23rd September 2018 - WMOF2018 - Cardinal Tagle - Choose Life: Pope Francis on the ‘Throw-Away’ Culture

The SS102fm team were so impressed with the input of the keynote speakers and workshops given during the Pastoral Congress of the World Meeting of Families this year. We are also conscious that many people would have been unable to attend these talks in person, so periodically over the next few months we will be sharing some of the audio with our listeners and our blog followers.

WMOF2018 - Cardinal Tagle - Choose Life: Pope Francis on the ‘Throw-Away’ Culture

On the second day of the Pastoral Congress, Wednesday, August 22nd 2018, Cardinal Tagle, the Archbishop of Manila, gave a workshop entitled 'Choose life: Pope Francis on the ‘throw-away’ culture.' Cardinal Tagle brings together two major writings of Pope Francis: Laudato 'Si (on the care for our common home) and Amoris Laetitia (on love in the family). He highlights that the throw-away culture which very often we have adopted with material things or things of the earth we can carry into our relationships with others and with God. It is easy to see the consequences of such thinking, but Cardinal Tagle invites us remember once more that "We are the body of Christ. We are the family of God. We are persons. We are supposed to be welcoming and caring, be attentive to them, those who feel like they are objects to be thrown away. We tell them, 'No, you are valuable. You are a person. Your life is sacred. You belong to us. We are one family.'"

You can listen to the full programme podcast HERE.

You can watch Cardinal Tagle's talk HERE. 

Gospel for the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Mark 9:30-37

Jesus and his disciples made their way through Galilee; and he did not want anyone to know, because he was instructing his disciples; he was telling them, ‘The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men; they will put him to death; and three days after he has been put to death he will rise again.’ But they did not understand what he said and were afraid to ask him.

They came to Capernaum, and when he was in the house he asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the road?’ They said nothing because they had been arguing which of them was the greatest. So he sat down, called the Twelve to him and said, ‘If anyone wants to be first, he must make himself last of all and servant of all.’ He then took a little child, set him in front of them, put his arms round him, and said to them, ‘Anyone who welcomes one of these little children in my name, welcomes me; and anyone who welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.’

Reflections on this week's gospel:

Word on Fire
Centre for Liturgy
Sunday Reflections 
English Dominicans
Dominican Sisters of St. Joseph

Liturgical odds & ends

Liturgy of the Hours: Psalter week 1

Saints of the week

24th September - St. Gerard Sagredo
25th September - St. Finbarr
26th September - St. Cosmas and St. Damian
27th September - St. Vincent de Paul
28th September - St. Wenceslaus
29th September - St. Michael, St. Gabriel and St. Raphael

AMORIS Animations (6/6) - How families transform the world

The AMORIS animations (produced by Ministory) reflect on the vision of love, marriage and family presented by Pope Francis in The Joy of Love. 

In Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis shows how families as the domestic church can help transform the world . 

[You can find all six episodes on the Amoris website HERE.]

AMORIS Animations (5/6) - Love and mercy

The AMORIS animations (produced by Ministory) reflect on the vision of love, marriage and family presented by Pope Francis in The Joy of Love. 

In Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis writes that he wishes to encourage everyone to be a sign of mercy.

[You can find all six episodes on the Amoris website HERE.]

AMORIS Animations (4/6) - Consumerism and families

The AMORIS animations (produced by Ministory) reflect on the vision of love, marriage and family presented by Pope Francis in The Joy of Love. 

In Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis warns us of the dangers of the false promises of consumerism for family life.

[You can find all six episodes on the Amoris website HERE.]

AMORIS Animations (3/6) - Love and imperfection

The AMORIS animations (produced by Ministory) reflect on the vision of love, marriage and family presented by Pope Francis in The Joy of Love. 

In Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis helps us to see how love overcomes other people’s weaknesses and faults

[You can find all six episodes on the Amoris website HERE.]

AMORIS Animations (2/6) - Family: a living reflection of the Trinity

The AMORIS animations (produced by Ministory) reflect on the vision of love, marriage and family presented by Pope Francis in The Joy of Love. 

Pope Francis in Amoris Laetitia reflects on how God is a communion of love, and the family is its living reflection

[You can find all six episodes on the Amoris website HERE.]

22 July 2018 - Amoris : Lets Talk Family - Parish Conversations 2

On this weeks programme we continue 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 podcast of the full programme HERE.

Amoris - Let's talk Family! Let's be family - Parish Conversations 2

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.

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.

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.
• In addition there is a new tv series called ‘A Journey through Amoris Laetitia’  which explores the apostolic exhortation.

