Dear Parents and Family,
This week at Edge, your son or daughter did a relay race that represented changing hearts of stone to hearts filled with love. The teaching outlined how in a world filled with so much conflict, we are called to have no fear, to pray for our enemies, and to desire the conversion of hearts back to God. The youth then had an opportunity to pray for their enemies and to reflect on times in their own lives when they may have been someone’s enemy. The end of the Edge Night provided the youth with an opportunity to review everything they learned this semester.
For more support in your journey as a parent be sure to check out our Parent Life website at ltparentlife.com!
Main Ideas:
- When we are faced with war and terrorism, and even smaller scale conflicts in our schools or towns, we must remember that God is bigger than all of the bad things that are happening. He is still a good God in the midst of all the suffering.
- Jesus Christ prayed for all those who had tortured Him and crucified Him from the cross before He died, saying, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). He calls us, too, to pray for our enemies.
- God asks us to have a heart like His that loves the sinner and desires the conversion of everyone, that all would turn away from their sins and back to God.
Catechism Reference: “Sin is present in human history; any attempt to ignore it or to give this dark reality other names would be futile. To try to understand what sin is, one must first recognize the profound relation of man to God, for only in this relationship is the evil of sin unmasked in its true identity as humanity’s rejection of God and opposition to him, even as it continues to weigh heavy on human life and history.” (CCC 386)
Scripture Reference: “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Matthew 5:44-45)
Family Reflection Questions:
- Who are some people you would consider to be enemies?
- Why does Jesus ask us to pray for these people?
- Do you think it will be easy or hard for you to pray for your enemies? Why or why not?
- What does it mean that we desire for people to have conversions of heart?
- Is there someone in our family that you think we need to pray for to have a conversion of heart?