- "Families should be seen as a resource rather than
as a problem for society. Families at their best actively communicate by
their witness the beauty and the richness of the relationship between man
and woman, and between parents and children. We are not fighting to defend
the past. Rather, with patience and trust, we are working to build a
better future for the world in which we live" (Pope Francis, 1/23/15 Message for World
Communications Day).
- "Today’s catechesis is dedicated to a central
aspect of the subject of the family: that of the
great gift that God made to humanity with the creation of man and woman
and with the Sacrament of Marriage. This catechesis and the next
are concerned with the difference and complementarity between man and
woman, who are at the summit of the divine creation....I wonder...if the so-called gender theory is not
also an expression of a frustration and of a resignation, which aims to
cancel the sexual difference....The removal of the difference, in fact, is
the problem, not the solution...The matrimonial and family bond is
something serious, and it is for everyone, not only for believers"
(Pope Francis, 4/15/15 General Audience)
- "The social devaluation of the stable and
generative alliance of man and woman is certainly a loss for all.... the
Bible says a beautiful thing: man finds woman, they find one another, and
man must leave something to find her fully. And for this, man will leave
his father and his mother to go with her. It is beautiful! This means to
begin a journey. Man is all for woman and woman is all for man. The care of this alliance of man and woman --
also if they are sinners and are wounded, confused or humiliated,
mistrustful and uncertain -- is therefore for us believers a demanding and
exciting vocation, in the present condition" (Pope Francis, 4/22/15 General Audience)
- "The most
persuasive testimony of the blessing of Christian marriage is the good
life of Christian spouses and of the family. There is no better way
to describe the beauty of the Sacrament! Marriage consecrated by God
to safeguard that bond between man and woman that God has blessed since
the creation of the world; and it is source of peace and of goodness for
the whole of conjugal and family life" (Pope Francis, 4/29/15 General Audience)
- "Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Paul affirms that
the love between spouses is an image of
the love between Christ and the Church – an unthinkable dignity!....we
must ask ourselves seriously: do we ourselves, as believers and as
pastors, fully accept this indissoluble bond of the history of Christ and
of the Church with the history of marriage and of the human family?"
(Pope Francis, 5/6/15 General Audience)
- "today, in many countries, Mother's Day is
celebrated....An applause for the mommies in the square. And this applause
embraces all the mothers, all our dear mothers, those that live with
us physically, but also those that live with us spiritually ... May
the Lord bless them all, and may the Mother of God, to whom this month is
dedicated, watch over them all" (Pope Francis, Regina Coeli, 5/10/15)
- "Today’s catechesis is like an entrance door to a
series of reflections on the life of the family, its real life, with its
times and its circumstances. Written above this entrance door are three
words, which I have already used several times....these words open the way
to live well in the family. They are simple words, but not so simple to
put into practice....And now I invite all to repeat these three words
together: 'permission, thank you, pardon'....Now
repeat all together the advice I have given: never
end the day without making peace" (Pope Francis, 5/13/15 General Audience)
- "'Critical' intellectuals of all kinds have
silenced parents in a thousand ways, to defend the young generations from
harm -- real or imagined -- of family education.....It is time that fathers and mothers return from
their exile – because they have exiled themselves from the education of
their children --, and reassume fully their educational role"
(Pope Francis, 5/20/15 General Audience).
