The Office for Family Life fosters a family perspective in Church and society that promotes ministry to, with, by, and for families in all stages. The Office supports marriage formation and pastoral care to advance the missionary discipleship of the Domestic Church in the Diocese of Orange.
CA Bishops’ Radiate Love Initiative
December: Your Mission, Should You Choose to Accept It…
In families, husbands and wives marry in love, then see their love deepen through the myriad good times and challenges of a lifetime of marriage. As parents, they are tasked with teaching their children how to be human. What a concept! Through the family, the school of love, children learn most importantly that they are beloved children of God intended to be with him forever in Heaven.
The mission of the family is not for the fainthearted. It entails sacrifice and sometimes heartache, but all of that is meant to bring spouses closer together and further along the path to holiness. Accepting the added challenge of welcoming and raising children deepens our understanding of our own giftedness and dependence on God.
Couples and families, it’s time to elevate your spiritual journey right from the comfort of your own home! Don’t miss out on the opportunity to access enriching resources available on this page. Remember, even the smallest actions you take are impactful, shaping the love and values your children carry into their future marriages.
Catholic Marriage is unique among other marital relationships because it is a sacrament that makes Christ present in our world. The relationship between husband and wife mirrors the relationship of Jesus Christ for his people. In the Catholic tradition, the husband and wife accept a role in God’s plan for humanity. They are ambassadors of God’s love, and they collaborate with God to keep humanity alive.
The vows exchanged by the couple are a sacred pact through which the spouses embrace each other, and, together, embrace Jesus as their partner. Through their union with Christ, they participate in the unbreakable pact between God and humanity: the covenant that was sealed in the death and resurrection of Christ.
California bishops’ initiative on marriage & family 2024-2025
“Radiate Love” is a statewide initiative of the California bishops to invite every Catholic to celebrate the beauty and goodness of marriage and the family. Each month from July 2024 to June 2025, the CCC will provide catechetical and liturgical resources around a different theme to help renew and deepen our Catholic faithful’s understanding and experience of sacramental marriage and the family.
Materials for the Radiate Love Initiative are now available on the website of the California Catholic Conference (CCC) or RadiateLove.info. Each month features a different theme. Check out the full calendar of dates and themes.
Monthly resources include intercessions and blessing for Mass, bulletin insert, social media graphics, homiletic guide, suggested activities for various parish ministries, and bulletin announcements. All these materials are available in English and in Spanish.
Read the Letter from all of our California bishops introducing the Radiate Love initiative in English or in Spanish.
Support Changes Everything
Pregnant? Need Help?
Local help is available: pregnancy clinics and centers, shelters and food distribution, mental health support, and resources for maternal and perinatal health.
Hope and Healing After Abortion
The Church understands and cares
Hope and Healing After Abortion is a sensitive, private, confidential experience of accompaniment. Our volunteers aim to provide a caring, compassionate, and non-judgmental presence for anyone who is suffering from the affects of abortion and who is seeking reconciliation with God and their faith community.
Getting married?
Marriage formation for engaged couples
The sacrament of marriage is not a social convention, an empty ritual or merely the outward sign of a commitment. The sacrament is a gift given for the sanctification and salvation of the spouses, since “their mutual belonging is a real representation, through the sacramental sign, of the same relationship between Christ and the Church. The married couple are therefore a permanent reminder for the Church of what took place on the cross; they are for one another and for their children witnesses of the salvation in which they share through the sacrament.”
Pope Francis in Amoris Laetitia n. 72
Marriage
& Family
Formation
Pastoral
Care
