Pray together
Families and neighbours create welcoming spaces for prayer, reflection, music, and meaningful conversation.
A pattern of community life
Groups of Families
Families, friends, and neighbours learning to build community life together.
Across Ottawa, groups of families and friends are discovering new ways to strengthen the spiritual and social life of their neighbourhoods. A family is not only a solitary household. It can become part of a wider network of friendship, support, prayer, learning, and service.
When families come together with a shared desire to contribute to the well-being of their community, something beautiful begins to emerge. Children are nurtured by many caring adults. Junior youth find encouragement and purpose. Youth arise to serve. Parents and friends support one another. Neighbours become companions. The circle of friendship widens.
How it begins
A pattern of community life
A group of families might begin very simply: a few households gathering for prayers, a conversation among neighbours, a children’s class in a home, a junior youth group in a park, or friends studying together and reflecting on how to serve.
Over time, these simple acts can become a pattern of community life marked by unity, joy, consultation, mutual support, and service. The aim is not to create isolated activities, but to nurture relationships and capacities that help everyone contribute to the betterment of the community.
Together, they can
What groups of families can do
Raise children with noble qualities
Children are helped to develop spiritual qualities such as kindness, truthfulness, generosity, justice, and love for humanity.
Empower junior youth
Young people aged 11–14 are accompanied to form a strong moral identity, develop their powers of expression, and contribute to the well-being of their communities.
Serve the neighbourhood
Friends consult about the needs and hopes around them and arise together in acts of service, however simple.
Reflect and learn together
Families and friends pause, reflect on experience, learn from action, and consider what steps can be taken next.
Widen the circle of friendship
As more neighbours, relatives, friends, and young people participate, a growing network of support and shared purpose begins to take shape.
Everyone has a part
Everyone can contribute
Every person has a part to play. Children, junior youth, youth, parents, grandparents, friends, and neighbours all bring capacities, insights, talents, and hopes. A vibrant community is built as more and more people see themselves as protagonists of its progress.
This way of building community is not about a few people organizing activities for others. It is about many people learning to walk a path of service together.
Our well-being is connected with the well-being of those around us.
In a new light
Groups of families help us see our community in a new light. They remind us that our well-being is connected with the well-being of those around us. Through prayer, friendship, consultation, education, and service, families and neighbours can contribute to a more unified, hopeful, and vibrant Ottawa.