- "The time of engagement can truly become a time of
initiation, to what? To surprise! -- to the surprise of spiritual gifts
with which the Lord, through the Church, enriches the horizon of the new
family that prepares to live in His blessing" (Pope Francis, 5/27/15 General Audience)
- "Marriage and the family are going through a
serious cultural crisis....Marriage 'seen as a mere form of affective
gratification,' ceases to be an 'indispensable contribution' to society
(cf. Evangelii gaudium, 66)....'ample
catechesis on the Christian ideal of conjugal communion and of family life
is urgent, which includes a spirituality of paternity and of maternity. It
is necessary to give greater pastoral attention to the role of men as
husbands and fathers, as well as to the responsibility they share with
their wives in relation to marriage, the family and the education of the
children' (Ecclesia in America, 42)" (Pope Francis to the Bishops of the Dominican,
5/28/15)
- "The lack or loss of work, or its strong
precariousness, has serious implications on family life, severely testing
relationships. The living conditions in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, with
housing and transportation problems, as well as the reduction of social,
health and educational services, causes further difficulty" (Pope Francis, 6/3/15 General Audience)
- "The complementarity of man and woman, summit of
divine creation, is being questioned by the so-called gender ideology, in
the name of a more free and just society. The
differences between man and woman are not for opposition or subordination,
but for communion and generation, always in the 'image and likeness' of
God....The Sacrament of Marriage is a sign of the love of God for
humanity and of Christ’s giving Himself for His Bride, the Church. Look
after this treasure, one of the 'most important of the Latin American and
Caribbean peoples' (Aparecida, 433)" (Pope Francis to the Bishops of Puerto
Rico, 6/8/15)
- "The Christian community knows well that, in the
trial of sickness, the family is not left alone. And we must say thank you
to the Lord for those beautiful experiences of ecclesial fraternity that
help families to go through the difficult moments of pain and suffering. This Christian closeness, of family to family,
is a real treasure for the parish -- a treasure of wisdom that helps
families in difficult moments and makes the Kingdom of God understood
better than many discourses! They are caresses of God"(Pope Francis, 6/10/15 General Audience)
- "Globalization itself...also bears in itself
aspects of possible confusion and disorientation, as when it becomes a
vehicle to introduce uses, concessions, even norms that are foreign to a
social fabric with the consequent deterioration of the cultural roots of
reality that instead are respected; and this by the effect of tendencies belonging to other cultures,
economically developed but ethically weakened (cf. Apostolic
Exhortation Evangelii gaudium, 62). I have spoken so many times of ideological colonizations when I refer to
this problem....it is important that public authorities, and among these
also the jurisdictional, use the space given to them to give stability and
render more solid the bases of human coexistence through the recovery of
fundamental values. Christianity has offered these values the true
and most adequate foundation: love of God, which is inseparable from love
of neighbor (cf. Matthew 22:34-40)" (Pope Francis, 6/13/15 Address to the
Italian Superior Council of the Judiciary)
- "we have been reflecting on and asking ourselves
how to transmit the faith to the new generations....this commitment is all
the more important when we speak of the education of kids and young
people, who begin to hear these strange ideas, these ideological colonizations that poison the
soul and the family: one must act against this. Two weeks ago a person, a
very Catholic, good, young man said to me that his kids were in first and
second grade and that in the evening he and his wife so often had to
're-catechize' the children....With your conjugal relationship, exercising
paternity and maternity, you give your life and are proof that it is
possible to live the Gospel: it is possible to live the Gospel and it
renders one happy....Conjugal love is a good, which not even the greatest
difficulties of life are able to darken....Children look. They look so
much and when they see that father and mother love each other, the
children grow in that atmosphere of love, of happiness and also of
security, because they are not afraid....It is very painful when a family
lives a tension that can’t be resolved, a break that they don’t succeed in
healing. It is painful. When there are the first signs of this, a father
and a mother have the duty to themselves and to their children to ask for
help, to be supported. Ask help first of all from God... The Lord will give you the strength to
understand that evil can be surmounted, that unity is greater than
conflict, that the wounds we have inflicted in one another can be healed,
in the name of a greater love, of that Love that He has called you to live
with the Sacrament of Marriage....when separation -- we must also
speak of this -- seems inevitable, know that the Church carries you in her
heart....Never, never speak badly of the other to the children!
