There is no need to idealize the family, but we must be aware of how great a gift it is for us, together with the resignations and self-sacrifices it requires, said Minister Katalin Novák on Wednesday in Budapest.
We cannot avoid the topic of family, even if we want to. It's a staple of our personal lives that we talk about all the time. However, the family is discussed too often due to ideological suggestions, it is worth channeling these towards a pragmatic approach - it was said at the presentation of the book "...what is ours" on Wednesday in Budapest's Várkert Bazaar.
The volume presents fifty writings about the family from the pens of outstanding figures from the church, scientific, economic and political life, media, sports, literature, healthcare and the family movement. Katalin Novák wrote recommendations with a personal tone for each text.
In the conversation with a similar temperament, the minister without portfolio responsible for families explained that the book contains the testimonies of people in different life situations with the above-mentioned pragmatism and does not idealize the family, but at the same time it does not see it as some kind of problematic phenomenon, but as the basis of our togetherness.
There are so many difficulties, resignations, and self-sacrifice behind family and parenthood, but it becomes a daily experience that it is worth undertaking these. The volume presents all of this by moving away from clichés.
In response to the questions of Kata Molnár-Bánffy, managing director of Képmás Kiadó, the minister stated that it is particularly exciting to receive the texts of authors from different fields in one bouquet. Citing the thought of Simone Weil, he emphasized the need to learn to long for what is ours.
The presented book, published deliberately for Advent, provides help in this regard.
Katalin Novák touched on that as well; in our country, what we consider a family was clearly formulated when the definition of the institution was added to the text of the Basic Law. However, he emphasized, the family can be complete with one parent or, if external circumstances shape life in such a way, even without children. It can be difficult if someone comes to adoptive parents after difficult times, or if starting a family does not immediately succeed as we would like.
The family has extraordinary wealth, which does not need to be colored any further, he noted. Katalin Novák said, "I got a flashlight in my hand, which I can use to highlight the lives and values that the authors in the book present." Their common denominator is that faith and grace appear in the confessions of all of them. Our family existence is also a kind of link, connecting generations. According to the minister's view, there is absolutely no time to spend on publishing traditional books of the past, even our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will read them, precisely as a symbol of this bond.
Source: Mandarin
Image: Facebook
