Parents of the Saints focuses on the seven hallmarks found in the families of 50 of our greatest saints: sacramental life, surrender, sacrificial love, suffering, simplicity, solitude, and sacredness of life. These hallmarks are the golden threads commonly woven within the lives of these parents and their saintly children. Each chapter highlights the beautiful fruit borne from the parents’ sacrificial love surrendered to God in daily life. They lived with simplicity and solitude, as Jesus Himself did. Nourished by the sacraments, they learned to find joy in carrying their crosses as they united their sufferings to the Passion and Death of Our Lord.
The Parents of the Saints Family Formation Guide is for all Catholic families who desire to take a deep dive into their call to holiness in the ordinary, as modeled by the parents of the saints. There is nothing in their stories that is not available to the families of today. Outside of social circumstances and culture being somewhat different than that of the past, we share the same Church, traditions, teachings, and sacraments that the saints and their families had access to. This journey can be taken individually with your own family or done in a larger group over the course of a weekly or monthly study, depending on your time commitment and availability.
We pray that you and your children will be affirmed in the practice of the Faith and encouraged along the way as you grow in virtue together. May you be strengthened in your convictions to hold fast to the truth, beauty, and goodness found in an authentic Catholic lifestyle. Let us heed the words of Our Lady of Champion as spoken to Sr. Adele Brise in 1859: “Gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation.” Our Lady went on to say, “Teach them their catechism, how to sign themselves with the Sign of the Cross, and how to approach the sacraments; that is what I wish you to do. Go and fear nothing. I will help you.”
About the Author
Marianne Dyogi is a wife and mother of five. She and her husband Gary co-founded Arbor Family Village, a community apostolate of families rooted in the heart of Jesus that integrates the Catholic faith into a dynamic lifestyle of healing, restoration, and holiness. When she first stumbled upon the book, Parents of the Saints: The Hidden Heroes Behind Our Favorite Saints by Patrick O’Hearn, Marianne immediately knew that it was God’s providential hand leading her to a wellspring of tried and true experience from mothers and fathers whose desires mirrored her own— to raise little saints who love God and neighbor with the hearts of Jesus and Mary. It was a great blessing for her to work with Patrick to bring this formation guide to Catholic families for the nurturing and building up of the domestic church.
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