Joint Press Release of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life and the Diocese of Rome on the official prayer for the Tenth World Meeting of Families, to be held in Rome from 22 to 26 June 2022

FAMILY LOVE: VOCATION AND WAY OF HOLINESS.

THE OFFICIAL PRAYER OF THE TENTH WORLD MEETING OF FAMILIES

The diocese of Rome and the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family and Life present the official prayer for the Tenth World Meeting of Families, to be held in Rome from 22 to 26 June 2022. The official hashtag is already ready: #WMOF2022.

Cardinal Kevin Joseph Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery, comments: “Prayer is a way to enter into the heart of the Amoris Laetitia Year and the preparation for the event in Rome. Many families and many communities”, he continues, “have been waiting for a long time to be able to make their way, at least spiritually, to Rome. Prayer will accompany them and help them to grasp the message of the meeting”.

“Prayer will be at the centre of the preparatory journey, guiding the work and inspiring the reflections so as to discern, in the light of faith, the new challenges that the pandemic emergency poses to the ecclesial community with regard to families”, adds Cardinal Vicar Angelo De Donatis. For this reason, ”I invite everyone to prepare for this event of grace that the Church of Rome has the joy of hosting, addressing this prayer to the Lord in the privacy of their own family, together with the parish and diocesan community.

Family love: vocation and way of holiness

Father most Holy

we come before you to praise and thank you

for the great gift of the family.

We pray for the families consecrated in the sacrament of matrimony, that they may rediscover every day the grace they have received

and, as little domestic Churches, may they bear witness to your Presence

and the love with which Christ loves the Church.

We pray to you for families

traversed by difficulties and sufferings

by sickness, or by hardships that you alone know

Support them and make them aware of the path of sanctification to which you are calling them,

so that they may experience Your infinite mercy and find new ways to grow in love.

We pray to you for children and young people, that they may encounter you

and respond joyfully to the vocation you have planned for them;

for parents and grandparents, that they may be aware of their being a sign of God's paternity and maternity in caring for the children you entrust to them in flesh and in spirit,

For the experience of fraternity

that the family can give to the world.

Lord, grant that every family

may live their vocation to holiness in the Church

as a call to be a protagonist of evangelisation, in the service of life and peace,

in communion with priests and every state of life.

Bless the World Meeting of Families. Amen.

(Official prayer for the Tenth World Meeting of Families

22-26 June 2022)

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The prayer, composed on the occasion of the Tenth World Meeting of Families, stems from a deep gratitude to the heavenly Father for the great gift of the family, a special place for loving relationships as well as for prayer, as the experience of the pandemic has shown. The text takes its cue from the theme chosen by Pope Francis for the meeting: “Family love: vocation and way to holiness”. The prayer is conceived as a pastoral tool: it may be recited now in the parish, in the communities, and at home to prepare for the international event next year.

“It is from the love lived in the family that the vocation of every child is born; it is the love tasted within the domestic walls that takes the first steps on the path to holiness," adds Cardinal Farrell.

“The experience of prayer introduces us to the profound and salvific meaning of relationships in daily life. The duo of family and vocation, together with family and holiness, show how family relationships have a basic importance in the generation of love. In an age characterised by trials and difficulties, where the family lives and faces challenges and hardships, talking about family holiness might seem anachronistic or inappropriate. Hence the importance of prayer in living the sacrament of marriage to the full. Indeed, the relationship with God enables Christian spouses to revive every day the Grace they have received, which sustains them in their daily labours and struggles. Our life can always be a path to personal, couple or family holiness, a way to grow in love for others. Each member of the family, whether child, young person, parent or grandparent, is called to rediscover in himself or herself a call to holiness. In this sense, family life can become an expression of the ‘most attractive face of the Church’ (GE 9). This reveals the fruitfulness of a cross-reading of Amoris Laetitia and Gaudete et Exsultate, which Pope Francis proposes to us in the theme of the Meeting in order to fully understand the vocation of the family”.

"Christian spouses," Cardinal De Donatis continues, "following in the footsteps of illustrious saints and blesseds and sustained by their intercession, are invited to walk their path of holiness together. Following the model of the parents of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux or the Beltrame Quattrocchi couple, they are called to live life's painful trials with confidence and to see in the fabric of their love the faithful presence of Christ. From the surge of hope generated by God's faithful love, comes the desire to proclaim His love and make the family ‘the way of the Church’ (AL 69), the place where new vocations are nurtured".