From Columbia, a magazine publication of the Knights of Columbus, May 2003:

"In a world becoming ever more secularized, the great task of the believing family is to become conscious of its own vocation and mission."
-- Pope John Paul II

It's good to remember that just as there are a variety of ministries within the vocation of priesthood (pastor, missionary and teacher, for example), so too within the vocation of marriage. There can be, to quote a phrase used by Mother Teresa to describe her own life's work, "a call within a call."

For a family, for a couple, that calling or ministry can change over time. It is therefore important to foster family support for couples, especially young couples, by families who are spiritually and morally solid. It is a necessary apostolate at this time in history.

Special care must be shown young spouses so that they do not surrender in the face of problems and conflicts.

The starting point for this work is to safeguard and intensify prayer. This means an unceasing prayer to the LORD to increase one's faith and make it stronger. Nothing can replace an ardent, personal and confident faith that is open to the LORD. . . . Prayer, frequent recourse to the sacrament of reconciliation, spiritual direction, must never be abandoned with the idea that one can replace them with techniques of human and psychological support.

Young couples and families today face a host of new challenges, worries and fears.

John Paul went on to say that helping -- mentoring, coaching, praying for, rooting for! -- that younger generation is "even more necessary when there abound lifestyles, fashion and cultures that bring into doubt the value of marriage, even reaching the point of holding that it is impossible to realize the mutual gift of self in marriage until death in joyful fidelity."

So, how can a senior couple or family help?

• Look for the positive and praise it. A young parent can feel he or she is doing nothing right.
• Make young families feel welcome at church, particularly when youngsters are, shall we say, peppy.
• Respect their time. It may not matter much to you if a committee or council meeting goes on and on. But the timetable may keep a young partner from coming back.
• Help with the church's marriage preparation course.
• Remember that at this point in your vocation you have a mission. There is a ministry, a service, to which God is calling you.

Monica and Bill Dodds are the authors of The Joy of Marriage (Meadowbrook Press).





General Hygiene (Adapted from Essentials for Healthful Living by Ellen G. White)

The knowledge that man is to be a temple for God, a habitation for the revealing of His glory, should be the highest incentive to the care and development of our physica powers. Fearfully and wonderfully has the Creator wrought in the human frame, and He bids us make it our study, understand its needs, and act our part in preserving it from harm and defilement.


The Circulation of the Blood

In order to have good health, we must have good blood; for the blood is the current of life. It repairs waste and nourishes the body. When supplied with the proper food elements and when cleansed and vitalized by contact with pure air, it carries life and vigor to every part of the system. The more perfect the circulation, the better this work will be accomplished.

At every pulsation, the blood should move quickly and easily to all parts of the body. Its circulation should be unhindered by tight clothing or bands, or by insufficient clothing of the extremities. Whatever hinders the circulation forces the blood back to the vital organs, producing congestion. Headache, cough, palpitation of the heart, or indigestion is often the result.


Respiration

In order to have good blood, we must breathe well. Full, deep inspirations of pure air, which fill the lungs with oxygen, purify the bood. They impart to it a bright color and send it, a life-giving current, to every part of the body. A good respiration soothes the nerves, stimulates the appetite and renders digestion more perfect while inducing sound, refreshing sleep.

The lungs should be allowed the greatest freedom possible. Their capacity is developed by free action; it diminishes if they are cramped and compressed. Hence the ill effects of the practice so common, especially in sedentary pursuits, of stoopng at on'e work, a position where it it impossible to breathe deeply. Superficial breathing soon becomes a habit, and the lungs loose their power of expansion.

Tight lacing produces a similar effect. Sufficient roon is not given to the lower part of the chest; the abdominal muscles, designed to aid in breathing, do not have full play, and the lungs are restricted in their action.

Thus an insufficient supply of oxygen is received. The blood moves sluggishly. The waste, poisonous matter, which should be thrown off in the exhalations from the lungs, is retained. The blood then becomes impure. Not only the lungs, but the stomach, liver, and brain are affected. The skin becomes sallow, digestion is retarded; the heart is depressed; the brain is clouded; the thoughts are confused; gloom settles upon the spirits; the whole system becomes depressed and inactive, and peculiarly susceptible to disease.

