The Diocese of Rome and the Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life have published the official prayer for the 10th World Meeting of Families to be held in Rome from June 22-26, 2022. The official hashtag is also ready: #WMOF2022.
Cardinal Joseph Kevin Farrell, Prefect of the Dicastery, made the point that “praying is a way to enter into the heart of the Amoris Laetitia Year and the preparation for the event in Rome. He went on to say that “many families and communities have been waiting a long time to be able to set out on their way, at least spiritually, to Rome. Prayer will accompany them and help them to grasp the message of the gathering.”
The Vicar of Rome, Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, added that “prayer will be at the heart of the path of preparation. It will guide our work and inspire the reflections to help us, in the light of faith, to discern the new challenges that the pandemic emergency poses to the ecclesial community with regard to families”. For this reason, “I invite everyone to prepare for this event of grace that the Church of Rome has the joy of hosting, and to address this prayer to the Lord in the intimacy of their family, together with the parish and diocesan community.”
This prayer, composed for the 10th World Meeting of Families, springs from deep gratitude to our Heavenly Father for the great gift of family, a very special place for loving relationships. It is inspired by the theme chosen by Pope Francis for the meeting: “Family love: a vocation and a path to holiness”. The prayer is intended to be a pastoral tool: it can be prayed from now on in parishes, in communities, at home, to help with preparation for the next year’s international event.
“It is from the love experienced in family life that the vocation of every child is born; it is love savored within the domestic walls that traces the first steps on the path to holiness – cardinal Farrell added -. An experience of prayer introduces us to the deeper liberating meaning of relationships in daily life. The binomials of family and vocation together with family and holiness show us how family relationships are of fundamental importance in the generation of love. In an age fraught with trials and difficulties in which families are experiencing and coping with challenges and hardships, it might seem somewhat out of touch or inappropriate to talk about family holiness. Hence the importance of prayer in living the sacrament of marriage to the full. A relationship with God enables Christian couples every day to rekindle the Grace they have received, and this sustains them in their daily tasks and struggles. Our life can always be a path to personal, family, and couple holiness, a way to grow in love for others. All members of the family including children, young people, parents, and grandparents, are called to discover in themselves a call to holiness. In this sense, family life can become an expression of holiness as “the most attractive face of the Church” (GE 9). This shows us how useful it is to cross-reference Amoris Laetitia and Gaudete et Exsultate, as Pope Francis suggests in the theme of the Meeting, in order to better understand family vocation.”
“Christian couples – Cardinal De Donatis continued – are invited to walk their path of holiness together, following in the footsteps of illustrious saints and beatified couples and sustained by their intercession. An example is given by the parents of St Thérèse of Lisieux or the Beltrame Quattrocchi couple, people who trustingly accepted life’s painful trials and who saw the faithful presence of Christ in the story of their love. The surge of hope generated by God’s faithful love gives rise to a desire to proclaim God’s love and make the family “the way of the Church” (AL 69), the place where new vocations are nurtured.”
Family Love: Vocation and Path to Holiness
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
June 22-26, 2022
