose it was scorched,
and it withered for lack of roots.
Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it.
But some seed fell on rich soil, and produced fruit,
a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.
Whoever has ears ought to hear." (full here)
QUESTION:
What struck you in this reading? Challenged you? Inspired you? What questions did it raise?
YOU IMAGE THE TRINITY: LIVE IT
Going around, affirm how you have been blessed and/or inspired by each person this past week. Encourage him/her.
DAILY QUESTIONS:.
Everyone go around and share...
1) Something you’re grateful for?
2) A recent victory?
3) A current challenge?
4) An affirmation of someone?
5) Something meaningful happening?
GET FULL LIT GUIDE AND FIND OUT MORE AT ILOVEMYFAMILY.US
We are families united in more fully seeking, proclaiming, living and building the Kingdom. |
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EPISODE 384: NOTHING LOST - The Amazing Life of Fr. Dennis Dinan
The man who would become Fr. Dennis Dinan escaped an incredibly abusive home dominated by an alcoholic father. He dropped out of high school and lived on the street with heroin addicts. Were it not for a significant brush with the law, he would not have been saved from the streets. He would not have entered the Navy. He would not have discovered and cultivated incredible gifts paving his way to the top echelons of technology and business. All mixed with romantic and business heartaches. And asking hard questions. Paving a road he didn’t expect. To a conclusion you will believe. LISTEN NOW! SHARE!
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| | | PREACHING IT:
"LIVING PRAYER" (video)
with JOHN MICHAEL TALBOT
Jesus tells us the parable of the seed and the sower. First of all, Jesus taught mainly by parables. The word parable just means “comparison.” So, Jesus would compare something in the world to a spiritual lesson.
In response to the devil trying to quote scripture to Jesus, He said, “No you're not quoting it right. Here's what it means....” Jesus put the devil to flight. Jesus knew scripture. He was a good Jewish boy. But when He taught the multitudes, as a matter of fact, He used very little scripture. He taught by way of parables.
What does this mean? It means that when you are spiritually reborn, everything changes. I just had our monastic dog at my Hermitage store. You didn’t just see the dog, or the people, or the work. You see spiritual lessons in everything.
God is coming to us through everything in our lives. St. Francis said he didn’t seek so much to pray, but to be a prayer.
Are you a prayer today? Are are you able to find the lessons of God? Not only in Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium of the Church. Those are all necessary, to give us the basic foundations, to help in our discernment, but once you have that, and once the power of the Spirit is alive in your life, now you can really, really look at everything from God’s vantage.
That’s what Jesus has to say to you.
That's my prayer for you guys. If you do that your life is gonna be changed. Everything will become a miracle. I love you so much.
All things are possible with God! |
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"The future of humanity passes by way of the family."
~ Pope St. John Paul II
WE ARE FAMILIES UNITED IN BUILDING THE KINGDOM.
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