15th July 2018 - Amoris : Lets Talk Family - Parish Conversations

Emer Williams joins John and Shane on this weeks programme to introduce the Amoris programme which is the preparatory programme which has been running in parishes across the diocese and country as preparation for the World Meeting of Families 2018. In addition we have our regular run through the saints of the week plus our reflection on the Sunday gospel.

You can listen to the full podcast of this weeks programme HERE.

Amoris - Let's talk Family! Let's be family - Parish Conversations

Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love) is a post-Synodal apostolic exhortation by Pope Francis on love in the family. It was signed on 19 March 2016 on the Solemnity of St. Joseph, and brings together the results of the two Synods on the family convoked by Pope Francis in 2014 and 2015. It frequently cites their final Reports, documents and teachings of his predecessors, and his own numerous catecheses on the family, as well as contributions of various Episcopal Conferences around the world.

Amoris Laetitia is the document under penning the preparations for WMOF2018 and in parishes across the diocese and country since last year groups have been gathering to read and explore this document from Pope Francis.

On this weeks programme Emer Williams introduces the programme and we play a clip from the introductory video which was used to facilitate to discussions across six sessions.

In each session of this six–session parish conversation, the participants are be invited to take part in a process which is designed to be interactive and participative. They are helped to reflect on and articulate their experience of family life and their response to Pope Francis’ reflections in The Joy of Love. The programme takes, as its starting point, people’s experience of love and their hopes and fears with regard to marriage and family.

The programme’s first and second sessions deal with the reality of family life in the world today. It explores how Pope Francis recognises the widespread desire for permanence in love and his challenge to us as Church to communicate more effectively the Good News of the Gospel of the Family, which is supportive of that desire. It looks at the challenges posed by consumer culture to stability in family life, and the foundational role of God’s love in our teaching on the permanence of married love and its openness to new life.

In sessions three and four, the programme goes on to explore how love is lived in the family and how children are nurtured.

In session five, the programme explores Pope Francis’ understanding of human fragility in the reality of family life, the importance of reaching out to all, regardless of their circumstances, and the priority of God’s mercy in how we approach that fragility. This challenges all pastoral agents and all families to reach out to people on the margins, which Pope Francis refers to as the peripheries. This session also explores the role of discernment in the concrete application of mercy.

In the final session, the programme explores a spirituality of hope in regard to love and marriage. This session gives people the opportunity to listen to the experiences of older couples and to hear their advice to younger couples. It also includes Pope Francis’ own practical advice on how families can be places of joy in the midst of human fragility.

You can listen to the podcast excerpted from this weeks programme HERE.

The Amoris website has resources to explore in depth including pdf's of the Parish Conversation programmes, short videos to view and download as well as ideas for supporting family life and faith.

• You can find about about the Amoris programme HERE
• The six week programme is HERE
• Amoris Laetitia can be explored HERE by clicking the tiles to access the full text of each chapter of Amoris Laetitia. A short video guide for each chapter also included
• WMoF2018 channel on iCatholic has many short video resources also with the Amoris Parish programme HERE.

Gospel - Mark 6:7-13

Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by twoand gave them authority over unclean spirits. He instructed them to take nothing for the journeybut a walking stick—no food, no sack, no money in their belts. They were, however, to wear sandalsbut not a second tunic. He said to them,“Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave. Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you,leave there and shake the dust off your feetin testimony against them.” So they went off and preached repentance. The Twelve drove out many demons,and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

Reflections on this weeks gospel:

Word on Fire
English Dominicans
Sunday Reflections
St Louis University Centre for Liturgy

Liturgical odds & ends

Liturgy of the Hours - Psalter week 3

Saints of the Week

July 16th - Our Lady of Mount Carmel
July 17th - Pope St Leo IV
July 18th - St Daminh Dinh Dat
July 19th - St Macrina the Younger
July 20th - St Apollinaris
July 21st - St Lawrence of Brindisi