While families come in all shapes and sizes and no two are the same, they all need a common focus and grounding. Families are intended to be pivotal in providing us with a proper social structure and understanding, a support system, lessons about relationships, communication, and the unconditional acceptance and love we so desperately crave.
In addition to all of these things, the axis of every family has to be centered on faith. It is here that we can learn the virtues and discover the windows to God Himself in His gifts of faith, hope, and love. We can learn, modeling our experience after the Holy Family, how to use these as anchors in our lives so that we can live out the other virtues with greater integrity.
Because our human families struggle with weakness and sin, we often have to come back to the Holy Family for inspiration and guidance. In the bond of love that they shared, they clugh to the anchor of God Himself and endured challenges far greater than many we will ever face.