Year of Amoris Laetitia Family
Family Love: Vocation and Path to Holiness Video
In preparation for the 10th World Meeting of Families (WMF), the CCCB Standing Committee on Family and Life has produced a short promotional video to help bring to life the WMF theme “Family Love: Vocation and Path to Holiness”. The video has been produced in both English and French and can be viewed here:
Family is the foundation of every society.
On the Feast of the Holy Family, December 27, 2020, Pope Francis announced the upcoming Year of Amoris Laetitia Family. The year, which began on March 19, 2021, celebrates the fifth anniversary of the publication of Pope Francis’s Apostolic Exhortation, Amoris Laetitia, on the beauty and joy of love in the family.
The year runs slightly longer than a year, since it officially ends during the World Meeting of Families in Rome on June 26, 2022. Family is the foundation of every society, so the year is an opportunity for us to examine, celebrate and reinvigorate all families and help them to see their essential value as the “Domestic Church.”
We invite you to celebrate the beauty and joy of family with us during this year dedicated to family and remind you of Pope Francis words from Amoris Laetitia: “My advice is never to let the day end without making peace in the family. And how am I going to make peace? By getting down on my knees? No! Just by a small gesture, a little something, and harmony within your family will be restored. Just a little caress, no words are necessary.”
Watch Pope Francis' video message for the 10th World Meeting of Families
Resources
Over the course of ten monthly episodes, hear the Holy Father talk about each of the chapters of the Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, along with the testimonies of different families who will share some aspects of their daily lives.
Twelve paths to walk with families following Amoris Laetitia – possible ways we can commit to the pastoral care of the family.
From 9 to 12 June 2021, a Forum was held online and gathered the heads of Offices for Family Pastoral Ministry from Bishops’ Conferences, International Movements and Family Associations.
The Rosary for the Family has been carefully created by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network and the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life. The team is delighted with this partnership in order to help families to pray and to pray as a family.
Each mystery is accompanied by a watercolor drawing that helps families enter into the mysteries and meditations proposed more profoundly, so that they can become “cenacles of prayer for spreading Mary’s love throughout the world”.
You can download the app or the pdf here:
World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly
Pope Francis has decided to institute the Church-wide celebration of World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly. Starting this year, it will be held on the fourth Sunday of July, close to the liturgical memorial of Saints Joachim and Anne, the grandparents of Jesus.
Heavenly Father,
We come before You to praise You
and to thank You for the great gift of the family.
We pray to You for all families
consecrated by the Sacrament of Matrimony.
May they rediscover each day
the grace they have received,
and as small domestic Churches,
may they know how to witness to Your presence
and to the love with which Christ loves the Church.
We pray to You for all families faced with difficulty and suffering
caused by illness or circumstances of which only You know.
Sustain them and make them aware
of the path to holiness upon which You call them,
so that they might experience Your infinite mercy
and find new ways to grow in love.
We pray to You for children and young people:
may they encounter You and respond joyfully
to the vocation You have in mind for them;
We pray for parents and grandparents: may they be aware
that they are signs of the fatherhood and motherhood of God
in caring for the children who, in body and spirit, You entrust to them;
and for the experience of fraternity
that the family can give to the world.
Lord, grant that each family
might live their specific vocation to holiness in the Church
as a call to become missionary disciples,
in the service of life and peace,
in communion with our priests, religious,
and all vocations in the Church.
Bless the World Meeting of Families.
Amen.
Official prayer for the X World Meeting of Families
22-26 June 2022