Domestic Church: Pope Reflects on Bridget of Sweden, Wife, Mother, Model for our Age

The Holy Father also observed that it is often the wife who is the initiator of change toward holiness

Within the womb of the Christian family as "domestic church," husband and wife join together in a sacred labor of love that, with their gaze focused on Christ's Mystical Body, bonds them to a common, spiritual and missionary purpose. The Christian family truly is a domestic church. Christian marriage is a call to holiness and participation in the mission of the whole Church. Bridget of Sweden, wife and mother, is a model for our age. Each Christian family is called to be a "domestic church," and, with that call, comes responsibilities. 

GLADE PARK, CO (Catholic Online) - On Wednesday October 27, during his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square, Pope Benedict XVI reflected on the life of St. Bridget of Sweden, the 14th-century mother of eight and mystic, who he offered as an example for all Christians to follow, particularly wives, mothers and widows.

The Holy Father pointed out that there are two periods we can distinguish in the life of St. Bridget, co-patroness of Europe. The first was "characterized by her condition as a happily married woman" to a man called Ulf, who was governor of an important district of the Kingdom of Sweden. Their marriage, blessed by a household teeming with God's children, lasted twenty-eight years until Ulf's death, which occurred in a monastery to which he had formerly retired.

The second period of Bridget's life began when, after becoming a widow, she "renounced future marriage," continued Pope Benedict, in order "to deepen her union with the Lord through prayer, penance and works of charity." At Ulf's death, moved to give of herself entirely to Jesus Christ, Bridget distributed her material possessions to the poor and, though not acceding to the consecrated life of a religious, "established herself in the Cistercian monastery of Alvastra." It was at this point in her life that many sublime, divine revelations of varied content began, which remained with her the rest of her earthly days.

Bridget dictated an account of these numerous mystical experiences to her confessor-secretaries, who translated them into Latin and formed them into an edition of eight books titled Revelationes (Revelations).

Pope Benedict briefly summarized St. Bridget's Revelations as "presented in the form of dialogue between the Divine Persons, the Virgin, the saints and also the demons; dialogues in which Bridget also intervenes. At other times, instead, it is the narration of a particular vision; and at others she narrates what the Virgin Mary revealed to her on the life and mysteries of her Son.

"The value of St. Bridget's Revelations, sometimes the object of doubt," continued the Holy Father, "was specified by the Venerable John Paul II in the letter Spes Aedificandi: 'Yet there is no doubt that the Church,' wrote my beloved predecessor, 'which recognized Bridget's holiness without ever pronouncing on her individual revelations, has accepted the overall authenticity of her interior experience'" (No. 5).

St. Bridget's Influence On Her Family: Docility To Ultimate Purpose

Pope Benedict observed that during the first period of St. Bridget's life, a time as a Christian mother and wife, she "exercised a very positive influence on her family that, thanks to her presence, became a true 'domestic church.'"

As a seed is first cast onto cultivated ground, then watered by heavenly rain and nourished by the light of the sun, sprouts forth to become a crop of nourishing sustenance, so too Bridget's response to God's grace provided a type of holy leaven that would spread throughout her entire family. Thus Bridget and her husband would both together embrace a life directed toward holiness, which would become the very foundation and core of their Christian family, and in which they correctly saw their familial purpose as one of glorifying God through a loving and obedient response to Christ's love.

It is important to recognize that Bridget's influence of holiness upon her family began with her own sincere desire to respond to Christ's grace and the shaping action of the Holy Spirit in relation to her vocation of marriage, which then spread throughout the familial unit as a holy leaven. Such a transformative effect is the work of the Holy Spirit who, within the sacrament of Matrimony, seeks to draw man, wife and children into an embrace of love and purpose within the One Body of Christ. It is essentially a "joining"of the domestic church with Christ's Bride, the universal Church, both directed toward the building up of Christ's Mystical Body. In this sacred relationship between the Christian family and Christ's Bride, the vocation of Christian marriage blossoms to its fullest extent.

What we find in St. Bridget is docility to ultimate purpose -- an interior attitude in which the soul desires God's will only and nothing else -- which becomes a powerful and moving force of love in the context of family, one that brings happiness and peace, and which frees the Christian family from the constraints and disorders found in the impoverished, secularist notion of family. Thus, as Pope Benedict observed, Bridget and Ulf made great progress in their life of Christian holiness: Both adopted the rule of the Franciscan Tertiaries, practiced various works of charity toward the indigent with concerned generosity, and founded a hospital that would provide for the physical needs of the ill and the injured. Also, their second child, Karin (Catherine), raised in an intimate family environment of deep Christian faith, became herself a model of holiness and is venerated as saint.

