Genesis 1:26-28 New International Version (NIV)

26
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea
and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along
the ground.”
27
So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
28
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule
over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

Genesis 2:18-25 New International Version (NIV)

18
The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
19
Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He
brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living
creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the
wild animals.
But for Adam[a] no suitable helper was found. 21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep
sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs[b] and then closed up the place with
flesh. 22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib[c] he had taken out of the man, and he brought
her to the man.
23
The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man.”
24
That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
25
Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
LUMEN GENTIUM, No. 11 - DOGMATIC CONSTITUTION ON THE CHURCH LUMEN GENTIUM, SOLEMNLY
PROMULGATED BY HIS HOLINESS, POPE PAUL VI-ON NOVEMBER 21, 1964

11. It is through the sacraments and the exercise of the virtues that the sacred nature and organic
structure of the priestly community is brought into operation. Incorporated in the Church through
baptism, the faithful are destined by the baptismal character for the worship of the Christian religion;
reborn as sons of God they must confess before men the faith which they have received from God
through the Church (4*). They are more perfectly bound to the Church by the sacrament of
Confirmation, and the Holy Spirit endows them with special strength so that they are more strictly
obliged to spread and defend the faith, both by word and by deed, as true witnesses of Christ (5*).

Taking part in the Eucharistic sacrifice, which is the fount and apex of the whole Christian life, they offer
the Divine Victim to God, and offer themselves along with It. (6*) Thus both by reason of the offering
and through Holy Communion all take part in this liturgical service, not indeed, all in the same way but
each in that way which is proper to himself. Strengthened in Holy Communion by the Body of Christ,
they then manifest in a concrete way that unity of the people of God which is suitably signified and
wondrously brought about by this most august sacrament.
Those who approach the sacrament of Penance obtain pardon from the mercy of God for the offence
committed against Him and are at the same time reconciled with the Church, which they have wounded
by their sins, and which by charity, example, and prayer seeks their conversion. By the sacred anointing
of the sick and the prayer of her priests the whole Church commends the sick to the suffering and
glorified Lord, asking that He may lighten their suffering and save them;(106) she exhorts them,
moreover, to contribute to the welfare of the whole people of God by associating themselves freely with
the passion and death of Christ.(107) Those of the faithful who are consecrated by Holy Orders are
appointed to feed the Church in Christ's name with the word and the grace of God. Finally, Christian
spouses, in virtue of the sacrament of Matrimony, whereby they signify and partake of the mystery of
that unity and fruitful love which exists between Christ and His Church,(108) help each other to attain to
holiness in their married life and in the rearing and education of their children.

By reason of their state and rank in life they have their own special gift among the people of God.(109)
(7*) From the wedlock of Christians there comes the family, in which new citizens of human society are
born, who by the grace of the Holy Spirit received in baptism are made children of God, thus
perpetuating the people of God through the centuries. The family is, so to speak, the domestic church.
In it parents should, by their word and example, be the first preachers of the faith to their children; they
should encourage them in the vocation which is proper to each of them, fostering with special care
vocation to a sacred state.
Fortified by so many and such powerful means of salvation, all the faithful, whatever their condition or
state, are called by the Lord, each in his own way, to that perfect holiness whereby the Father Himself is
perfect.

