Excerpts from the Sermon from Pentecost during the 2015 Chartres Pilgrimage

                                                                                  

  his grace Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana, Kazakhstan

The family must rise to the peril, he urged, defending not only itself but Christianity: “It is today that the family is called to witness to the Divine beauty of its essence and of its vocation.” First, the Catholic family must gather together in prayer daily “to implore God’s blessing, and to honour the Immaculate Virgin by a rosary in praise of her, for all those who will go to sleep under the same roof.”

But the family must do more, he said, than strengthen its own members in their struggle against sin and “neo paganism.” It must raise up more priests and sisters.  “The most urgent necessity of our times is to have authentically Catholic families, which become the first seminaries for priestly and religious vocations.”

But it must also raise up young men and women in purity and fortitude to form new families and carry on the Faith. "What a beautiful vocation it is to be a true Catholic! What a beautiful vocation to fight for the integrity of the Faith, and the commandments of God! What a beautiful vocation it is to be a Catholic family, a domestic Church! What a beautiful vocation it is to be a chaste young man, or a chaste young woman! What a beautiful vocation it is to be a seminarian and a priest with a pure and ardent heart!”