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Home / Offices & Ministries / Family Ministry / Support/Healing/Transition / Family Life Cycle
Family Life Cycle
 “We know you face obstacles as you try to maintain strong family ties and to follow your calling as a church of the home. The rapid pace of social change; the religious, ethnic, and cultural diversity of our society; the revolution of values within our culture; the intrusion of mass media (and technology); the impact of political and economic conditions; all these place families under considerable stress.”
(USCCB, Follow the Way of Love, 1993)
Perhaps the single most descriptive word for family is “change.” Every family experiences continual change, transition and growth. A family is not simply a collection of individuals, but a living system of interdependent members. The changes that come into the life of individuals members affect all the family members as well as their roles and patterns of interaction.
Current research has identified various stages that families must negotiate some life cycle stages overlap from one generation to another:
- Young adult (unattached)
- Early married
- Family with young children
- Family with adolescents
- Launching family
- Family in later life
Families find themselves continually managing exits and entries in and out of the family system, negotiating rules, roles and responsibilities of family members, wrestling with questions related to life’s purpose. Maneuvering these life cycles is often challenging. When they are coupled with unexpected traumas such as divorce, death, loss of employment, addictions, military deployment, illness or accident, they can seem overwhelming.
Through Support, Healing and Transition, the Office for Family Ministry seeks to help parishes to support families through the various adjustments.
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