APOSTOLICAM ACTUOSITATEM, No. 11 - SOLEMNLY PROMULGATED BY HIS HOLINESS, POPE PAUL VI ON NOVEMBER 18,
1965 DECREE ON THE APOSTOLATE OF THE LAITY
11. Since the Creator of all things has established conjugal society as the beginning and basis of human
society and, by His grace, has made it a great mystery in Christ and the Church (cf. Eph. 5:32), the
apostolate of married persons and families is of unique importance for the Church and civil society.
Christian husbands and wives are cooperators in grace and witnesses of faith for each other, their
children, and all others in their household. They are the first to communicate the faith to their children
and to educate them by word and example for the Christian and apostolic life. They prudently help them
in the choice of their vocation and carefully promote any sacred vocation which they may discern in
them.
It has always been the duty of Christian married partners but today it is the greatest part of their
apostolate to manifest and prove by their own way of life the indissolubility and sacredness of the
marriage bond, strenuously to affirm the right and duty of parents and guardians to educate children in
a Christian manner, and to defend the dignity and lawful autonomy of the family. They and the rest of
the faithful, therefore, should cooperate with men of good will to ensure the preservation of these
rights in civil legislation and to make sure that governments give due attention to the needs of the
family regarding housing, the education of children, working conditions, social security, and taxes; and
that in policy decisions affecting migrants their right to live together as a family should be safeguarded.
(4)
This mission-to be the first and vital cell of society-the family has received from God. It will fulfill this
mission if it appears as the domestic sanctuary of the Church by reason of the mutual affection of its
members and the prayer that they offer to God in common, if the whole family makes itself a part of the
liturgical worship of the Church, and if it provides active hospitality and promotes justice and other good
works for the service of all the brethren in need. Among the various activities of the family apostolate
may be enumerated the following: the adoption of abandoned infants, hospitality to strangers,
assistance in the operation of schools, helpful advice and material assistance for adolescents, help to
engaged couples in preparing themselves better for marriage, catechetical work, support of married
couples and families involved in material and moral crises, help for the aged not only by providing them
with the necessities of life but also by obtaining for them a fair share of the benefits of an expanding
economy.
At all times and places but particularly in areas where the first seeds of the Gospel are being sown, or
where the Church is just beginning, or is involved in some serious difficulty, Christian families can give
effective testimony to Christ before the world by remaining faithful to the Gospel and by providing a
model of Christian marriage through their whole way of life. (5)
To facilitate the attainment of the goals of their apostolate, it can be useful for families to be brought
together into groups.(6)

GAUDIUM ET SPES, Nos. 7, 48 and 52 - PASTORAL CONSTITUTION ON THE CHURCH IN THE MODERN
WORLD GAUDIUM ET SPES PROMULGATED BY HIS HOLINESS, POPE PAUL VI ON DECEMBER 7, 1965
48. The intimate partnership of married life and love has been established by the Creator and qualified
by His laws, and is rooted in the conjugal covenant of irrevocable personal consent. Hence by that
human act whereby spouses mutually bestow and accept each other a relationship arises which by
divine will and in the eyes of society too is a lasting one. For the good of the spouses and their off-
springs as well as of society, the existence of the sacred bond no longer depends on human decisions
alone. For, God Himself is the author of matrimony, endowed as it is with various benefits and
purposes.(1)
All of these have a very decisive bearing on the continuation of the human race, on the personal
development and eternal destiny of the individual members of a family, and on the dignity, stability,
peace and prosperity of the family itself and of human society as a whole. By their very nature, the
institution of matrimony itself and conjugal love are ordained for the procreation and education of
children, and find in them their ultimate crown. Thus a man and a woman, who by their compact of
conjugal love "are no longer two, but one flesh" (Matt. 19:ff), render mutual help and service to each
other through an intimate union of their persons and of their actions. Through this union they
experience the meaning of their oneness and attain to it with growing perfection day by day. As a
mutual gift of two persons, this intimate union and the good of the children impose total fidelity on the
spouses and argue for an unbreakable oneness between them.(2)

Christ the Lord abundantly blessed this many-faceted love, welling up as it does from the fountain of
divine love and structured as it is on the model of His union with His Church. For as God of old made
Himself present(3) to His people through a covenant of love and fidelity, so now the Savior of men and
the Spouse(4) of the Church comes into the lives of married Christians through the sacrament of
matrimony. He abides with them thereafter so that just as He loved the Church and handed Himself over
on her behalf,(6) the spouses may love each other with perpetual fidelity through mutual self-bestowal.
Authentic married love is caught up into divine love and is governed and enriched by Christ's redeeming
power and the saving activity of the Church, so that this love may lead the spouses to God with powerful
effect and may aid and strengthen them in sublime office of being a father or a mother.(6) For this
reason Christian spouses have a special sacrament by which they are fortified and receive a kind of
consecration in the duties and dignity of their state.(7) By virtue of this sacrament, as spouses fulfill their
conjugal and family obligation, they are penetrated with the spirit of Christ, which suffuses their whole
lives with faith, hope and charity. Thus they increasingly advance the perfection of their own
personalities, as well as their mutual sanctification, and hence contribute jointly to the glory of God.
As a result, with their parents leading the way by example and family prayer, children and indeed
everyone gathered around the family hearth will find a readier path to human maturity, salvation and
holiness. Graced with the dignity and office of fatherhood and motherhood, parents will energetically
acquit themselves of a duty which devolves primarily on them, namely education and especially religious
education.