The lungs are constantly throwing off impurities, and they need to be constantly supplied with fresh air. Impure air does not afford the necessary supply of ocygen, and the blood passes to the brain and other organs without being vitalized. Hence the necessity of thorough ventilation. To live in cosed, ill-ventilated rooms, where the air is dead and vitiated, weakens the entire system. It becomes peculiarly sensitive to the influence of cold, and a slight exposure induces disease. It is close confinement indoors that makes many women pale and feeble. They breathe the same air over and over until it becomes laden with poisonous matter thrown off through the lungs and pores, and impurities are thus conveyed back to the blood.


Ventilation and Sunlight

Neglect of proper ventilation is responsible for much of the drowsiness and dullness that destroy the effect of many a sermon and make the teacher's work toilsome and ineffective.

So far as possible, all buildings intended for human habitation should be placed on high, well-drained ground. This will ensure a dry site and prevent the danger of disease from dampness and miasma. This matter is often too lightly regarded. Continuous ill-health, serious diseases, and many deaths result from the dampness and malaria of low-lying, ill-drained situations.

In the building of houses, it is especially important to secure thorough ventilation and plenty of sunlight. Let there be a current of air and an abundance of light in every room in the house. Sleeping rooms should be so arranged as to have a free circulation of air day and night. No room is fit o be occupied as a sleeping room unless it can be thrown open daily to the air and sunshine. In most countries bedrooms need to be supplied with conveniences for heating, that they may be thoroughly warmed and dried in cold or wet weather.

The guestchamber should have equal care with the rooms intended for constant use. Like the other bedrooms, it should have air and sunshine, and should be provided with some means of heating, to dry out the dampness that always accumulates in a room not in constant use. Whoever sleeps in a sunless room, or occupies a bad that has not been thoroughly dried and aired, does so at the risk of health, and often of life.

In building, many make careful provision for their plants and flowers. The greenhouse or window devoted to their use is warm and sunny; for without warmth, air, and sunshine, plants would not live and flourish. If these conditions are necessary to the life of plants, how much more for our own health and that of our families and guests!

If we would have our homes the abiding place of health and happiness, we must place them above the miasma and fog of the lowlands, and give free entrance to heaven's life-giving agencies. Dispense with heavy curtains, open the windows and the blinds, allow no vines, however beautiful, to shade the windows, and permit no trees to stand so near the house as to shut out the sunshine. The sunlight may fade the drapery and the carpets, and tarnish the picture frames; but it will bring a healthy glow to the cheeks of the children.

Those who have the elderly to provide for should remember that they especially need warm, comfortable rooms. Vigor declines as years advance, leaving less vitality with which to resist unhealthful influences;
hence, the greater need for the aged to have plenty of sunlight, and fresh, pure air.

Srupulouse cleanliness is essential to both physical and mental health. Impurities are costantly thrown off from the body through the skin. Its millions of pores are quickly clogged unless kept clean by frequent bathing, and the impurities which should pass off through the skin become an additional burden to the other eliminating organs.

Most persons would receive benefit from a cool or tepid bath every day, morning or evening. Instead of increasing the liability to take cold, a bath, properly taken, fortifies against, because it improves the circulation; the blood is brought to the surface, and a more easy and regular flow is obtained, envigorating both the mind and the body. The muscles become more flexible, the intellect is made brighter. The bath is a soother of the nerves. Bathing helps the bowels, the stomach, the liver, giving health and energy to each, and it promotes digestion.

It is important also that the clothing be kept clean. The garments worn absorb the waste matter that passes off through the pores; if they are ot frequently changed and washed, the impurities will be reabsorbed.

Every form of uncleanliness tends to disease. Death-producing germs abound in dark, neglected corners, in decaying refuse, in dampness and mold and murk. No waste vegetables or heaps of fallen leaves should be allowed to remain near the house to decay and poison the air. Nothing unclean or decaying should be tolerated within the home.

In towns or cities regardedperfectly healthful, many an epidemic or fever has been traced to decaying matter around the dwelling of some careless householder.

Perfect cleanliness, plenty of sunlight, careful attention to sanitation in every detail of the home life, are essential to freedom from disease and to the cheerfulnees and vigor of the inmates of the home.