Parish Prayer Day for Marriage and Family Life
On Wednesday October 20th, our parish once again prays for the 24 hours for Marriage & Family Life.
To make this prayer continuous, many people in our parish have committed themselves to a specific hour of prayer in such a way that the whole day and night are covered.
Everyone is invited to join in this prayer, either by taking on an hour, or by including this intention in your own prayer during that day. Our focus for this month is Mercy and Forgiveness. Many couples and families have experienced tensions and difficulties so it is an important call to pray for one another that the peace and unity of family life can be maintained and restored where it has been disrupted.
October continuous Prayer for Marriage and Family Life
Pope Francis: ‘Patch up family feuds’
Proposed Theme: Mercy and Forgiveness
Some Thoughts:
- ‘Let this be a time to end all family feuds, to forgive each other and let bygones be bygones,’ Pope Francis has said.
- “I think about so many brothers and sisters who are estranged from their families; they don’t speak to each other,” he said during one of his weekly general audiences in St Peter’s Square.
- “This is a good occasion to meet up again, to embrace each other and forgive each other, to leave bad things behind,” he said.
- Catholics are called to recognise their own need for God’s mercy, the greatness of God’s love seen in the death and resurrection of Christ and the obligation to assist others by communicating God’s love and mercy through words and deeds.
- We are called to forgive each other, to harden not our hearts and to not let pride get in the way of reconciliation.
- “God’s mercy transforms human hearts; it enables us, through the experience of a faithful love, to become merciful in turn.”
- “Love alone is the answer to that yearning for infinite happiness,” Pope Francis wrote. It is the only response to the longings “that we think we can satisfy with the idols of knowledge, power and riches.”