Starting next week, our site will host eight stories of the proclamation of the Gospel in the family. These stories come from the book “Famiglie Vive: Storie di Vangelo” (Lively Families: Stories of the Gospel). Each experience will be published in two parts: the first part is the brief summary of the project, and the second the interview with the protagonists. There is a great variety of areas, ranging from the liturgy at home shared by families; from catechism for the Christian initiation in the form of a game to the art of living as a couple; from exemplary stories of love between families to the vast field of social education. The project is larger than these first eight experiences; we will collect others as well and - a novelty - ask the families who visit us to propose and indicate, in their turn, yet others. In many countries very beautiful and fruitful pastoral experiences are being implemented, which present families as subjects responsible for evangelization in their daily lives, in their relations with the environment, as well as in church and social activities. We are engaged in a prolonged process of collecting and diffusing the most significant experiences that are likely to stimulate and inspire other new experiences.
 
“The men and women of our own day — often perhaps unconsciously — ask believers not only to speak of Christ, but in a certain sense to “show" him to them,” wrote John Paul II (NMI 16). Precisely the testimony of the Christian family, capable of going against the current, being united and living good in interpersonal relationships, open to generous and responsible procreation, committed to educating their children, attentive to other families, the church community and civil society, challenges people today with strength and credibility, perhaps even more than volunteer work and charitable actions for the poor and sick.