Distinctive traits
The fundamental «insight» that gave rise to the Association is well expressed in the «notes» of the first meeting (11 November 1985, in the small sitting room of my OMI community in via Saladino in Palermo, near the famous historic market of “Ballarò”) of what was then the «Gruppo Cana». We read, word for word: «This is an introduction to our meetings, which will be carried forward by life more than by the topics we discuss. We start from a Gospel episode told by John (2:1–12): the wedding at Cana … We ask ourselves: why a «Cana» group? For two fundamental reasons:
1) To deepen the sacrament of marriage as a human-divine reality: hence, to discover and live the vocation to marriage …
2) To respond to a fundamental design of God who, in the present deep crisis of the family, calls us to discover and live the marital and family mission».
In short, the distinctive traits could be outlined as follows family spirituality for which we feel responsible as an Association, aware of a gift received and passed on to others.
- The centrality of the person, the couple and the family according to God's design: hence, awareness of the calling and mission of the vocation to marriage and family life.
- Active faithfulness to the Magisterium of the Church, in the sense that it aims at knowing, deepening and spreading the teaching of the Church, above all concerning marriage and the family.
- Formation of the members of the Association and of other couples and people interested in marriage and family matters.
- Communion with the local Churches and commitment to family ministry of the same; collaboration with institutions and other educational and cultural bodies active in the area, above all where members of the Association are present.
- Missionary outreach: is the concrete commitment of the couple as such, which derives specifically from the sacrament of marriage, and of the Association as a whole. Over these years, what has proved most effective is the spreading from couple to couple and from family to family.
A significant contribution to forming this missionary awareness in the Association comes from the missionary charism of St Eugene de Mazenod (founder of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate) and from the firm conviction that «evangelisation, in the future, depends largely on the domestic Church[1] […] and the future of humanity passes by way of the family.»[2]
- Bond with the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. It is a bond of a spiritual and missionary nature — we might say a “family” bond — given that the Association was born on the initiative of an OMI missionary, as were the roots of the missionary drive on behalf of couples and families that characterises the OASI CANA Association. From this relationship also comes the collaboration with the OMI in the concrete field of mission, especially for the wide and complex world of couples and families.
- Attention to the Church and society of today to grasp “the signs of the times” for a service worthy of the family and carried out with it.
