The Diocese of Rome and the Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life has released the Official Prayer of the 2022 World Meeting of Families in Rome.
The 10th World Meeting of Families will be held at the end of the Amoris Laetitia Family Year, which marks the fifth anniversary of Amoris laetitia, Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation on love in the family. The Year, which began on March 19, will last for 15 months, culminating with the gathering in Rome. The meeting was originally scheduled to take place on June 23-27, 2021, but the Vatican announced in April 2020 that Pope Francis had decided to delay it by a year due to the coronavirus crisis.
This prayer springs from deep gratitude to our Heavenly Father for the great gift of family, a very special place for loving relationships. It is inspired by the theme chosen by Pope Francis for the meeting: “Family love: a vocation and a path to holiness”. The prayer is intended to be a pastoral tool: it can be prayed from now on in parishes, in communities, at home, to help with preparation for the next year's international event.
Heavenly Father,
We come before You to praise You
and to thank You for the great gift of the family.
We pray to You for all families
consecrated by the Sacrament of Matrimony.
May they rediscover each day
the grace they have received,
and as small domestic Churches,
may they know how to witness to Your presence
and to the love with which Christ loves the Church.
We pray to You for all families faced with difficulty and suffering
caused by illness or circumstances of which only You know.
Sustain them and make them aware
of the path to holiness upon which You call them,
so that they might experience Your infinite mercy
and find new ways to grow in love.
We pray to You for children and young people:
may they encounter You and respond joyfully
to the vocation You have in mind for them;
We pray for parents and grandparents: may they be aware
that they are signs of the fatherhood and motherhood of God
in caring for the children who, in body and spirit, You entrust to them;
and for the experience of fraternity
that the family can give to the world.
Lord, grant that each family
might live their specific vocation to holiness in the Church
as a call to become missionary disciples,
in the service of life and peace,
in communion with our priests, religious,
and all vocations in the Church.
Bless the World Meeting of Families.
Amen.