As living members of the family, children contribute in their own way to making their parents holy. For
they will respond to the kindness of their parents with sentiments of gratitude, with love and trust. They
will stand by them as children should when hardships overtake their parents and old age brings its
loneliness. Widowhood, accepted bravely as a continuation of the marriage vocation, should be
esteemed by all.(8) Families too will share their spiritual riches generously with other families. Thus the
Christian family, which springs from marriage as a reflection of the loving covenant uniting Christ with
the Church,(9) and as a participation in that covenant, will manifest to all men Christ's living presence in
the world, and the genuine nature of the Church. This the family will do by the mutual love of the
spouses, by their generous fruitfulness, their solidarity and faithfulness, and by the loving way in which
all members of the family assist one another.

52. The family is a kind of school of deeper humanity. But if it is to achieve the full flowering of its life
and mission, it needs the kindly communion of minds and the joint deliberation of spouses, as well as
the painstaking cooperation of parents in the education of their children. The active presence of the
father is highly beneficial to their formation. The children, especially the younger among them, need the
care of their mother at home. This domestic role of hers must be safely preserved, though the legitimate
social progress of women should not be underrated on that account.
Children should be so educated that as adults they can follow their vocation, including a religious one,
with a mature sense of responsibility and can choose their state of life; if they marry, they can thereby
establish their family in favorable moral, social and economic conditions. Parents or guardians should by
prudent advice provide guidance to their young with respect to founding a family, and the young ought
to listen gladly. At the same time no pressure, direct or indirect, should be put on the young to make
them enter marriage or choose a specific partner.

Thus the family, in which the various generations come together and help one another grow wiser and
harmonize personal rights with the other requirements of social life, is the foundation of society. All
those, therefore, who exercise influence over communities and social groups should work efficiently for
the welfare of marriage and the family. Public authority should regard it as a sacred duty to recognize,
protect and promote their authentic nature, to shield public morality and to favor the prosperity of
home life. The right of parents to beget and educate their children in the bosom of the family must be
safeguarded. Children too who unhappily lack the blessing of a family should be protected by prudent
legislation and various undertakings and assisted by the help they need.

Christians, redeeming the present time (13) and distinguishing eternal realities from their changing
expressions, should actively promote the values of marriage and the family, both by the examples of
their own lives and by cooperation with other men of good will. Thus when difficulties arise, Christians
will provide, on behalf of family life, those necessities and helps which are suitably modern. To this end,
the Christian instincts of the faithful, the upright moral consciences of men, and the wisdom and
experience of persons versed in the sacred sciences will have much to contribute.
Those too who are skilled in other sciences, notably the medical, biological, social and psychological, can
considerably advance the welfare of marriage and the family along with peace of conscience if by
pooling their efforts they labor to explain more thoroughly the various conditions favoring a proper
regulation of births.

