our own day. I think of the elderly, abandoned even by their loved ones and   
   children; widows and widowers; the many men and women left by their spouses;   
   all   
   those who feel alone, misunderstood and unheard; migrants and refugees fleeing   
   from war and persecution; and those many young people who are victims of the   
   culture of consumerism, the culture of waste, the throwaway culture".   
    "Today we experience the paradox of a globalised world filled with luxurious   
   mansions and skyscrapers, but a lessening of the warmth of homes and families;   
   many ambitious plans and projects, but little time to enjoy them... Our   
   experience today is, in some way, like that of Adam: so much power and at the   
   same time so much loneliness and vulnerability. The image of this is the   
   family.   
   People are less and less serious about building a solid and fruitful   
   relationship of love: in sickness and in health, for better and for worse, in   
   good times and in bad. Love which is lasting, faithful, conscientious, stable   
   and fruitful is increasingly looked down upon, viewed as a quaint relic of the   
   past".   
    In the first reading we hear that God was pained by Adam's loneliness, and   
   resolved to make him a helper fit for him. "These words show that nothing makes   
   man's heart as happy as another heart like his own, a heart which loves him and   
   takes away his sense of being alone. These words also show that God did not   
   create us to live in sorrow or to be alone. He made men and women for   
   happiness,   
   to share their journey with someone who complements them, to live the wondrous   
   experience of love: to love and to be loved, and to see their love bear fruit   
   in   
   children, as today's Psalm says. This is God's dream for His beloved creation:   
   to see it fulfilled in the loving union between a man and a woman, rejoicing in   
   their shared journey, fruitful in their mutual gift of self".   
    "What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder", said the   
   Pope, turning to the theme of the family. "This is an exhortation to believers   
   to overcome every form of individualism and legalism which conceals a narrow   
   self-centredness and a fear of accepting the true meaning of the couple and of   
   human sexuality in God's plan. Indeed, only in the light of the folly of the   
   gratuitousness of Jesus' paschal love will the folly of the gratuitousness of   
   an   
   exclusive and life-long conjugal love make sense".   
    "For God, marriage is not some adolescent utopia, but a dream without which   
   his   
   creatures will be doomed to solitude", he continued. "Indeed, being afraid to   
   accept this plan paralyses the human heart. Paradoxically, people today - who   
   often ridicule this plan - continue to be attracted and fascinated by every   
   authentic love, by every steadfast love, by every fruitful love, by every   
   faithful and enduring love. We see people chase after fleeting loves while   
   dreaming of true love; they chase after carnal pleasures but desire total   
   self-giving".   
    "In this extremely difficult social and marital context, the Church is called   
   to carry out her mission in fidelity, truth and love. To carry out her mission   
   in fidelity to her Master as a voice crying out in the desert, in defending   
   faithful love and encouraging the many families which live married life as an   
   experience which reveals of God's love; in defending the sacredness of life, of   
   every life; in defending the unity and indissolubility of the conjugal bond as   
   a   
   sign of God's grace and of the human person's ability to love seriously".   
    "To carry out her mission in truth, which is not changed by passing fads or   
   popular opinions. The truth which protects individuals and humanity as a whole   
   from the temptation of self-centredness and from turning fruitful love into   
   sterile selfishness, faithful union into temporary bonds. ... To carry out her   
   mission in charity, not pointing a finger in judgement of others, but -   
   faithful   
   to her nature as a mother - conscious of her duty to seek out and care for   
   hurting couples with the balm of acceptance and mercy; to be a 'field hospital'   
   with doors wide open to whoever knocks in search of help and support".   
    Francis recalled St. John Paul II who said: "Error and evil must always be   
   condemned and opposed; but the man who falls or who errs must be understood and   
   loved", and added "The Church must search out these persons, welcome and   
   accompany them, for a Church with closed doors betrays herself and her mission,   
   and, instead of being a bridge, becomes a roadblock: 'For He who sanctifies and   
   those who are sanctified have all one origin. That is why He is not ashamed to   
   call them brethren'".   
    "In this spirit", he concluded, "we ask the Lord to accompany us during the   
   Synod and to guide His Church, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin   
   Mary and St. Joseph, her most chaste spouse".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Society is not strong without the family   
    Vatican City, September 2015 (VIS) - In today's Sunday Angelus the Pope again   
   asked the faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square for prayers for the Synod on   
   the Family inaugurated yesterday with Mass in St. Peter's Basilica.   
    "The Synod Fathers, from all over the world and gathered around St. Peter's   
   Successor will reflect during these three weeks on the vocation and the mission   
   of the Church in the Church and in society, for a careful spiritual and   
   pastoral   
   discernment. We will keep our gaze fixed on Jesus in order to find, on the   
   basis   
   of His teaching of truth and mercy, the most appropriate routes for adequate   
   commitment on the part of the Church, with families and for families, so that   
   the Creator's original plan for man and woman may be implemented and may   
   operate   
   in all its beauty and strength in today's world".   
