Family

“Family ties are not destroyed by reincarnation, as certain persons believe;

on the contrary, they are strengthened and become tighter. It is the opposite

principle that does destroy them.” (GAS, Ch. 4, item 18)

The family represents an important cell of society, a privileged space for the first learning of the reincarnated spirits, with a relevant function of spiritual maturation.

Intrafamily bonds are the pillars of emotional and social reference for children and young people, preparing and strengthening them for the reincarnatory challenges assumed.

Under this perspective, parents and family members are educators par excellence, taking on a serious educational task with the children and young people who make up their family nucleus:

[…] know your duties and put all your love in leading that soul to God. This is the mission that has been entrusted to you and for which you will receive recompense if you faithfully fulfill it. The care and education you give it will help in its self-improvement and future well-being. Remember that God will ask every father and every mother, “What did you do for the children whom I entrusted into your care?” – Saint Augustine, KARDEC, Allan, GAS, Chap. XIV, 9).

In view of the relevant guidance, family groups should promote an affectionate, harmonious, coherent and educational home environment, in order to favor the moral development of their children and guide them towards the paths of goodness. The Gospel at Home represents a special moment of family study, coexistence and learning, and the groups and parents’ meetings offered by spiritist institutions can help them to better understand the sublime opportunity of motherhood and fatherhood.

Referring to the activities of Spiritist Education, the spirits invite to:

• “While home is the school par excellence, […] [parents] should never overlook the need to bring them closer to the services of spiritist education, in whose blessed activities the spiritual formation of children and young people will be provided for their future.” (Bezerra de Menezes)

• “[…] that parents send their children to spiritist education schools, being interested in the evangelical learning of their offspring, asking, dialoguing, motivating, accompanying …” (Guillon Ribeiro)

Source: CYFA – International Spiritist Council

The Role of Parents

“Family is always the sublime laboratory of mixture and fusing of spirits, providing the most varied enlightening experiences in the terrestrial school.” – Joanna de Angelis / Divaldo Franco

Can parenthood be considered a mission?

“It is, without any doubt, a mission, and, at the same time, a very great duty, which involves parents more than they might think concerning their responsibility for the future. God has placed children under the care of their parents so that they may guide them on the path of goodness, and has facilitated their task by giving children a frail and delicate organization, which renders them accessible to all sorts of impressions. However, there are those who are more concerned with training the trees in their orchards, and making them bring forth fine fruit, than with training the character of their children. If their children fail due to their neglect, they will have to bear the punishment, and the sufferings of their children will come back to them in a future life, because they did not do what was incumbent upon them for their children’s advancement in the ways of morality.” (TSB q/a 582)

Spiritist Education & Family

The main purpose of a Spirit to return to a body of a child is to be educated again. The positive impressions the Spirit receives during childhood may be crucial to its current existence and even to future lives. It is because of the semi-conscious state of the incarnate spirit in a child’s body that its mental barriers of defense are neutralized, thus it is softer and more receptive, as well as more flexible and open to all influences…

Hence, the importance of the Spiritist Education, because to spiritually educate the children is to prepare them to face all times and all adversities of life according to the postulates of the Gospel. It is the only way to cultivate in the spirit of the child the understanding of practicing good deeds, the acquisition of morality and knowledge, so that it may reach the twilight of its physical existence conscious of its spiritual achievements, knowing itself and placing itself in the universe as a collaborator of the Supreme Divinity.

“A Spiritually Educated Child -will be an adult that will raise oneself toward future happiness.”

– Dr. Bezerra de Menezes

The Gospel at Home

1) What is the Gospel at Home? It is a weekly meeting at home when family members and friends get together to study the Spiritist teachings and pray together.

2) What are its purposes? To create at home the healthy habit of getting together family members to practice spirituality; To open the family’s vibratory field to loving and kind Enlightened Spirits; To prevent and/or treat individual and familial disturbances; To cleanse our home’s vibratory field through the elevation of our thoughts and feelings; To expand spiritual knowledge and consciousness; To strengthen family ties; To elevate the vibrational pattern of the family to help the Spirit Benefactors build a better world; To teach spirituality to children while practicing it at home; To unite humanity through prayer.