Gospel - Mark 6:30-34

The apostles gathered together with Jesus
and reported all they had done and taught.
He said to them,
“Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.”
People were coming and going in great numbers,
and they had no opportunity even to eat.
So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place.
People saw them leaving and many came to know about it.
They hastened there on foot from all the towns
and arrived at the place before them.

When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd,
his heart was moved with pity for them,
for they were like sheep without a shepherd;
and he began to teach them many things.

Reflections on this weeks gospel:

Word on Fire

Sunday Reflections

English Dominicans

Centre for Liturgy

Liturgical odds & ends

Liturgy of the Hours - Psalter week 4

Saints of the Week

July 23rd - St Bridget of Sweden

July 24th - St Declan also St Charbel Makhluf

July 25th - St James the Great

July 26th - Ss Joachim and Anne

July 27th - St Simon the Stylite

July 28th - St José Melchór García-Sampedro Suárez

‘A Journey through Amoris Laetitia’ TV Series

A six-part TV series based around the papal exhortation Amoris Laetitia (“The Joy of Love”) has been released by the World Meeting of Families.

Entitled A Journey Through Amoris Laetitia, the series features a variety of well-known commentators, as well as families from all walks of life and from around the world. Through the six episodes, participants reflect on what Amoris Laetitia has to say to families as they experience the ups and downs of family life. The series also looks at how Pope Francis addresses key themes like imperfection, mercy and society in his letter.

Each episode focuses on a different theme, moving – as the papal document does – from the reality of family life today, through to God’s dream for the family, to St Paul’s reflection on love, to families reaching out in solidarity to others and accompanying struggling families. The final episode deals with how families can “go forth in their families and in the world”.

Therese and Jimmy O’Brien and family who appear in
episode 1 of A Journey through Amoris Laetitia

“In preparing for the World Meeting of Families it was fairly obvious that the key document was Amoris Laetitia from Pope Francis,” Fr Bill Kemmy, one of the three series producers, told CatholicIreland. “That is a significant piece of work so it deserves unpacking. The Amoris programme is an attempt to help people read and maybe reflect on what Pope Francis has written for all of us before he comes.”

Contributors to the six-part series include Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, president of Caritas International; Jeff Cavins, author and speaker; Archbishop Eamon Martin, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland; Bishop Robert Barron, Auxiliary Bishop of Los Angeles; John and Claire Gabrowski, Pontifical Council for the Family; Sr Consilio, Cuan Mhuire; and several members of family-based movements like Teams of Our Lady, Focolare New Families and Retrouvaille. It is presented by Wendy Grace, who produced the series alongside Petra Conroy and Fr Kemmy.

A Journey Through Amoris Laetitia, which is a co-production between iCatholic.ie and KAIROS Communications, is available on-line through the website Amoris.ie  . The series is also being broadcast internationally through stations like Catholic TV, Salt and Light TV and EWTN.

AMORIS Animations (1/6) - Families living in a digital age

The AMORIS animations (produced by Ministory) reflect on the vision of love, marriage and family presented by Pope Francis in The Joy of Love. 

In this first AMORIS animation we reflect on the importance of allowing time for each other, to enable love to flourish.

[You can find all six episodes on the Amoris website HERE.]

AMORIS Animations - Exploring the vision of love, marriage and family presented by Pope Francis in The Joy of Love.

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

‘Let’s Talk Family: Let’s Be Family’, - Mercy must be applied by Church to families in difficulties

Mercy must be applied by Church to families in difficulties – leading theologian says ahead of major conference in Limerick next week

Mercy must be applied by Church to families in difficult – leading theologian says ahead of major conference in Limerick next week

The Church must apply ‘mercy’ to families, particularly those that find themselves in difficulty, including second unions, a leading theologian has said.

Speaking ahead of a major gathering in Limerick next week that will be attended by the cardinal chosen by Pope Francis to present Amoris Laetitia – the papacy’s letter on the ‘family’ – Rev Professor Eamonn Conway said that under Pope Francis, the Church will still hold onto ideals of what family should be but is very much, at the same time, reachuing out to those “on the margins”.

‘Let’s Talk Family: Let’s Be Family’, which will be held at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick on July 13th, is the first major conference to be held as part of the build up to the World Meeting of Families next year in Ireland.

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, Archbishop of Vienna - recognised as one of the Church hierarchy lead reformers – will be guest speaker at the conference. He was selected by Pope Francis to present Amoris Laetitia (the Joy of Love) following two Synods on the family, in 2014 and 2015, and is among the Pope’s closest confidants.