Never!....there is also the way of forgiveness. Forgive one another and
take up mutually your limitations, which will also help you to understand
and accept the fragilities and weaknesses of your
children....grandparents...have saved the faith in so many countries where
it was prohibited to practice religion and took children secretly to have
them baptized, and grandparents who taught prayers....They give us wisdom,
prudence, they help us so much. And when they get sick they ask us for so
many sacrifices, it’s true. Sometimes
there isn’t another solution than to take them to a rest home. But may it
be the last, the last thing that is done. Grandparents at home are a
richness" (Pope Francis’ 6/14/15 Address to Rome
Conference on Parents as Witnesses of the Beauty of Life)
- "155. Human ecology also implies another profound reality: the
relationship between human life and the moral law, which is inscribed in
our nature and is necessary for the creation of a more dignified
environment. Pope Benedict XVI spoke of an 'ecology of man', based
on the fact that 'man too has a nature that he must respect and that he
cannot manipulate at will'. [120] It is enough to recognize that our body itself establishes us in a direct
relationship with the environment and with other living beings. The
acceptance of our bodies as God’s gift is vital for welcoming and
accepting the entire world as a gift from the Father and our common home,
whereas thinking that we enjoy absolute power over our own bodies turns,
often subtly, into thinking that we enjoy absolute power over creation. Learning to accept our body, to care for it and
to respect its fullest meaning, is an essential element of any genuine
human ecology. Also, valuing one’s own body in its femininity or
masculinity is necessary if I am going to be able to recognize myself in
an encounter with someone who is different. In this way we can
joyfully accept the specific gifts of another man or woman, the work of
God the Creator, and find mutual enrichment. It
is not a healthy attitude which would seek 'to cancel out sexual
difference because it no longer knows how to confront it'.[121]"
"157. Underlying the principle of the
common good is respect for the human person....It has also to do with the
overall welfare of society and the development of a variety of
intermediate groups, applying the principle of subsidiarity. Outstanding among those groups is the family, as
the basic cell of society...."
"213....In the face of the so-called
culture of death, the family is the heart of the culture of life'.[149] In the family we first learn how
to show love and respect for life; we are taught the proper use of things,
order and cleanliness, respect for the local ecosystem and care for all
creatures. In the family we receive an integral education, which enables us
to grow harmoniously in personal maturity. In the family we learn to ask
without demanding, to say 'thank you' as an expression of genuine
gratitude for what we have been given, to control our aggressivity and
greed, and to ask forgiveness when we have caused harm. These simple
gestures of heartfelt courtesy help to create a culture of shared life and
respect for our surroundings" (Pope Francis' 6/18/15 Laudato Si)
- "to you young people in this world, in this
hedonistic world, in this world where only pleasure gets publicity, having
a good time, having a beautiful life, I tell you: be chaste, be
chaste. All of us in life have gone through moments in which this
virtue was very difficult, but it is in fact the way of genuine love, of a
love that is able to give life, which does not seek to use the other for
one’s own pleasure. It is a love that considers the life of the other
person sacred....at the end of the 19th century there were bad conditions
for the growth of youth: there was full Masonry, even the Church couldn’t
do anything, there were priest haters, there were also Satanists ... It
was one of the worst moments and one of the worst places of the history of
Italy. However, if you would like to do a good task at home, go to see how
many men and women Saints were born at that time. Why? Because they
realized that they had to go against the current in relation to the
culture, to that way of living. Reality, live the reality. And if this
reality is glass and not diamonds, I look for the reality against the
current and I make my reality, but something that is of service to others.
Think of your Saints of this land, what they did!" (Pope Francis' 6/21/15 "off the
cuff" talk to youth in Turin)
- "Turin’s men and women Saints teach us that all
renewal, also that of the Church, passes through our personal conversion,
through that openness of heart that receives and recognizes God’s
surprises, driven by the greatest love (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:14), which
renders us friends also of persons who are alone, suffering and
marginalized" (Pope Francis' 6/21/15 prepared talk to
youth in Turin)
- "We are well aware that no moments are lacking in
any family history in which the intimacy of dearest affections is offended
by the behavior of its members....Do we
feel the weight of the mountain that crushes the soul of a child, in
families in which there is bad treatment and harm is done, to the point of
breaking the bond of conjugal fidelity?....If we think of the harshness
with which Jesus admonishes adults not to scandalize the little ones -- we
heard the passage of the Gospel -- (cf. Matthew 18:6), we can also
understand better his word on the grave responsibility to protect the
conjugal bond that begins the human family (cf. Matthew 19:6-9).