It devolves on priests duly trained about family matters to nurture the vocation of spouses by a variety
of pastoral means, by preaching God's word, by liturgical worship, and by other spiritual aids to conjugal
and family life; to sustain them sympathetically and patiently in difficulties, and to make them
courageous through love, so that families which are truly illustrious can be formed.
Various organizations, especially family associations, should try by their programs of instruction and
action to strengthen young people and spouses themselves, particularly those recently wed, and to train
them for family, social and apostolic life.
Finally, let the spouses themselves, made to the image of the living God and enjoying the authentic
dignity of persons, be joined to one another(16) in equal affection, harmony of mind and the work of
mutual sanctification. Thus, following Christ who is the principle of life,(17) by the sacrifices and joys of
their vocation and through their faithful love, married people can become witnesses of the mystery of
love which the Lord revealed to the world by His dying and His rising up to life again.(18)

FAMILIARIS CONSORTIO No. 6 APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION FAMILIARIS CONSORTIO OF

POPE JOHN PAUL II TO THE EPISCOPATE TO THE CLERGY AND TO THE FAITHFUL OF THE WHOLE
CATHOLIC CHURCH ON THE ROLE OF THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY IN THE MODERN WORLD
The Situation of the Family in the World Today
6. The situation in which the family finds itself presents positive and negative aspects: the first are a sign
of the salvation of Christ operating in the world; the second, a sign of the refusal that man gives to the
love of God.
On the one hand, in fact, there is a more lively awareness of personal freedom and greater attention to
the quality of interpersonal relationships in marriage, to promoting the dignity of women, to responsible
procreation, to the education of children. There is also an awareness of the need for the development of
interfamily relationships, for reciprocal spiritual and material assistance, the rediscovery of the ecclesial
mission proper to the family and its responsibility for the building of a more just society. On the other
hand, however, signs are not lacking of a disturbing degradation of some fundamental values: a
mistaken theoretical and practical concept of the independence of the spouses in relation to each other;
serious misconceptions regarding the relationship of authority between parents and children; the
concrete difficulties that the family itself experiences in the transmission of values; the growing number
of divorces; the scourge of abortion; the ever more frequent recourse to sterilization; the appearance of
a truly contraceptive mentality.

At the root of these negative phenomena there frequently lies a corruption of the idea and the
experience of freedom, conceived not as a capacity for realizing the truth of God's plan for marriage and
the family, but as an autonomous power of self-affirmation, often against others, for one's own selfish
well-being.

Worthy of our attention also is the fact that, in the countries of the so-called Third World, families often
lack both the means necessary for survival, such as food, work, housing and medicine, and the most
elementary freedoms. In the richer countries, on the contrary, excessive prosperity and the consumer
mentality, paradoxically joined to a certain anguish and uncertainty about the future, deprive married
couples of the generosity and courage needed for raising up new human life: thus life is often perceived
not as a blessing, but as a danger from which to defend oneself.
The historical situation in which the family lives therefore appears as an interplay of light and darkness.
This shows that history is not simply a fixed progression towards what is better, but rather an event of
freedom, and even a struggle between freedoms that are in mutual conflict, that is, according to the
well-known expression of St. Augustine, a conflict between two loves: the love of God to the point of
disregarding self, and the love of self to the point of disregarding God.[16]
It follows that only an education for love rooted in faith can lead to the capacity of interpreting "the
signs of the times," which are the historical expression of this twofold love.

CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH No. 1603

Marriage in the order of creation

1603 "The intimate community of life and love which constitutes the married state has been
established by the Creator and endowed by him with its own proper laws. . . . God himself is the
author of marriage."87The vocation to marriage is written in the very nature of man and woman
as they came from the hand of the Creator. Marriage is not a purely human institution despite
the many variations it may have undergone through the centuries in different cultures, social
structures, and spiritual attitudes. These differences should not cause us to forget its common
and permanent characteristics. Although the dignity of this institution is not transparent
everywhere with the same clarity,88 some sense of the greatness of the matrimonial union exists
in all cultures. "The well-being of the individual person and of both human and Christian society
is closely bound up with the healthy state of conjugal and family life."89
Saint Hyacinth
A Short Account of the Life of Our Patron Saint

Saint Hyacinth was born in 1185. He was born into nobility as his father was of the noble family of Odrowacz. His
birth took place in the castle of Lanka at Karim, which is in Silesia. Almost from the cradle, Hyacinth seemed
predisposed to virtue. God also blessed him with, a splendid mind. His parents not only fostered his happy
disposition, but also used great care in selecting the teachers that would protect this innocence. In this way, he was
so well grounded in his religious duties that he passed through his higher studies at Cracow, Prague, and Bologna,
without tarnish to his pure soul. Upon completion of his studies at Bologna, Saint Hyacinth earned the title of Doctor
of Canon Law and Divinity. Doubtless his model life had much to do in helping him to win the admiration of both
his professors and fellow-students.

