Pope: Couples need Church’s help

Deborah Castellano Lubov

“Your work is valuable to the Church,” Pope Francis told international Church leaders. Notre Dame teams International Catholic Movement for Christian Married Couples, thanking them for their commitment to families, especially many “who strive to live Christian marriage as a gift.”

The movement, whose origins date back to the 1930s in France but which now operates on several continents, is recognized as a private international association of faithful.

The Christian family, the Pope warned, “is currently facing a real 'cultural storm' in this changing era, threatened and attempted on different fronts.”

This is why the Holy Father underlined the value of efforts aimed at closely accompanying couples so that they do not feel alone in the face of the difficulties of life and in their marital relationship.

“In this way,” he said, “you are an expression of the exit of the Church, which gets closer to the situations and problems of people and spends itself without reservation for the good of today's families and of tomorrow”.

Saving marriage and family

“Today it is a real mission to support couples!” said the Pope. “Saving marriage, in fact, means saving an entire family, it means saving all the relationships generated by marriage: the love between spouses, between parents and children, between grandparents and grandchildren.”

This means, suggested the Holy Father, saving this testimony of a “possible and eternal love”, in which “young people find it difficult to believe”.

For children, the Pope emphasized, this is particularly important.

“Children, in fact,” he insisted, “need to receive from their parents the certainty that God created them out of love and that one day they too will be able to love and feel loved like mom and dad.” .

This seed of love, planted in their hearts by their parents, the Holy Father reassured, will eventually germinate.

The grace of Jesus gives couples the strength to stay united

The Holy Father then recognized a great urgency in today's world, namely “to make young people discover that Christian marriage is a vocation, a specific call that God addresses to men and women so that They realize themselves fully by becoming generative, by becoming father and mother, and by bringing to the world the grace of their sacrament. »

This grace, he recalled, is the love of Christ united to that of the spouses, his presence among them and the fidelity of God to their love.

“It is He,” Pope Francis insisted, “who gives them the strength to grow together every day and to remain united.”

The presence of Christ makes the journey possible

The presence of Christ among the spouses, continued the Holy Father, “makes the journey possible,” and the yoke is transformed into a game of looks: the look between the two spouses, the look between the spouses and Christ.

Christ, the Holy Father suggested, is the key for couples to protect their “precious treasure” of married life.

Pope Francis then made two recommendations, the first concerning newly married couples.

“Take care of them!” he insisted, especially young couples who need examples of faith and love.

“Do not let them accumulate suffering and wounds in the solitude of their homes. Help them discover the oxygen of faith with gentleness, patience and trust in the action of the Holy Spirit.”

The Pope's second suggestion was to build ever greater co-responsibility between spouses and priests within their movement.

Rediscover joyful prayer together

The Pope encouraged them to help families in their dioceses understand the importance of helping each other and building communities where Christ can “dwell” in homes and family relationships.

Pope Francis concluded by entrusting their mission and their families to the Virgin Mary and her protection.

“In this year dedicated to prayer,” he encouraged, “may you help to discover and rediscover the joy of praying together at home, with simplicity and in daily life.”