When man and woman have become one flesh, all the wounds and all the
abandonments of the father and the mother affect the living flesh of the
children....Let us ask the Lord for great faith, to look at reality with
God’s gaze; and a great charity, to approach persons with his merciful
heart" (Pope Francis, 6/24/15 General Audience)
- "The Bible tells us that God hears the cry
of his people, and I wish to join my voice to yours in calling for land, lodging and labor for all our
brothers and sisters. I said it and I repeat it: these are sacred rights....No actual or established
power has the right to deprive peoples of the full exercise of their
sovereignty. Whenever they do so, we see the rise of new forms of colonialism which seriously
prejudice the possibility of peace and justice....the monopolizing of the
communications media, which would impose alienating examples of
consumerism and a certain cultural uniformity, is another one of the forms
taken by the new colonialism. It is
ideological colonialism....Let us say NO to forms of colonialism old and new.
Let us say YES to the encounter between peoples and cultures. Blessed are
the peacemakers....The Church, her sons and daughters, are part of the
identity of the peoples of Latin America. An identity which here, as in
other countries, some powers are committed to erasing, at times because
our faith is revolutionary, because our faith challenges the tyranny of
mammon. Today we are dismayed to see how
in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world many of our brothers and
sisters are persecuted, tortured and killed for their faith in Jesus. This
too needs to be denounced: in this third world war, waged peacemeal, which
we are now experiencing, a form of genocide is taking place, and it must
end" (Pope Francis, 7/9/15 Address in Bolivia
to "Popular Movements")
- "You may be asking yourselves: 'Who is this man
standing before us?'....The man standing
before you is a man who has experienced forgiveness. A man who was, and
is, saved from his many sins....I want to share with you what I do
have and what I love: it is Jesus. It is Jesus Christ, the mercy of
the Father" (Pope Francis, 7/10/15 Address at the
Reform Center of Santa Cruz-Palmasola (Bolivia)).
- "in the desire to serve and promote the common
good, the poor and needy have to be given priority of place....May all
social groups work to ensure that there will never again be children
without access to schooling, families without homes, workers without
dignified employment, small farmers without land to cultivate, or
campesinos forced to leave their lands for an uncertain future. May there
be an end to violence, corruption and drug trafficking. An economic
development which fails to take into account the weakest and
underprivileged is not an authentic development. Economic progress must be
measured by the integral dignity of the human person, especially the most
vulnerable and helpless" (Pope Francis, 7/10/15 Address to
Officials of Paraguay).
- "Elevated by the Savior to the dignity of a
sacrament, marriage is, in the Creator’s plan, a natural institution, a
life-long covenant of love and fidelity between a man and a woman,
directed to their perfection and sanctification, and to the future of our
human family. Today, when the institution of marriage is under
attack from powerful cultural forces, the faithful are called to bear
witness to this basic truth of biblical faith and natural law, which is
essential to the wise and just ordering of society....His Holiness trusts that the theme of this
year’s Supreme Convention – Endowed by their Creator with Life and Liberty
– will draw attention to the duty of American Catholics, precisely as
responsible citizens, to contribute to the reasoned defense of those
freedoms on which their nation was founded....The protection of
religious freedom must also engage the consciences of believers on the
global level, in response to the attacks unleashed on minority
communities, most often Christian, in various parts of our world" (Pietro
Cardinal Parolin, 8/5/15 Message to the Knights of Columbus).
