World Meeting of Families

JMJ+D

Marriage and the family are not in fact a chance sociological construction, the
product of particular historical and financial situations. On the other hand,
the question of the right relationship between the man and the woman is rooted
in the essential core of the human being and it is only by starting from here
that its response can be found. In other words, it cannot be separated from the
ancient but ever new human question: Who am I? What is a human being? And this question, in turn, cannot be separated from the question about God: Does God
exist? Who is God? What is his face truly like?

The Bible gives one consequential answer to these two queries: the human being is created in the image of God, and God himself is love. It is therefore the vocation to love that makes the human person an authentic image of God: man and woman come to resemble God to the extent that they become loving people.

This fundamental connection between God and the person gives rise to another: the indissoluble connection between spirit and body: in fact, the human being is a soul that finds expression in a body and a body that is enlivened by an immortal spirit.

The body, therefore, both male and female, also has, as it were, a theological character: it is not merely a body; and what is biological in the human being is not merely biological but is the expression and the fulfilment of our humanity.

-Opening Address of Benedict XVI at the Ecclesial Diocesan Convention of Rome on the family and the Christian community (June 6, 2005)

Check out these websites:

Official website of World
Meeting of Families in Valencia, Spain

World Meeting Of Families Website

Prayer for the Family

Oh, God who left us in the Holy Family a perfect model of familiar life in the faith and the obedience to your will.

We give you thank you for our family. Grant us the force to remain joined in the love, the generosity and the happiness of living together.

We request you Lord, that this preparation to the World Meeting of Families be an intense experience of faith growth for our families.

Help us in our mission of transmitting the faith that we receive from our parents. Opens the heart of our children so that it grows in them the seed of the faith that you received in the baptism. Strengthens the faith of our youths, so that they grow in Jesus' knowledge. It increases the love and the fidelity of all the marriages, especially those that go by moments of suffering or difficulty.

It spills your grace and your blessing on all the families of the world, especially those that get ready for the next world Meeting of the families in Valencia. It also blesses our Pope Benedicto VI. Give him wisdom and strength, and grant us the joy of being able to him to receive from all over the world in Valencia together with the families. Together to Joseph and Mary, we request it to you for Jesus Christ your Son. Amen.