Check out this great article from WordOnFire.org by Fr. Robert Baron: The Family is a “Little Church.”
“The paradox is this: precisely in the measure that everyone in the family focuses on God’s call for one another the family becomes more loving and peaceful. John Paul II admirably summed up what I’ve been driving at when he spoke of the family as an “ecclesiola” (a little church). At its best, he implies, the family is a place where God is worshipped and where the discernment of God’s mission is of paramount importance…”