Bulletins

October 5, 2014

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We have been asked by the Pope and by the Bishop to pray for the Third Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, scheduled to take place October 5-19 in Rome to discuss the topic: “The Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization”. In addition to the Holy Rosary we are asked to offer up a prayer especially composed by the Pope for the occasion:

Prayer to the Holy Family for the Synod

Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
in you we contemplate
the splendor of true love,
to you we turn with trust.

Holy Family of Nazareth,
grant that our families too
may be places of communion and prayer,
authentic schools of the Gospel
and small domestic Churches.

Holy Family of Nazareth,
may families never again
experience violence, rejection and division:
may all who have been hurt or scandalized
find ready comfort and healing.

Holy Family of Nazareth,
may the approaching Synod of Bishops
make us once more mindful
of the sacredness and inviolability of the family,
and its beauty in God’s plan.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
graciously hear our prayer.

Amen.

This Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops will be followed next year by a gathering of the Fourteenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops will continue the work of the Third Extraordinary General Assembly by reflecting further on the points discussed so as to formulate appropriate pastoral guidelines for the pastoral care of the person and the family, after which meeting it would be expected that the Holy Father would issue a substantive document, called a post-synodal apostolic exhortation, which takes up the themes of the Synod and deepens them further.

The last time the Synod of Bishops focused on family was 1980, which was followed by Pope St. John Paul II's 1981 apostolic exhortation Familiaris Consortio, on the role of the Christian family in the modern world. It is well worth your reading it.

God bless our bishops.

Fr. Christopher J. Pollard