The Christian Family In Its True Context: The "Domestic Church"

Above we read of Pope Benedict's observation of St. Bridget's family as one  that "became a true 'domestic church.'" What does this term "domestic church" mean?

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, in their Pastoral Letter issued on Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan, remind us that "Through the Sacrament of Matrimony, Christian couples are configured to Christ's love for the Church. Because of this participation in the love of Christ, the communion of persons formed by the married couple and their family is a kind of microcosm of the Church. For this reason, the Second Vatican Council employs the ancient expression 'domestic church,' ecclesia domestica, to describe the nature of the Christian family (see Lumen Gentium, 11). The family is called a 'domestic church' because it is a small communion of persons that both draws its sustenance from the larger communion that is the whole Body of Christ, the Church, and also reflects the life of the Church so as to provide a kind of summary of it."

John Paul II stated that the "Christian family is also called to experience a new and original communion which confirms and perfects natural and human communion. In fact the grace of Jesus Christ, the first-born among many brethren is by its nature and interior dynamism 'a grace of brotherhood,' as St. Thomas Aquinas calls it. The Holy Spirit, who is poured forth in the celebration of the sacraments, is the living source and inexhaustible sustenance of the supernatural communion that gathers believers and links them with Christ and with each other in the unity of the Church of God. The Christian family constitutes a specific revelation and realization of ecclesial communion, and for this reason too it can and should be called 'the domestic Church'" (FC, No. 21). 

Each Christian family is called to be a "domestic church," and, with that call, comes responsibilities:

"While all members of the family are called to live out the foundational Christian virtues, fathers and mothers have a special responsibility for fostering these virtues within their children. They are the first to proclaim the faith to their children. They are responsible for nurturing the vocation of each child, showing by example how to live the married life, and taking special care if a child might be called to priesthood or consecrated life.

"Not only do parents present their children for Baptism, but, having done so, they become the first evangelizers and teachers of the faith. They evangelize by teaching their children to pray and by praying with them. They bring their children to Mass and teach them biblical stories. They show them how to obey God's commandments and to live a Christian life of holiness. Catholic schools, religious education programs, and Catholic homeschooling resources can help parents fulfill these responsibilities" (USCCB, Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan, 40).

"Conjugal Spirituality": Christian Spouses United On The Path To Sanctity

Within the womb of the Christian family as "domestic church," husband and wife join together in a sacred labor of love that, its gaze focused on Christ's Mystical Body, bonds them to a common, spiritual purpose. Pope Benedict pointed out that the "first period of Bridget's life helps us to appreciate what today we could define as an authentic 'conjugal spirituality': Together, Christian spouses can follow a path of sanctity, supported by the grace of the sacrament of Marriage."

The Holy Father also observed that it is often the wife who is the initiator of change toward holiness: "Not infrequently, as happened in the lives of St. Bridget and Ulf, it is the wife who with her religious sensibility, with delicacy and gentleness, is able to make the husband follow a path of faith. I am thinking, with recognition, of so many women who, day in day out, still today illumine their families with their testimony of Christian life. May the Spirit of the Lord fuel the sanctity of Christian spouses, to show the world the beauty of marriage lived according to the values of the Gospel: love, tenderness, mutual help, fecundity in generating and educating children, openness and solidarity to the world, [and] participation in the life of the Church."

St. Bridget died in 1373, and thus lived in a time when, as Pope Benedict XVI reminds us, "Western Christianity had not yet been wounded by division." In his closing remarks, the Holy Father remembered John Paul II's hope that she "can intercede effectively before God, to obtain the much-awaited grace of the full unity of all Christians." Such a hope is one which is shared between the Holy Father and his Venerable predecessor, John Paul II. It was, in fact, the prayer of God Incarnate himself. (see Jn 17:20 ff).

"We want to pray, dear brothers and sisters," continued pope Benedict, "for this same intention, which we consider so important, so that Europe will be able to be nourished from its own Christian roots, invoking the powerful intercession of St. Bridget of Sweden, faithful disciple of God, co-patroness of Europe."

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F. K. Bartels is a Catholic writer who knows his Catholic faith is one of the greatest treasures a man could ever have. He is managing editor of catholicpathways.com, and a contributing writer for Catholic Online.

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