Pope urges families to pray together

Pope Francis has challenged Catholic families to pray together with “simplicity” and to be patient with one another, telling them they will have “joyful” homes only if they cultivate the “welcoming, merciful, and respectful” love of God, writes Robert Mickens.

“Praying the Our Father together, around the table, is not something extraordinary – it’s easy,” the Pope told almost 200,000 people who joined him for an outdoor “Mass for Families” on Sunday in St Peter’s Square.

During the liturgy, part of the Year of Faith celebrations, he suggested praying the Rosary together and praying for each other. “This … makes the family strong – prayer,” he said.

Francis told married couples at a Saturday evening prayer gathering to pay no attention to the “makeshift culture” of today’s society, but to commit themselves to one another for life. Before a crowd of more than 100,000 people, he said the secret to this was to “accept one another each day, and daily to forgive one another”. He said creating a “healthy family” required the use of three words. “I want to repeat these three words,” he said. “Please, thank you, sorry.” He added that grandparents were “like the wisdom of the family” and “the wisdom of a people”.

In an address on Friday last week to participants at a plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council of the Family, Pope Francis said the “family founded on marriage” was a “community of life”. He called for greater care for children and the elderly, who he said were the most “vulnerable” and often “forgotten” members of society. “A society that abandons children and marginalises the elderly severs its roots and obscures its future,” he warned.