With 35 grandchildren, Stephen and Peggy Gabriel write and teach about the vocation of marriage.
For Stephen Gabriel, his grandchildren serve as his legacy, what he calls “an eternal legacy.” He and his wife, Peggy, hope to model a holy marriage for their eight children and 35 grandchildren. Stephen and Peggy so desired to teach their grandchildren about how to live a holy life that Stephen published a book dedicated to them— “Hope for Your Grandchildren”—which was later published by Scepter Publishing as a book for grandparents.
Stephen was born in Quincy, Mass., in 1951 as one of six children in a Catholic family. With his father in the U.S. Marines, Stephen frequently traveled with his family as a child, spending most of his adolescent and high school years in Panama, where his father served as a Panama Canal pilot.
Born in 1951, Peggy grew up outside Milwaukee as one of eight kids in a devout Catholic family. Though her family was well-educated in the Catholic faith, she attended high school and college during the 1960s and 1970s and gradually fell away from the faith.
It was not until she met Stephen at Loyola University Chicago, that the two sought to return to their faith. When faced with the question “Why get married?” Peggy said they both realized they needed a strong faith foundation in order to start a family. They reached out to a priest in marriage prep and began to ask questions about the Catholic faith.
“Maybe you don’t realize it at the time that you’re doing it,” Peggy said, but “you’re growing toward the faith, step by step.”
After marrying in 1975, the Gabriels moved to Champaign, Ill., and began to raise their family while Stephen earned a master’s and doctorate degree. After living in Puerto Rico for several years, the family moved to the Washington area in 1980, where they became part of the community at St. James Church in Falls Church.
Early in their marriage, Stephen said both he and Peggy felt called to join Opus Dei, and they have been members for more than 40 years. Through Opus Dei’s message of “sanctifying ordinary life,” Peggy said she came to recognize that marriage “was a vocation that God was calling us to; that we were going to be helping each other become holy through that marriage.”
Stephen said that while parents often bring their children up in the faith and in the sacraments, at some point the children must make the faith their own. “The primary goal of parents should be to teach their children the virtues, to teach them to love Our Lord,” he said. “The best way to do that is by setting that example, so that the home is a school of love.”
Now, with 35 grandchildren, the Gabriels seek to pass on important life lessons to parents and grandparents alike.
Stephen wanted to give his grandchildren advice on important things such as God, education, work, and the church. After writing a series of letters embodying this advice, he compiled them into a single volume titled, “Hope for Your Grandchildren.” As each grandchild comes of age, he or she will receive a unique signed edition of this book with a brief autobiography. “This way, it’s something they can have and read at their leisure and reflect on.”
Reflecting on the book’s publication for grandparents, Stephen said he hopes his writing will give grandparents “a template for communicating with their own grandchildren about some of these important things.”
Over the years, Stephen has published several books, including, “To Be a Father,” “Alone with Jesus,” “The Indispensable DAD,” “Speaking to the Heart,” and “Catholic Controversies.” His latest on grandchildren is available on Amazon and Catholic Books Direct.
The Gabriels said the love they share through marriage and as parents is what helped them raise a large, loving Catholic family. Peggy said that once kids come along, you cannot lose sight of the relationship between you and your spouse. By strengthening your marriage, she advised, children witness their parents’ unity through marriage, as well as their unity in the Catholic faith.
“Through the very marriage and the things we were doing with his job and the things I was doing at home and the raising of the kids and trying to pass on that faith to the kids: this is what He wanted,” Peggy said.
“A strong marriage is the best gift that you can give your kids.”
