"To hear and accept God's call, to make a home for Jesus, you must be able to   
   rest in the Lord. You must make time each day for prayer. But you may say to   
   me: Holy Father, I want to pray, but there is so much work to do! I must care   
   for my children; I have chores in the home; I am too tired even to sleep well.   
   This may be true, but if we do not pray, we will not know the most important   
   thing of all: God's will for us. And for all our activity, our busy-ness,   
   without prayer we will accomplish very little.   
    "Resting in prayer is especially important for families. It is in the family   
   that we first learn how to pray. There we come to know God, to grow into men   
   and women of faith, to see ourselves as members of God's greater family, the   
   Church. In the family we learn how to love, to forgive, to be generous and   
   open, not closed and selfish. We learn to move beyond our own needs, to   
   encounter others and share our lives with them. That is why it is so important   
   to pray as a family! That is why families are so important in God's plan for   
   the Church!   
    "Next, rising with Jesus and Mary. Those precious moments of repose, of   
   resting with the Lord in prayer, are moments we might wish to prolong. But   
   like St. Joseph, once we have heard God's voice, we must rise from our   
   slumber; we must get up and act. Faith does not remove us from the world, but   
   draws us more deeply into it. Each of us, in fact, has a special role in   
   preparing for the coming of God's kingdom in our world.   
    "Just as the gift of the Holy Family was entrusted to Saint Joseph, so the   
   gift of the family and its place in God's plan is entrusted to us. The angel   
   of the Lord revealed to Joseph the dangers which threatened Jesus and Mary,   
   forcing them to flee to Egypt and then to settle in Nazareth. So too, in our   
   time, God calls upon us to recognize the dangers threatening our own families   
   and to protect them from harm.   
    "The pressures on family life today are many. Here in the Philippines,   
   countless families are still suffering from the effects of natural disasters.   
   The economic situation has caused families to be separated by migration and   
   the search for employment, and financial problems strain many households.   
   While all too many people live in dire poverty, others are caught up in   
   materialism and lifestyles which are destructive of family life and the most   
   basic demands of Christian morality. The family is also threatened by growing   
   efforts on the part of some to redefine the very institution of marriage, by   
   relativism, by the culture of the ephemeral, by a lack of openness to life.   
    "Our world needs good and strong families to overcome these threats! The   
   Philippines need holy and loving families to protect the beauty and truth of   
   the family in God's plan and to be a support and example for other families.   
   Every threat to the family is a threat to society itself. The future of   
   humanity, as St. John Paul II often said, passes through the family. So   
   protect your families! See in them your country's greatest treasure and   
   nourish them always by prayer and the grace of the sacraments. Families will   
   always have their trials, but may you never add to them! Instead, be living   
   examples of love, forgiveness and care. Be sanctuaries of respect for life,   
   proclaiming the sacredness of every human life from conception to natural   
   death. What a gift this would be to society, if every Christian family lived   
   fully its noble vocation! So rise with Jesus and Mary, and set out on the path   
   the Lord traces for each of you.   
    "Finally, the Gospel we have heard reminds us of our Christian duty to be   
   prophetic voices in the midst of our communities. Joseph listened to the angel   
   of the Lord and responded to God's call to care for Jesus and Mary. In this   
   way he played his part in God's plan, and became a blessing not only for the   
   Holy Family, but a blessing for all of humanity. With Mary, Joseph served as a   
   model for the boy Jesus as he grew in wisdom, age and grace. When families   
   bring children into the world, train them in faith and sound values, and teach   
   them to contribute to society, they become a blessing in our world. God's love   
   becomes present and active by the way we love and by the good works that we   
   do. We extend Christ's kingdom in this world. And in doing this, we prove   
   faithful to the prophetic mission which we have received in baptism.   
