SQUAD GOALS

Session 2 of the 24th YFC International Conference

SESSION OVERVIEW

ANCHOR VERSE:
"Be on your guard, stand firm in the faith, be courageous, be strong. Your every act should be done
with love." – 1 Corinthians 16:13-14

CENTRAL MESSAGE:
1. God has loved us through our family. God’s plan for us has always included a plan for it - a family
fully alive in the love of God and of neighbor through the inspiration and direction of the Holy
Spirit.
2. God has fashioned the family to be a personal gift meant for us, but ultimately also as a gift for
society and God’s kingdom here on earth. As such, the family is under attack from the Evil One,
and we can see how real, complex and diverse the challenges families are currently facing.
3. As YFC and in journeying with Saint Paul in our CFC theme, we engage with our family as
Missionaries. Standing firm with God’s plan for the family in our hearts, we are fueled by love.
We lead our families to this plan as source of unity and instrument of healing and forgiveness

OBJECTIVES:
1. To inspire youth to believe that their family is a gift from God, one of His tangible expression of
love
2. To bring youth to deep reflection on the realities of their families today – our family as our first
Corinth (introspection)
3. To lead youth to a posture of response – to stand firm as a gift and agent of healing and
forgiveness for their family.

SHARERS’ PROFILE:
1. A YFC coordinator who used to have an impure life as a youth, have experienced the
consequences of his/her wrong-doings, but is now striving to live a righteous life and is now
inspiring and encouraging the youth to guard their future family by guarding their lives right
now
2. A youth whose parents are difficult to love (e.g. mother is a prostitute/gambler, father is an
addict/womanizer) but continues to love his/her parents unconditionally

EXPANDED TALK OUTLINE

Introduction - Joy of love

Our relationship with God is our first solid ground, and our Catholic faith makes this all the more
real - For our faith is a continuous recounting of Jesus’ greatest act of love for us! Jesus is pioneer and
perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2) because he endured the place of Cross by embracing the joy that
was up ahead.

Our family is our second Solid Ground. It is meant to be the place where we are called to further
experience the “joy of love”. This is same joy meant to be experienced in the Church and is needed by
our society to witness of today. And so, with this session, we are going back to celebrating our family.
We rejoice knowing that despite the dire realities it is facing, God has had and will always have a plan for
the family.

Our Anchor verse for this year’s ICON comes from the Final Messages and Greetings that Paul
writes himself (1 Corinthians 16: 21). It is a greeting that expresses his love for the people in Corinth.
Paul rejoices in recalling and honoring and the members that he has encountered.

In his footsteps, we will be writing our own letters of Joy for our first “household” (1 Corinthians
16: 15)3, our family. To begin, we bring to light the questions we may have - What hopes and promises
does God have for me and my family? Where is God in my family in the relationships with my family
members? Where is the Holy Spirit in the situations around my family? Regardless of the questions we
may have, our wonderings are a way how we can acknowledge God at work in our family.

1. A Gift Meant for All

The Spirit continues to shape this second Solid Ground of ours. It is first our personal gift to us, a
tangible expression of God’s. But even more so, our family is a gift because God fashions it to become a
“Domestic Church”, that is the “family of God”. With Christ at the center, it is a gift that bears witness
through its struggles and victories, therefore making it a gift meant for all.

1.1. Domestic Church: Church of the Home

As CFC, God has anointed our families to be built as a Church of the Home. CFC as a community
seeks to build homes where all experiences are alive in faith. This is our way of building families
as a Domestic Church. Through worship, households, retreats, families in CFC makes visible an
image of the church, as a lively community of faith, hope, and charity.

