A Little Society

Liesl Schiavone grounds herself in perspective and purpose while navigating the crazy parts of family life.  

Do you ever have those weeks where you just collapse at the end of each day and think it couldn’t possibly get crazier? 

It’s quite remarkable really, the sheer insanity of life sometimes. The routines and schedules, the ins and outs of family life, and keeping up with a world that just keeps spinning. Special events, minor ailments, severe weather, health emergencies, and bad decisions due to underdeveloped frontal lobes are just a few of the goings-on we got to experience in the last week.  

This is family life: full of twists and turns and unexpected catastrophes of varying degrees. If it weren’t so darn beautiful it’d be unbearable. 

But it is so darn beautiful. Because after the adrenaline kicks in and the problem has past, you’re left with beautiful people, laughs, and restorative joy. You’re left with the kind of the love that perfectly reflects the Father’s love for you and for all those you hold dear. It never becomes unbearable because there is always more grace to carry you through. 

From Rerum Novarum to Today  

A few weeks ago, our newly elected Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV gave an address to world ambassadors in which he said,  

It is the responsibility of government leaders to work to build harmonious and peaceful civil societies. This can be achieved above all by investing in the family, founded upon the stable union between a man and a woman, a small but genuine society, and prior to all civil society. (Pope Leo XIV)

These words beautifully echoed Pope Leo XIII who, in his 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, emphasized the importance of the family as a "little society." He wrote,  

A family, no less than a State, is, as We have said, a true society, governed by an authority peculiar to itself. (Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, 14) 

What It's All About  

It’s all about the family. Spouses, children and siblings doing what needs to be done to help each other, responding and learning what it means to be flexible for the benefit of another. That’s where this “little society” shines so brightly, when everyone involved grows in virtue through the ordinary happenings of daily life and where stability is brought about through love and sacrifice. The hope being that this “little society” will stand the test of time and that those virtues will be handed down from generation to generation, until the end of time.  

In this life, storms happen, sometimes right after another. There are seasons of scarcity and seasons of plenty, times of celebration and mourning, disagreements and wonderful fellowship. Our mission is to create consistency through these highs and lows, to build a society where mutual respect, charity, and sacrifice don’t change with the seasons but are strengthened by them.  

If you find yourself in one of these chaotic seasons, take a moment to step back. You just might catch the beauty of it all. 

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Copyright 2025 Liesl Schiavone
Images: Canva