Prof Conway said Cardinal Schönborn’s attendance is hugely significant and he will give a deeper insight into how the Church under Pope Francis is changing in the context of the family.

“Pope Francis has said that marriage and the family is in crisis and that the ‘culture of the temporary’ is seeing many people give up on marriage when there is so much to fight for. So, in that context, the conference, and attendance of one of Pope Francis’ closely confidants at it, is incredibly timely, not least with the World Meeting of Families here next year.

“There is a very clear movement taking place under Pope Francis’ guidance.  I think the change or the development is that we really need to bring the concept of mercy.  Pope Francis is really challenging the Church and challenging us as Ministers; challenging us all to say how can we be more supportive of families, particularly those that are vulnerable and are fragile.

“I’m talking about people who find themselves in circumstances that they mightn’t have set out to, in some situations what we call irregular unions or second unions. How do we apply the concept of mercy while still holding to the ideal of how God wants us to be as family?  How do we reach out and touch the hearts of and be supportive as a community to those on the margins. I think we are getting new energy and new insight into how as Church we need to go about that.”

Speaking specifically of Cardinal Schönborn’s attendance at next week’s event, Rev Conway, a professor at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, said that he is not alone one of Europe’s leading theologians and among the Pope’s most trusted cardinals, but brings a particular experience of the complexities of family through his own circumstances.

“We’re really, really grateful that Cardinal Schönborn, the Archbishop of Vienna, will be with us at our conference in Mary Immaculate. It’s really a great honour as he is in huge demand. He was chosen by Pope Francis actually to launch the Joy of Love, Amoris Letitia. And one of the interesting things about him, and he spoke about this at one of the synods, is that he himself comes from a broken family, as we would call it.  His parents divorced when he was quite young.  So he knows at a personal level, in a sense, the challenges that families can face and the challenges young people can face growing up in a family that is not necessarily the ideal circumstance.

“Over many years as chief pastor of the diocese of Vienna, he has worked hard to integrate and support and care for those in vulnerable situations, while also obviously trying to hold before people the ideal of the Church’s teaching on family life. So he is a very experienced pastor.”

To book a place at the conference, go to www.irishinstituteforpastoralstudies.com,  call 061 204507 or email Eamonn.Fitzgibbon@mic.ul.ie The full conference costs €20 or €10 for the evening public lecture by Cardinal Schönborn’s.

World Meeting of Families 2018 Promotional video

1st May 2016 - Amoris Laetitia (the Joy of Love): Prof Eamonn Conway discuss the Joy of Love with SS102fm

On this weeks programme John and Shane are joined by Fr Eamonn Conway from Mary Immaculate College Limerick to discuss Pope Francis apostolic exhoratation Amoris Laetitia.
 
On the blog we have links to reflections to this weeks gospel reflections and of course our regular liturgical odds and ends.
 
You can listen to the podcast of the full programme HERE.
 
Amoris Laetitia: A discussion with Fr Eamonn Conway
 

On this weeks programme we are joined by Fr Eamonn Conway of the Theology Department of Mary Immaculate College in Limerick to reflect and discuss the latest papal post-synodal apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia: the Joy of Love. The exhortation from Pope Francis is a result of the two meetings of the Synods of Bishops in Rome in 2014 and 2015 on the family. It frequently cites their final Reports, documents and teachings of his predecessors, and his own numerous catecheses on the family. In addition, as in previous magisterial documents, the Pope also makes use of the contributions of various Episcopal Conferences around the world (Kenya, Australia, Argentina...) and cites significant figures such as Martin Luther King and Erich Fromm.
 
You can listen to Fr Eamonn's discussion excerpted from the main programme here.

His reflection takes us through each section of the apostolic exhortation where once more we see how Pope Francis is calling us to the "revolution of tenderness" throughout the church. To enable us to read the document some of the keys are missionary key or that sense of urgency which we need to have in the church at this minute in time. It re-echoes the model of the church as a field hospital for those that are wounded. In this Year of Mercy Fr Eamonn reminds us that mercy is a bending of the heart to the situations where we find the woundedness of others.
 
"Accompanying, discerning and integrating our weaknesses" - Fr Eamonn's quite profound reflection and challenge on section 8 of the apostolic exhortation can be listened to here.
 
Our previous post on the publication of the apostolic exhortation including round up of links, commentary and a synopsis from the Vatican is HERE.
 