1.2. Domestic Church: Recipients of grace

Our family is not perfect. But our family is still that gift to the Church because it is always being
perfected, continuously being recipients of graces. God gives us these through the Holy Spirit.
(speaker can refer to “Families in the Holy Spirit Renewing the Face of the Earth”)

1.3. Domestic Church: Jesus’ Family

The second gift God’s has given us the gift of His Family. We look to them as our divine model
and example for our families to follow. Jesus, Joseph & Mary faced a reality of challenges, but
Christ at the center of their family, underwent these with unwavering godliness. Certain stories
in the bible show us how they were as a family:

 Story 1 - The nativity story: FAITH. Shows Joseph & Mary’s faith in the Father.
Joseph heeded God’s message through His dream. Mary gave her Yes (fiat) by
trusting the message delivered to her by the Angel (Luke 1:26-38). Their faith in
God yielded to their consent to God’s plan which was essential to the birth of
Jesus and to the unfolding of God’s plan of Salvation for us.
  Story 2 - The Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple: OBEDIENCE. Jesus as a
child, was out preaching without letting his parents know. But once found, he
submitted to them (Luke 2:51). Jesus was obedient to God but also obedient to
His adoptive parents.

 Story 3 - The Crucifixion of Jesus: TRUST. Jesus, fully grown as an adult and
fulfilling His mission on the Cross, entrusts His own Mother to John, and John to
Mary (John 19:26). John responds as a disciple, taking Jesus her into his home.
This is how Jesus instituted the family to carry out His ministry.

These stories allow us to see how God’s ideal plan for family can be unfolding in our own at this very
moment. Let us now take the time to recall our own stories with our family. We’ll start by writing down
the names of our family members down. And then, let’s write down what you are most thankful about
when you think about your family.

(Letter Writing Segment 1 - “Thank You” )

2. Facing the Storm

Our Dad, Mom, Brother and Sisters. A “family fully alive” (Pope Francis - World Meeting of Families
2015) in the love of God is what summarizes what our families are called to be. This means that we re-
direct our focus on our relationships. God’s plan involves a family in which every member can see one
another as an unlimited source of love and strength. And so we ask ourselves, how are my relationships
with my family members?

Pope Francis in his apostolic exhortation “Amoris Laetitia” identifies that there are many factors that
impact relationships within our families. He warns and draws our attention to the current reality: there
is an ongoing “attack on the family” to which we have no choice but to be guard.

2.1 Being on Guard

Knowing this, our instinct should be to be on guard - to ask God what He wishes us to see in and
around our families. In fact, this is what Saint Joseph had to do.
 Story 4 - Flight to Egypt. LOOKING AHEAD. Out of fear of bowing down to another King,
King Herod orders the massacre of all male children under the age of 2 years old. Joseph
hears the warning through an Angel of the Lord and acts: He takes Mary to Egypt.
 In the same way, certain situations may force us to be suddenly and severely uprooted
from God’s plan for the family. We may be overwhelmed at the many things that we can
see attacking our families.
 Psalm 121 - A Psalm of Assurance of God’s Protection: However, we set our sight on
what’s ahead without fear knowing that God is with us.

2.2. What will we see?

What we will see is the various and real challenges that our families face today.
 Poverty
Certain families may be living with a mild to severe lack of materials or money. This puts
a strain on family ties. For those who live in poverty, we can blame our circumstances.
 On the other hand, we can make the mistake in thinking that these families don’t live
closer to us than we think.
 Illness
Certain families undergo an “experience of frailty” for a period of time when a loved one
becomes ill. It is a time of weakness and suffering. This experience can help a family
grow stronger in teaching each member of the family to remain in solidarity with one
another and how to be compassionate.
 Death - Pope Francis describes this as the darkest chasm, “black hole in the life of the
family and for which we have no explanation.” It is an experience that can lead a family
to a true act of faith, that in their mourning, can continue loving and uniting one
another through suffering.
 Irregular Situations - Separation and Divorce, Single-Parent Homes, Parents aren’t
together (unmarried), families are living apart from one another because of needed
work to sustain the family, cohabitation
 Growing individualism - Indifference to quality family life, lack of desire for children

Some of these challenges may have affected our families directly in leaving spiritual wounds. The
wounds may be broken relationships, unrepairable hurts or unresolvable or unexpressed issues.