- "Saint John Paul II expressed himself thus in the
Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio (n. 84)
["Daily experience unfortunately shows that people who
have obtained a divorce usually intend to enter into a new union, obviously not
with a Catholic religious ceremony. Since this is an evil that, like the
others, is affecting more and more Catholics as well, the problem must be faced
with resolution and without delay. The Synod Fathers studied it expressly. The
Church, which was set up to lead to salvation all people and especially the
baptized, cannot abandon to their own devices those who have been previously
bound by sacramental marriage and who have attempted a second marriage. The
Church will therefore make untiring efforts to put at their disposal her means
of salvation.
Pastors must know that, for the sake of truth, they are
obliged to exercise careful discernment of situations. There is in fact a
difference between those who have sincerely tried to save their first marriage
and have been unjustly abandoned, and those who through their own grave fault
have destroyed a canonically valid marriage. Finally, there are those who have
entered into a second union for the sake of the children's upbringing, and who
are sometimes subjectively certain in conscience that their previous and
irreparably destroyed marriage had never been valid.
Together with the Synod, I earnestly call upon pastors and
the whole community of the faithful to help the divorced, and with solicitous
care to make sure that they do not consider themselves as separated from the Church,
for as baptized persons they can, and indeed must, share in her life. They
should be encouraged to listen to the word of God, to attend the Sacrifice of
the Mass, to persevere in prayer, to contribute to works of charity and to
community efforts in favor of justice, to bring up their children in the
Christian faith, to cultivate the spirit and practice of penance and thus
implore, day by day, God's grace. Let the Church pray for them, encourage them
and show herself a merciful mother, and thus sustain them in faith and hope.
However, the Church
reaffirms her practice, which is based upon Sacred Scripture, of not admitting
to Eucharistic Communion divorced persons who have remarried. They are
unable to be admitted thereto from the fact that their state and condition of
life objectively contradict that union of love between Christ and the Church
which is signified and effected by the Eucharist. Besides this, there is
another special pastoral reason: if these
people were admitted to the Eucharist, the faithful would be led into error and
confusion regarding the Church's teaching about the indissolubility of marriage.
Reconciliation in the sacrament of Penance
which would open the way to the Eucharist, can only be granted to those who,
repenting of having broken the sign of the Covenant and of fidelity to Christ,
are sincerely ready to undertake a way of life that is no longer in
contradiction to the indissolubility of marriage. This means, in practice, that
when, for serious reasons, such as for example the children's upbringing, a man
and a woman cannot satisfy the obligation to separate, they "take on
themselves the duty to live in complete continence, that is, by abstinence from
the acts proper to married couples."[180]
Similarly, the respect due to the sacrament of Matrimony, to
the couples themselves and their families, and also to the community of the
faithful, forbids any pastor, for whatever reason or pretext even of a pastoral
nature, to perform ceremonies of any kind for divorced people who remarry. Such
ceremonies would give the impression of the celebration of a new sacramentally
valid marriage, and would thus lead people into error concerning the
indissolubility of a validly contracted marriage.
By acting in this way, the Church
professes her own fidelity to Christ and to His truth. At the same time she
shows motherly concern for these children of hers, especially those who,
through no fault of their own, have been abandoned by their legitimate partner.
With firm confidence she believes that
those who have rejected the Lord's command and are still living in this state
will be able to obtain from God the grace of conversion and salvation, provided that they have persevered in
prayer, penance and charity.]....
"In these decades, in
truth, the Church has not been either insensitive or slow. Thanks to the
reflection carried out by Pastors, guided and confirmed by my Predecessors, the
awareness has greatly grown that a fraternal and attentive acceptance is
necessary, in love and in truth, of the baptized that have established a new
coexistence after the failure of their sacramental marriage; in fact, these
people are not at all excommunicated, they are not excommunicated! And they are
absolutely not treated as such: they are always part of the Church. Pope
Benedict XVI intervened on this question, soliciting careful discernment and
wise pastoral support, knowing that 'simple recipes' do not exist (Address to the 7th World Meeting of Families,
Milan, June 2, 2012, answer n. 5)....