Gospel - John 17:20-26

Jesus said, "”I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

 

Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. “Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

 
Reflections on this weeks gospel:

• Word on Fire
• English Dominicans
• Centre for Liturgy
• Sunday Reflections

Liturgical odds & ends

Liturgy of the Hours - psalter week 2; 6th week of Easter

Saints of the Week

May 2nd - St Athanasius
May 3rd - St Philip & St James
May 4th - St Conleth of Kildare
May 5th - Bl Edmund Rice
May 6th - Saint Francis de Montmorency Laval (First Friday)
May 7th - Blessed Jan Eugeniusz Bajewski
May 8th - Ascension of the Lord

Amoris Latetitia - The Joy of Love

Vatican Press Office:

• Full text of Amoris Latetitia
• Vatican press office summary

Vatican Radio:

• British Bishop Peter Doyle on Apostolic Exhortation
• Presentation of Pope Francis' new document on family life

Irish Conference of Bishops:

• Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love) – Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Francis on Love In The Family

Whispers in the Loggia - Francis' Feast – Pope's Hymn to Family "Is A Matter of Reaching Out to Everyone"

Aleteia:

• Bishop Barron: First Thoughts on “Amoris Laetitia” The pope's apostolic exhortation offers a "great service to many suffering souls who come to the Field Hospital"
• Amoris Laetitia Overview: We Advance Together, the Strong Helping the Weak - "Love coexists with imperfection"
• Albany Bishop Scharfenberger Comments on Pope's Exhortation
• The “Multifaceted Gem” of Pope Francis’ Amoris Laetitia Mining the theology of the Body-inspired wealth of the post-synodal apostolic exhortation “The Joy of Love”

Crux:

• Crux articles tagged with Amoris Latetitia
• Two views on Pope Francis’ ‘Magna Carta for the family’
• Two views on what ‘Amoris Laetitia’ really means
• Real jewel in pope’s exhortation comes on married love

CNA:

• No doctrine change from Pope Francis – but a call for better pastoral care
• Cardinal Schönborn praises 'Amoris Laetitia' stance on gay marriage
• US bishops: don't rush in reading, interpreting Pope's 'love letter' to families
• Interpreting Amoris Laetitia 'through the lens of Catholic tradition'
• How Pope Francis thinks we should change marriage prep

National Catholic Register:

• The Pope’s New Document on Marriage: 12 Things to Know and Share
• Pope on Life in Apostolic Exhortation: ‘Each Child Has Place in God’s Heart’
• ‘Amoris Laetitia’: A Tale of Two Documents - Pope Francis’ more than 250-page text on the family deals beautifully and decisively on threats to marriage and hesitantly and ambivalently on putting Church teaching into practice.
•  Pope’s Family Document ‘Amoris Laetitia’ Tackles Complex Pastoral Challenges   - But concerns already are being expressed about Chapter 8, which introduces ambiguity in its discussion of ‘accompanying, discerning and integrating weakness.’
• NCR's articles tagged for Amoris Latetitia

National Catholic Reporter:

• NCR articles tagged for Amoris Laetitia 
• 'Amoris Laetitia': Francis challenges the church

In the Light of the Law - First thoughts on the English version of Pope Francis’ Amoris Laetitia.

Catholic Herald

• Amoris Laetitia: What people are saying 
• Catholic Herald articles tagged for Amoris Latetitia 
• Amoris Laetitia is ‘a love letter’ to families, says head of US bishops’ conference
• 'Discernment charged with merciful love': Pope Francis’ Amoris Laetitia, on Love in the Family 

Salt + Light

• Fr. Thomas Rosica talks Amoris Laetitia on CBS This Morning
• Behind Vatican Walls – Amoris Laetitia…What is it?

The New Yorker - The New Morality of Pope Francis

UPDATE

• Understanding Francis and the internal forum Holy Father does not change doctrine in family document, pushes for careful formation of conscience
• Amoris Laetitia: Pope Francis’ “1968 Moment” 
• Francis and Antonio, a Couple in Excellent “Society" - The pope has in Fr. Antonio Spadaro, a Jesuit like him, his authorized translator. Here is how “La Civiltà Cattolica”  restates in clearer words what “Amoris lætitia” presents in allusive form   

UPDATE 2:

• Bishop Barron Q&A on “Amoris Laetitia” (The Joy of Love)
• More Bishop Barron Q&A on “Amoris Laetitia” (The Joy of Love) 
• What Some Critics of ‘Amoris Laetitia’ Are Missing
• No, Pope Francis isn't saying your 'conscience' trumps doctrine
• The Secret Key to Understanding Pope Francis and “Amoris Laetitia” - His approach is about spreading the Gospel, not spreading the rules