When he returned to return to Poland he was given a prebend at Sandomir. In 1220 he accompanied his uncle Ivo
Konski, the Bishop of Cracow, to Rome. Here they met with Saint Dominic. At this time, Saint Hyacinth was one of
the first to receive the habit of the newly established Order of Friars Preachers at from Saint Dominic. Because of
his spirit for prayer and his zeal for the salvation of souls, he was sent to preach and establish the Dominican Order
in his native land, Poland. On the way he was able to establish a convent of his order at Friesach in Carinthia. In
Poland the new preachers were favorably received and their sermons were productive of much good. Hyacinth
founded communities at Sandomir, Cracow, and at Plocko on the Vistula in Moravia. He extended his missionary
work through Prussia, Pomerania, and Lithuania; then crossing the Baltic Sea he preached in Denmark, Sweden, and
Norway. It was these apostolic travels that earned Hyacinth the title "The Apostle of the North".

His travels and missions did not end here. He came into Lower or Red Russia, establishing a community at Lemberg
and at Haletz on the Mester; proceeded into Muscovy, and founded a convent at Dieff, and came as far as the shores
of the Black Sea. Because of his evangelizing, multitudes were converted, and churches and convents were built.

However manifold were his duties, the future Friar Preacher did not permit them to interfere with his good works,
dampen his spirit of prayer, or to lessen his practice of recollection. None were more punctual or exact in their
recitation of the divine office by the canons. He regularly visited hospitals were the sick found him a sympathetic
comforter. A friend to the poor, he distributed his income among them. He felt that money received through the
Church could not be devoted to a better or more advantageous use.

Saint Hyacinth is known to have performed numerous miracles. The one miracle that has been most associated with
him was the result of the Tartars siege of the city of Kiev. Hyacinth gained a child-like and tender devotion to the
Mother of God from Saint Dominic. To her he attributed his success, and to her aid he looked for his salvation.
When Hyacinth was at Kiev, the fierce Tartars sacked the town. Hyacinth was celebrating the Mass and did not
know of the onslaught and danger until the Mass ended. Without waiting to unvest, he took the ciborium in his
hands and was fleeing the church. It is recorded that as he passed by an statue of Mary he heard a voice say,
"Hyacinth, my son, why dost thou leave me behind? Take me with thee and leave me not to mine enemies."
Although the statue was made of heavy alabaster, Hyacinth took it in his arms and carried it away along with the
ciborium with the Holy Eucharist. It is for this miraculous moment that Saint Hyacinth is most often depicted. The
story continues that Hyacinth and the community that accompanied him came to the river Dnieper. There he urged
them to follow him across the river. He led the way, and they all walked dry shod across the waters of the deep river,
which then protected them from the fury of the Tartars. Polish historians are in agreement on this marvelous fact,
although some of the writers confuse it with a similar crossing of the Vistula which happened earlier. A
circumstance, which is recorded in connection with this miracle, renders it all the more remarkable. It is said that the
footprints of the saint remained on the water, even after he had crossed the river; and that, when the stream was
calm, they could be seen for centuries afterwards.

Worn out by his constant labors and vast journeys, Hyacinth spent the last few months of his life in a convent he had
founded at Cracow. There on the Feast of Saint Dominic in 1257, he fell sick with a fever that was to lead to his
death. On the eve of the feast of the Assumption, he was warned of his coming death. In spite of his condition, he
attended Mass on the Feast of the Assumption. He was anointed at the altar, and died the same day in 1257.

He was canonized in 1594 by Pope Clement VIII. The feast day of St. Hyacinth is celebrated on August 17th.