[5 THE ARAUJO FAMILY (a Brazilian family from Porto
Alegre)
MARIA MARTA: Holy
Father, in our country, just as in the rest of the world, marriage breakdowns
are continually increasing.
My name is Maria Marta and this is Manoel Angelo. We have
been married for 34 years and we are now grandparents. As a doctor and a family
psychotherapist, we meet a great many families and we notice that couples in
difficulties are finding it harder and harder to forgive and to accept
forgiveness. We often encounter the desire and the will to establish a new
partnership, something lasting, for the benefit of the children born from this
second union.
MANOEL ANGELO:
Some of these remarried couples would like to be reconciled with the Church,
but when they see that they are refused the sacraments they are greatly
discouraged. They feel excluded, marked by a judgement against which no appeal
is possible.
These sufferings cause deep hurt to those involved. Their
wounds also afflict the world and they become our wounds, the wounds of the
whole human race.
Holy Father we know that the Church cares deeply about these
situations and these people. What can we say to them and what signs of hope can
we offer them?
THE HOLY FATHER:
Dear friends, thank you for your very important work as family
psychotherapists. Thank you for all that you do to help these suffering people.
Indeed the problem of divorced and remarried persons is one of the great
sufferings of today’s Church. And we do not have simple solutions. Their
suffering is great and yet we can only help parishes and individuals to assist
these people to bear the pain of divorce. I would say, obviously, that
prevention is very important, so that those who fall in love are helped from
the very beginning to make a deep and mature commitment. Then accompaniment
during married life is needed, so that families are never left on their own but
are truly accompanied on their journey. As regards these people - as you have
said - the Church loves them, but it is important they should see and feel this
love. I see here a great task for a parish, a
Catholic community, to do whatever is possible to help them to feel loved and
accepted, to feel that they are not “excluded” even though they cannot receive
absolution or the Eucharist; they should see that, in this state too, they are
fully a part of the Church. Perhaps, even if it is not possible to
receive absolution in Confession, they can nevertheless have ongoing contact
with a priest, with a spiritual guide. This is very important, so that they see
that they are accompanied and guided. Then it is also very important that they
truly realize they are participating in the Eucharist if they enter into a real
communion with the Body of Christ. Even without
“corporal” reception of the sacrament, they can be spiritually united to Christ
in his Body. Bringing them to understand
this is important: so that they find a way to live the life of faith based upon
the Word of God and the communion of the Church, and that they come to see their suffering as a gift to the Church,
because it helps others by defending the stability of love and marriage.
They need to realize that this suffering is not just a physical or
psychological pain, but something that is experienced within the Church
community for the sake of the great values of our faith. I am convinced that
their suffering, if truly accepted from within, is a gift to the Church. They
need to know this, to realize that this is their way of serving the Church,
that they are in the heart of the Church. Thank you for your
commitment.]"
- “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….God Himself teaches
us the importance of dedicating a time to contemplate and enjoy what was well
done in work….a true time of celebration halts professional work and is sacred,
because it reminds man and woman that they are made in the image of God, who is
not a slave of work, but Lord; therefore, we also must never be slaves of work,
but ‘lords.’….Finally, the time of celebration is sacred because God dwells in
it in a special way. The Sunday Eucharist brings to a celebration all the grace
of Jesus Christ: His presence, His love, His sacrifice, His making us
community, His being with us ... And in this way every reality receives its
full meaning: work, family, the joys and efforts of every day, also suffering
and death; everything is transfigured by the grace of Christ. The family is endowed with an extraordinary
capacity to understand, direct and sustain the genuine value of the time of
celebration. But how lovely are the celebrations in the family, they are most
beautiful! – and, in particular, those of Sunday. It is no accident that the
celebrations in which there is place for the whole family are those that
succeed better! Family life itself, looked at with the eyes of faith, seems
better than the efforts it costs. It seems a masterpiece of simplicity, good
precisely because it is not artificial, or false, but able to incorporate in
itself all the aspects of a true life. It appears as something ‘very good,’ as
God says at the end of the creation of man and of woman (cf. Genesis 1:31).
