Petronilla Sole and family at graduation. (Photo: Dann Ebina)
OFFICE FOR SOCIAL MINISTRY
“The family is the place where we learn to live with one another, to live with young people and with those who are older. And by being united in our differences — young people, the elderly, adults, children — we evangelize with our example of life.” (Pope Francis, Pope’s Prayer Network, June 2022)
One of the many memorable experiences of aloha in Hawaii is graduation season, when multi-generational families gather together to celebrate a special rite of passage. Through the sharing of hugs, laughter and colorful lei, we are reminded of the importance of ohana and what it takes to raise a student from childhood to commencement, and eventually to a path of community service.
This type of joy of family love is what Pope Francis calls “Amoris Laetitia,” the theme of this year’s 10th World Meeting of Families in Rome. The annual event welcomes delegates from around the globe to focus on ways to strengthen our families and faith communities. In keeping with the pope’s apostolic exhortation following the 2014-2016 Synods on Family Life, our Holy Father views family love, “amoris laetitia,” the joy of love, as a vocation and a path to holiness.
“No family is perfect,” he says, but he believes anything is possible if love remains part of the equation: “We shouldn’t be afraid of mistakes; we have to learn from them so we can move forward … Let us not forget God is always with us, in our neighborhood, in the city where we live. And he takes care of us … when we argue, when we suffer, when we’re joyful, the Lord is there and accompanies us, helps us, and corrects us.”
Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, which organized the 10th World Meeting of Families, hopes the gathering will spark a movement to grow family ministry in every church in all dioceses around the world: “Families cannot just be seen as a ‘soil to be irrigated,’ passively receiving speeches, teachings or pastoral initiatives ‘dropped from above,’” he said.
Instead, “they are the ‘seed’ that can make the world fertile! They are the evangelizers! As ‘Amoris Laetitia’ said, “When a family is welcoming and reaches out to others, especially the poor and the neglected, it is a symbol, witness and participant in the church’s motherhood.”
These messages from Rome ring true for all families around the world as they struggle on the path to holiness. This year the media in the U.S. has focused on families affected by violence: refugee families fleeing war in Ukraine or gang violence in Central America; families devastated by mass shootings; families fleeing the climate-related disasters of floods and fires; and all families, particularly homeless families, hit hard by the impacts of inflation and the persistent pandemic.
This is why supporting Catholic service providers like Catholic Charities Hawaii, Hope Services Hawaii and the St. Francis Healthcare System of Hawaii has become all the more important in helping sustain vulnerable families on their paths to holiness.
Parish social ministries such as food pantries and free meals for keiki and kupuna are also vital ways to support vulnerable members in our families. All these efforts contribute to the collective effort to witness to Jesus as one ohana, one human family sharing one common home.
To view the Pope Francis prayer video for June 2022 on Family, visit the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network website.
And for more on the 10th World Meeting on Families, go to the website for the Dicastery on Laity, Family and Life laityfamilylife.va.
To support this vital gathering and growing movement, Pope Francis urges all to pray: “Let us pray for Christian families around the world. May each and every family embody and experience unconditional love and advance in holiness in their daily lives.”
Mahalo,
Your friends at the Office for Social Ministry
Prayer of the 10th World Meeting of Families, June 22-26, 2022
Family Love: Vocation 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.