With these challenges in mind, we need to reflect on the state of our family if we want to guard it. What
are some things about my family situation that I have a hard time accepting? What are the personal
pursuits I have that keep me from seeing the needs of my family? Would I rather spend time with my
friends, rather than spend time with my family members?
In our current reality, we must continue to ask God for his grace. We ask for the gift of faith, to be able
to walk assured of the things we hope for our family and for a conviction of things unseen (Hebrews 11).
God is working in our family at this very movement.

Our Catholic Faith teaches us, that the first movement of prayer of petition is asking for forgiveness
(CCC: 2631). It is in humility, that we return to Him, asking for His mercy for the times we have failed to
honor, love and serve our family members.

(Letter Writing Segment 2 - “I’m sorry” )

3. Becoming Families on Mission

We must remain steadfast to God’s truths for the family, even if we don’t understand it fully yet.
We slowly find ourselves enlivened by our faith and able lead our families to Christ.

Because Christ Himself allowed Himself to be placed in one, Jesus sanctified and elevated the
family and set it apart with particular purpose. In the light of the challenges, we affirm that our families
have been marked with a call to Mission & to Evangelize. God’s plan involves a family that embraces the
purpose of bringing others to Christ to their own members. Eventually, each home can be a lampstand
for others to see Christ.

As YFC, we lead the way for our families. This year, we stand firm by re-engaging with our
families as missionaries (Saint Paul). We go back to our First Corinth, our first Mission Area. Saint-Paul
 first established the Christian community in AD 51 by spending a challenging year and half preaching to
both and Jews and Gentiles.

Like Corinth, our mission to the family is one that requires time and continuous upkeeping. We
strive to bring our families to experience the fullness of life by standing firm in our mission of love.

4. Our Response - Standing Firm

We stand firm ensuring that every act we do, be done in love (1 Corinthians 16:13-14). This is how we
live out our identity of being a Source of Unity to the Family.

1. How to being a Source of Unity to the Family

We do this by embracing 3 missions:

a. Mission to Serve
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are
one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks,
slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. - 1 Corinthians 12: 12-13
i. We are a source of actionable love.
ii. It is about being faithful and consistent doing small things with great love (Saint Therese of
Lisieux), thousand small but real gestures. In this way, the family never detracts from its growth in the
Spirit, but creates a path that leads us to a lively relationship with one another and a deeper union with
God.
iii. How we do this: Practicing obedience to our parents in the small and big ways (chores or advice
to life decisions), actively checking up on our siblings, making time for or initiating regular family time

b. Mission to Encourage
Paul’s salutation. To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in
Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord[a] and ours: Grace to you and peace from
God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. - 1 Corinthians 1:1-3
i. We are a source of encouragement, support and care.
ii. We strive to uplift and bring life to the spirit of our family members
iii. How we do this: By honoring each other frequently (words of affirmation), having 1on1s
regularly, being truly present when present with the family (and not being on your phone), praying with
our family, etc.

c. Mission to Love
The Gift of Love. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned
like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a
mirror, dimly,[a] but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will
know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these
three; and the greatest of these is love. - 1 Corinthians 12: 11-12
i. We are a source of faithfulness.
ii. To be a source of faithfulness, we strive to grow and mature in the ways that we show love. It is
to always keep in mind our family in every choice we make. Every decision we make within our family is
a matter of the heart (Matthew 5:28) Every morning, on rising, we reaffirm before God our decision to
be faithful, come what may in the course of the day.
iii. How we do this: believing in our family members (even though they are imperfect), trusting our
family members with our problems, etc.

What are some things out of love for my family that I can commit to doing? Let us finish our letter to our
family by writing down certain promises we will lift up to God in our prayer time.

(Letter Writing Segment 3 - “I Love You” )

Conclusion

Before Jesus begins his public ministry at the age of 33, not much is mentioned about how Jesus lived
ouf his youth in the Scriptures. We know that after His finding in the temple, the Scriptures remain silent
until He is recounted walking the River Jordan to be baptized.
Saint Matthew recounts God’s proclamation: “A voice from heaven said, ‘This is my son, the Beloved,
with whom I am well pleased.” - Matthew 3:13-17. Jesus’ reconnection to His divine father is
announced.
In the same way, am I personally called by God as a gift to His family, as a Source of Unity toward mine.