Therefore, a celebration is a precious gift of God; a precious gift that God
has made to the human family: let’s not ruin it!” (Pope
Francis, 8/12/15 General Audience)
- "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, to ensure a dignified life to one's dear ones. The
best thing that can be said about a serious and honest person is: 'He is
a worker'....Prayer and work can and must be together in harmony, as Saint Benedict
teaches. Lack of work also harms the spirit, as lack of prayer also
harms practical activity. To work – I repeat, in a thousand ways – is proper to the human person.
It expresses his dignity of being created in the image of God.
Therefore, it is said that work is sacred. And, consequently, the
management of employment is a great human and social responsibility,
which cannot be left in the hands of a few or discharged on a divinized
'market.' Causing the loss of jobs means creating serious social damage.
I am saddened when I see that there are people without work, who don't
find work, and don't have the dignity of bringing the bread home. And I
rejoice so much when I see that some [political] leaders make many
efforts to find jobs and see that all have work. Work is sacred. Work
gives dignity to a family. We must pray that work is not lacking in a
family. Therefore, like celebration, work is also part of the design of God the
Creator.... The Encyclical Laudato Si', which proposes an integral
ecology, also contains this message: the beauty of the earth and the
dignity of work are made to be combined; both go together: the earth
becomes good when it is worked by man. When work is detached from God's
covenant with man and woman, when it is separated from its spiritual
qualities, when it is hostage to the sole logic of profit and scorns the
affections of life, the humiliation of the soul contaminates
everything: even the air, the water, the grass, the food ... Civil life
is corrupted and the habitat is damaged. And the consequences strike,
above all, the poorest and the poorest families. The modern organization
of work sometimes shows a dangerous tendency to consider the family a
burden, a weight, a passive for the productivity of
work. But we ask ourselves: what productivity? And for whom? The
so-called 'smart city' is, without a doubt, rich in services and
organization; however, it is often hostile, for instance, to children
and the elderly. Sometimes one who plans is interested in the management of the
individual workforce, in assembling and using or discarding according to
the economic convenience. The family is a great test bench. When the
organization of work holds it hostage or, in fact, places obstacles in
its way, then we are certain that the human society has begun to work
against itself! Christian families receive from this circumstance a great challenge and
a great mission. They bring to the field the fundamentals of God's
creation: the identity and bond of man and woman, the generation of
children, the work that renders the earth domestic and the world
habitable. The loss of these fundamentals is a very serious affair, and
in the common home there are already too many cracks! The task isn't
easy. At times, it might seem to family associations, that they are like
David before Goliath ... but we know how that challenge ended! Faith
and shrewdness are needed. In this difficult moment of our history, may
God grant us to receive his call to work with joy and hope, to give
dignity to oneself and to one's family" (Pope Francis, 8/19/15 General Audience).
- "After
reflecting on how the family lives times of celebration and work, we
now consider the time of prayer....it is necessary to cultivate in the
heart a 'warm' love for God, an affectionate love....Are
we able to think of God as the caress that holds us in life, before
which there was nothing? A caress from which nothing, not even death,
can detach us?....One
who has a family soon learns to resolve an equation that not even the
great mathematicians know how to resolve: within the 24 hours there is
twice that number! There are mothers and fathers who could win the Nobel
Prize for this. Of 24 hours they make 48: I do not know how they do it
but they move and do it! There is so much work in a family! The
spirit of prayer gives back time to God, it steps away from the
obsession of a life that is always lacking time, it rediscovers the
peace of necessary things, and discovers the joy of unexpected gifts....In the prayer of the family, in its
intense and in its difficult seasons, we remember one another, so that
each one of us in the family is protected by the love of God" (Pope Francis, 8/26/15 General Audience).
