Catholic Family Handbook: Time-tested Techniques to Help You Strengthen Your Marriage and Raise Good Kids

by Lawrence G. Lovasik

Time-tested strategies to help you strengthen your marriage and raise good kids Here is a crucial book for you if you want to shield your family from the effects of our selfish secular culture, which destroys families and poisons relationships. Fr. Lawrence Lovasik, the renowned author of The Hidden Power of Kindness , gives faithful Catholics all the essential ingredients of a stable and loving Catholic marriage and family — ingredients that are in danger of being lost in our turbulent age. Using Scripture and Church teachings in an easy-to-follow, step-by-step format, Fr. Lovasik helps you understand the proper role of the Catholic father and mother and the blessings of family. He shows you how you can secure happiness in marriage, develop the virtues necessary for a successful marriage, raise children in a truly Catholic way, and much more. Let Fr. Lovasik strengthen your marriage and family as you discover:

Genres: Catholic, Parenting, Religion, Nonfiction, Marriage

240 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2000

About the author

Fr. Lawrence Lovasik, SVD attended primary school at Saint Clement School before continuing on to Divine Word minor seminary and college in Girard, Pennsylvania. He graduated in 1931.

Father Lovasik then entered the Divine Word Major Seminary in Techny, Illinois, where he graduated in 1938. After completing his theological studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Father Lovasik was ordained a missionary priest of the Society of the Divine Word on August 14, 1938.

Father Lovasik spent several years as a teacher and Prefect of Seminarians for the Society of the Divine Word. For over forty years, he preached parish missions throughout the Eastern United States and conducted retreats throughout the world.

In 1954, Father Lovasik founded the Sisters of the Divine Spirit, a missionary congregation of women religious. In 1967, he founded the Family Service Corps, a secular institute devoted to charitable work for the sick, elderly and needy.

Father Lovasik said his life's ideal was to make God more known and loved through his writings. He published more than 30 books and over 75 pamphlets including prayer books, Bible stories for children, lives of the saints, and catechisms.

Father Lovasik retired from missionary work in 1982.

Reviews

[Cathy Q de V · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. I found it to be quite balanced, straight forward and full of wisdom. Would recommend!

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I gave this edition 3 stars because it is highly abridged. the original edition had much more material in it.
I really don't like sophia institutes editions of books because they edit and abridge them often cutting out huge swathes of paragraphs and even taking out entire chapters from books. Get the original editions of these books if you can.
Edit: I guess I shouldn't throw out the whole lot. There are some books that Sophia doesn't edit or abridge. But if you are going to reprint a book, reprint the whole book even of you think some of it is outdated. The author wrote the book honor what they wrote.

[Carmen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Father Lovasik always has something worthwhile to say. I didn't know that there is no reason in the world to ever be impatient. I'm learning a lot from this book.

[timreadsbooks · Rating 1 out of 5]

There’s so little appeal to authority, whether Catholic doctrine or Biblical citation, that the entire book is basically just the author’s opinion. In that regard there’s nothing particularly Catholic about this handbook, and since it fails to live up to even its title I’ve got to give it less than three stars. But a couple little gems of ignorance bring it down to one star territory for me and confirm why I won’t be keeping this book on my shelves for my children (God forbid) to discover for themselves.

“Some married women harm their homes, their husbands, their children, and themselves by too much external activity: organizations, societies, luncheon groups, clubs, and civic communities. Birth control is a cause for too much social life. A childless or almost childless home can drive women to expend their God-given energies for motherhood on vain external affairs.” p. 39

Wow. So birth control is to blame for women being so harmfully engaged in their communities. The poor kids crying and hungry at home because mom’s too busy making sure they have a functioning society to grow up in and dad, I guess, can’t lift a finger to give her time for that part of her life. And the jab of “almost childless”, because just one child isn’t enough to keep married women at home and out of the community.

“Instill in your children’s hearts, from early years, a knowledge of the difficulties and dangers connected with mixed marriages, and try to make them want to date and marry only a person of their own Faith.” p. 216

Oh the difficulties and dangers. He doesn’t need to list any of them apparently because I guess we all know.

This isn’t a book we still need floating around Catholic communities in the 21st century. Give me a book that tells me what it means to be a good Catholic family in today’s United States where anti-abortion crusaders ally themselves with white supremacists and where a Catholic president butts heads with six Catholic Supreme Court justices. Give me a book that tells me how to raise a good Catholic family that’s part of a community still reeling from widespread and horrifically concealed sexual abuse. That’s the real challenge we all face as we try to raise good Catholic families. Where’s that handbook?

[Sherri · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm starting a Catholic parenting ministry and I thought this book would be great for a small group discussion, but not sure that it was what I was expecting. The section on marriage was way too preachy for my personal tastes. This may have been good advice for couples in the 1950's but in this day and age it really falls short and doesn't address the current concerns. Yes, some of it still applies but it would have been much more interesting if it were updated. My biggest criticism is that it fell short on scripture. If you're going to preach it, show me where it says in The Bible or at least use parables and examples to support the argument. While there were a few footnotes throughout, it just wasn't enough and if we choose this book for the group, we most likely will not include the marriage section as required reading.

As for the parenting section and raising children in the faith, there is good pertinent advice and recommendations. Nothing that I haven't heard before, but topics that will make for good discussion with other parents. Again, it could use some updates to include current topics pertaining to youth with more scripture-based support.

[Amanda Dora · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mostly things I’ve heard before, nothing that was helpful advice with raising kids, also things I disagree with: the idea that you can spoil an infant that is crying by holding them (you can’t), and the notion that corporal punishment is acceptable only under the age of reason. Seems outdated.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I most valued the 2nd half of the book

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's not very often that I start a book and decide not to finish it. And I never would have guessed that this would be one of those books! I just cannot make myself read any more. Although I picked it up from the NEW shelf, its first edition was in 1962, and I don't think much of it was revised before this new copy came out. It is like reading a book of common knowledge ideas: kindness, forgiveness, love, etc. I read to page 66 and did not get inspired by a single new idea or thought. I don't think the rest of the book will be much different. It would be a great read for someone who has no idea how to raise children in the Catholic faith, but for those of us who are already immersed in our Catholic family life, this book just isn't necessary or particularly helpful.

[Nicky · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adore this book. Father Lovasik is concise and clear in his message, firm yet understanding. An incredibly helpful book to both strengthen your marriage and raise children properly all with God at the center, right where He belongs!

[Gina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this book as a good read. It offered decent tips on making a marriage work and raising children using the teachings of the church but is a very dry read. This book would've been much improved by using real world examples of Catholic couples and families to show the suggestions in action.

[Kristie Racanelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fr. Lawrence has a wealth of knowledge about families and I think his advice is good. I would recommend this to any Catholic family, no matter at what stage they are.