    In this sense, the reading of the Book of Genesis on complementarity and   
   reciprocity between the man and woman who unite and become one flesh, "that is,   
   one life, one existence", and in this way "transmit their life to new human   
   beings: they become parents. They participate in the creative power of God   
   Himself. But", he warned, "be careful! God is love, and one participates in His   
   work when one loves with and like Him. ... And this is also the love that is   
   given   
   to spouses in the Sacrament of marriage. It is the love that nurtures their   
   relationship, through joy and suffering, in moments of serenity and difficulty.   
   It is the love that awakens the desire to create children, to wait for them,   
   welcome them, raise them and educate them. It is the same love that, in today's   
   Gospel, Jesus reveals to the children: 'Let the children come to me, do not   
   prevent them'.   
    "Today we ask the Lord that all parents and educators in the world, as in   
   society as a whole, are made instruments of that acceptance and love with which   
   Jesus embraces the little ones. He looks into their hearts with the tenderness   
   and care of a father and, at the same time, a mother. I think of so many   
   children that are hungry, abandoned, exploited, forced into the war, refused.   
   It   
   is painful to see images of children that are unhappy, looking lost, fleeing   
   from poverty and conflicts. They are knocking on our doors and our hearts   
   begging for help. May the Lord help us not to be a 'fortress-society,' but   
   rather a 'family-society' which welcomes - with the proper rules -but always   
   welcomes with love".   
    The Pope concluded by invoking the inspiration of the Holy Spirit for the   
   Synod   
   Fathers and the intercession of the Virgin Mary, uniting with those who today,   
   Italian Shrine of Pompeii, pray the traditional supplication to the Our Lady of   
   the Rosary.   
    Following the Angelus, Francis mentioned the beatification yesterday in   
   Santander, Spain, of Pio Heredia and seventeen companions of the Cistercian   
   Order of the Strict Observance of St. Bernard, killed in hatred of the faith   
   during the Spanish civil war and the religious persecution of the 1930s. "Let   
   us   
   praise the Lord for their courageous witness, and with their intercession, let   
   us beg that He liberate the world from the scourge of war".   
    He prayed for the victims of a landslide that swept away an entire village in   
   Guatemala, and of the flood in the Cote d'Azur in France, and urged concrete   
   acts of solidarity in their support. He also affectionately greeted Italian   
   pilgrims on the feast day of the their patron, St. Francis of Assisi.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Prayer Vigil for the Synod - the Church can light up the darkness of humanity   
    Vatican City, 3 October 2015 (VIS) - "When life proves difficult and   
   demanding,   
   we can be tempted to step back, turn away and withdraw, perhaps even in the   
   name   
   of prudence and realism, and thus flee the responsibility of doing our part as   
   best we can", said the Holy Father during his inauguration of the prayer vigil   
   for the Synod of Bishops, held during the night of Saturday 3 October.   
   Organised   
   by the Italian Episcopal Conference, large numbers of faithful and pilgrims   
   participated in St. Peter's Square.   
    The Pope spoke about the human fear that the prophet Elijah experienced and   
   how   
   he got up and fled for his life, and recalled that "just a year ago, in this   
   same Square, we invoked the Holy Spirit and asked that - in discussing the   
   theme   
   of the family - the Synod Fathers might listen attentively to one another, with   
   their gaze fixed on Jesus, the definitive Word of the Father and the criterion   
   by which everything is to be measured. This evening, our prayer cannot be   
   otherwise. For as Patriarch Athenagoras Metropolitan Ignatius IV Hazim reminded   
   us, without the Holy Spirit God is far off, Christ remains in the past, the   
   Church becomes a mere organisation, authority becomes domination, mission   
   becomes propaganda, worship becomes mystique, Christian life the morality of   
   slaves".   
    "Let us pray that the Synod which opens tomorrow will show how the experience   
   of marriage and family is rich and humanly fulfilling", he continued. "May the   
   Synod acknowledge, esteem, and proclaim all that is beautiful, good and holy   
   about that experience. May it embrace situations of vulnerability and hardship:   
   war, illness, grief, wounded relationships and brokenness, which create   
   distress, resentment and separation. May it remind these families, and every   
   family, that the Gospel is always 'good news' which once again enables us to   
   start over. From the treasury of the Church's living tradition may the Fathers   
   draw words of comfort and hope for families called in our own day to build the   
   future of the ecclesial community and the city of man".   
    The Pope emphasised that "every family is always a light, however faint, amid   
   the darkness of this world. Jesus' own human experience took shape in the heart   
   of a family, where he lived for thirty years. His family was like any number of   
   others, living in an obscure village on the outskirts of the Empire".   
    He gave the example of Charles de Foucauld who "came to understand that we do   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)