Dear Brothers and Sisters, good morning! After reflecting on how the family lives times of celebration and work, we now consider the time of prayer. The most frequent lament of Christians has to do, in fact, with time: “I should pray more ... I would like to, but I often lack the time.” We hear this [...]
Dear Brothers and Sisters, good morning! After reflecting on the value of celebrations in family life, today we pause on a complementary element, which is that of work. Both celebration and work are part of the creative design of God. Work, it is commonly said, is necessary to maintain the family, for the children to grow, [...]
Dear Brothers and Sisters, good morning! Today we begin a short course of reflection on three dimensions that beat the time, so to speak, of the rhythm of family life: celebration, work and prayer. We begin with celebration. Today we will speak of celebration. And we say immediately that a celebration is an invention of God. [...]
Dear Brothers and Sisters, good morning! With this catechesis we take up again our reflection on the family. After speaking last time of wounded families caused by the misunderstanding of spouses, today I would like to focus our attention on another reality: how to take care of those that, following the irreversible failure of their marital [...]
June 24, 2015, Wednesday — Pope Francis on the Wounds in Families “But do we still know what a wound to the soul is? Do we feel the weight of the mountain that crushes the soul of a child, in families in which the members treat each other badly?” —Pope Francis, today in St. Peter's Square [...]
Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good morning! In the last catecheses we spoke about the family that lives the frailties of the human condition: poverty, sickness, death. Today, instead, we reflect on the wounds that are opened in fact within the family’s coexistence. When, that is, harm is done in the family itself -- a most awful [...]
Dear Brothers and Sisters, good morning! In the course of catecheses on the family, today we take direct inspiration from the episode narrated by the Evangelist Luke, which we have just heard (cf. Luke 7:11-15). It is a very moving scene, which shows us Jesus’ compassion for one who suffers -- in this case a widow [...]
Dear Brothers and Sisters, good morning! We continue with the catecheses on the family, and in this catechesis I would like to touch on a very common aspect in the life of our families, that of sickness. It is an experience of our fragility, which we live in the main in the family, as children and [...]
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning. In these Wednesdays, we have reflected on the family. And we go forward on this theme: to reflect on the family. Starting today, our catecheses will begin with a reflection on the consideration of the vulnerability of the family, in the conditions of life that puts them to the test. [...]
Dear Brothers and Sisters: In our catechesis on marriage and the family, today we reflect on the importance of engagement as a preparation for marriage. The word “engagement” itself speaks of entrustment and commitment. Engagement is a time when couples come to know one another better in planning for the beautiful yet demanding enterprise of marriage. [...]