One of the specific places for prayer is certainly “the church, the house of God, a proper place for the parish community and a privileged place for the adoration of the real presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament” (CCC 2691).
Here the Christian experiences both personal prayer and above all liturgical prayer by living that communion of faith which is the concrete experience of a people who praise and entrust themselves to God through Christ. The catechism of the Catholic Church in the fourth part in the section dealing with prayer indicates among the places that educate to prayer and, more “propitious” to it, puts the Christian family first (CCC 2694; 2696).
It is certainly necessary to take into account the reality of families today as it was also addressed, with evangelical reading, by Pope Francis in his apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia.
Families in the first place need to find moments in which their members know how to grow more in mutual listening not only between husband and wife but also between parents and children and between brothers and sisters among themselves in an attention to those problems that they graft identity, sensitivity and responsibility in growing and in relating in the light of those projects that need loyalty and healthy self-giving.
Of course, the first attention must be that between the spouses in a crescendo in the ability to know how to complete and grow, in esteem and confidentiality, with the patient attitude that knows how to understand and wait for those who need to dispel uncertainties and find peace.
In front of the altar of the Lord at the moment of marriage, that I welcome you was expressed by both.
Welcoming means giving life to an equal relationship where one gives and receives each other in a mutuality of attention, fidelity and sharing “in good and bad luck”, that is, in every situation in which the couple will find themselves.
It is precisely by recalling that moment in which the will of the future spouses was expressed, not only as ministers of the sacramental rite, but by undertaking to carry out this ministry in the reality of married life, in order to be “one flesh” (Gen 2:23) .
Here then is what must take place day after day so that fidelity is not understood as a concern but a precious gift that is a joy for both of us to feel welcomed and to welcome the one who has freely chosen to be “one flesh” with their husband or wife. own bride.
It is because of this primary gift, and that of parenthood, that the Christian family cannot, without the risk of aridity, not only spiritual, neglect to allow itself to be bathed in the prayerful relationship precisely as a family.
The Second Vatican Council wished to define the family as the “domestic Church” where with respect Christ poses himself as an icon to be contemplated in relation to his Church: he gave all of himself!
It is clear then that the family meeting in prayer in everyday life where we thank God for health, for food, for parents, for children, for moments of fatigue and joy, is one of the qualifying moments of the Christian family.
It is important, alongside the diligent and affectionate attention for each member of the family that prayer is a simple but important and joyful stage, underlining that the Lord is one of the family for this reason we bother him and claim him as our family diner.
Here then is that in this year of the family in the light of the apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia it is more than appropriate that Christian spouses and parents make room for that openness to God precisely by meeting together at the beginning of the day at the table and in the evening when parents and children re-read their having been in their own environment of work, school, play, relationships, coherent witnesses as disciples of Christ.
The evening is an opportunity, even within the family, to know how to recognize what may have disturbed the climate between husband and wife or between children and parents and reciprocally experience forgiveness and commitment, with the help of prayer, to know how to understand and correct.
It is in welcoming each other with that reciprocity that belongs and is proper to the spouses that marriage becomes and is a communion of life forever.
* Episcopal Vicar for the Laity and Culture – Diocese of Trieste
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