    "During this year which your bishops have set aside as the Year of the Poor,   
   I would ask you, as families, to be especially mindful of our call to be   
   missionary disciples of Jesus. This means being ready to go beyond your homes   
   and to care for our brothers and sisters who are most in need. I ask you   
   especially to show concern for those who do not have a family of their own, in   
   particular those who are elderly and children without parents. Never let them   
   feel isolated, alone and abandoned, but help them to know that God has not   
   forgotten them. You may be poor yourselves in material ways, but you have an   
   abundance of gifts to offer when you offer Christ and the community of his   
   Church. Do not hide your faith, do not hide Jesus, but carry him into the   
   world and offer the witness of your family life!   
    "Dear friends in Christ, know that I pray for you always! I pray that the   
   Lord may continue to deepen your love for him, and that this love may manifest   
   itself in your love for one another and for the Church. Pray often and take   
   the fruits of your prayer into the world, that all may know Jesus Christ and   
   his merciful love. Please pray also for me, for I truly need your prayers and   
   will depend on them always".   
    Following the meeting, the Pope retired to the apostolic nunciature, where he   
   dined privately and spent his second night in the Philippines.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Conclusion of the meeting of presidents of Doctrinal Commissions   
    Vatican City, 16 January 2015 (VIS) - From 13 to 15 January the superiors of   
   the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith met with the presidents or   
   representatives of the Doctrinal Commissions of the European Episcopal   
   Conferences at the St. Adalbert Centre in Esztergom, Hungary. It was attended   
   by, among others, Cardinal Gerhard L. Muller, prefect of the Congregation for   
   the Doctrine of the Faith, Archbishop Luis F. Ladaria S.J., secretary of the   
   same dicastery, and representatives of the various doctrinal commissions.   
    The meeting began with the reading of a letter from Pope Francis addressed to   
   the participants, in which he emphasised that the initiative sought to enhance   
   the role of local Episcopates, and in particular their Doctrinal Commissions,   
   "in their responsibility for the unity and integrity of the faith" and its   
   transmission to the young. With reference his apostolic exhortation "Evangelii   
   Gaudium", the Pope expresses in his letter his hope that the meeting will will   
   contribute to finding a collegial solution to the many doctrinal and pastoral   
   difficulties that exist in present-day Europe, and inspire in the faithful "a   
   new missionary zeal and greater openness to the transcendent dimension of   
   life, without which Europe risks losing the very 'humanistic spirit' that it   
   loves and defends".   
    During the three-day meeting, which was characterised by cordiality and a   
   spirit of affective and effective collegiality, a number of issues were   
   considered in relation to the unicity and salvific universality of Jesus   
   Christ and the proclamation of the Gospel as the primary task of the Church in   
   Europe, questions posed by gender theory, Christian anthropology and religious   
   freedom, and the practical issues linked to the new evangelisation, the   
   sacrament of reconciliation and the functioning of the Doctrinal Commission.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Other Pontifical Acts   
    Vatican City, 16 January 2015 (VIS) - The Holy Father has appointed:   
    - Fr. José Maria Balina as auxiliary of Buenos Aires (area 203, population   
   2,944,000, Catholics 2,696,000, priests 782, permanent deacons 10, religious   
   1,951), Argentina. The bishop-elect was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in   
   1959, and was ordained a priest in 1989. He has served as parish vicar in the   
   parishes of "Inmaculada Concepcion", "San Pablo Apostol", and "La Sagrada   
   Eucaristia", and parish priest of the parishes of "Resurreccion del Senor" and   
   "San Isidro Labrador". He is a member of the presbyteral council of the   
   archdiocese of Buenos Aires,   
    - Bishop Nicholas James Samra of Newton of the Greek-Melkites, U.S.A., as   
   apostolic administrator "sede vacante et ad nutum Sanctae Sedis" of the   
   eparchy of Nuestra Senora del Paraiso en Mexico of the Greek-Melkites.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
   For more information and to search for documents refer to the site:   
   www.visnews.org and www.vatican.va   
      
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   Information Service may be reproduced wholly or partially by quoting   
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