A YEAR TO FOCUS ON FAMILY LIFE
MARCH 19, 2021 – JUNE 22, 2022
Marking the fifth anniversary of the Apostolic Exhortation, Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love), on March 19, 2021, Pope Francis has asked the Church to celebrate the family and reflect upon how ministry supports married couples and the family.1
In The Joy of Love2, Pope Francis tells us that it is in the family that we first learn to love. And, since God is Love itself, parents are the primary religious educators of themselves and their children. For this reason, your home is called the domestic church. The Joy of Love recommends that the happiness and the sense of well-being that flow from the love experienced in the families should be celebrated in church.
Your sharing of love in your home, therefore, is your primary family prayer. So, remind yourselves of this fact often. Express in family prayer your gratitude for God giving you the ability to love and be together. Celebrate it! Watch it grow and sustain you in troubled times. Then come as a family to Mass, joining the other families of Saint Michael’s which is a family of families, sharing a love that is rooted in God, ever deepening and shared with each other, and all those we contact during our everyday lives.
Find more about The Joy of Love (Amoris Laetitia) on the Irish website that has its TV shows appearing in the Catholic Faith Network. This is one of six animations on the Irish website:
To view more of the animations go to https://amoris.ie/
Text of the apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love) and a two-minute video introduction to the document.
A Study Guide provided by Jesuit Fr. Thomas Reese and provided by the National Catholic Reporter.
Archdiocesan Family Life Office Resources.
THE JOY OF LOVE – CHAPTER FOUR
Most married couples find Chapter Four of The Joy of Love to be the most practical and inspirational. Here are some quotes for Chapter Four. Click here to read the entire chapter.
4: Love in Marriage
from 22catholic.com (The numbers that precede the statements are the paragraph numbers in The Joy of Love. The words within the quotation marks are words of that paragraph. The other word are explanations provided by Fr. Matthew Schneider.)
This chapter is a profound meditation on the meaning of love and its application in Christian marriage. It has been referred to as a meditation on the meaning and expression of love in Christian marriage.
89: The Gospel of marriage is incomplete without love. “All that has been said so far would be insufficient to express the Gospel of marriage and the family, were we not also to speak of love.”
92: “Being patient does not mean letting ourselves be constantly mistreated, tolerating physical aggression or allowing other people to use us.”
93: “The word |translated “kind”| is used only here in the entire Bible. It is derived from |the Greek word for| a good person, one who shows his goodness by his deeds. Here, in strict parallelism with the preceding verb |patience|. Paul wants to make it clear that ‘patience’ is not a completely passive attitude, but one accompanied by activity, by a dynamic and creative interaction with others.”
97: “Those who love not only refrain from speaking too much about themselves, but are focused on others; they do not need to be the centre of attention.”
99: “To love is also to be gentle and thoughtful. |The Greek word| indicates that love is not rude or impolite; it is not harsh.”
102: “It is more proper to charity to desire to love than to desire to be loved” (quoting: Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 27, art. 1, ad 2.)
122: “There is no need to lay upon two limited persons the tremendous burden of having to reproduce perfectly the union existing between Christ and his Church, for marriage as a sign entails ‘a dynamic process…, one which advances gradually with the progressive integration of the gifts of God.’” (quoting: John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio (22 November 1981), 9: AAS 75 (1982), 90.)
153: “Sex often becomes depersonalized and unhealthy; as a result, ‘it becomes the occasion and instrument for self-assertion and the selfish satisfaction of personal desires and instincts.’” (quoting: John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Evangelium Vitae (25 March 1995), 23: AAS 87 (1995), 427.)
156: “Every form of sexual submission must be clearly rejected.”
158-162 emphasize the value of non-married vocations for the Church.
158: “Many people who are unmarried are not only devoted to their own family but often render great service in their group of friends, in the Church community and in their professional lives… Their dedication greatly enriches the family, the Church and society.” (quoting: Relatio Finalis 2015, 22.)
159: “Virginity is a form of love… It is also a reflection of the fullness of heaven.”
161: “Virginity and marriage are, and must be, different ways of loving. For ‘man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him.’” (quoting John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Redemptor Hominis (4 March 1979), 10: AAS 71 (1979), 274.)
164: “We love the other person for who they are, not simply for their body. Although the body ages, it still expresses that personal identity that first won our heart. Even if others can no longer see the beauty of that identity, a spouse continues to see it with the eyes of love and so his or her affection does not diminish.”
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- Marking the fifth anniversary of the Apostolic Exhortation, Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love), Pope Francis has asked the Church to celebrate the family and reflect upon how ministry supports married couples and the family in every level of Church life. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth is coordinating the anniversary celebration in the U.S.
- Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love) is a post-Synodal apostolic exhortation by Pope Francis on love in the family. It was signed on 19 March 2016 on the Solemnity of St. Joseph, and brings together the results of the two Synods on the family in 2014 and 2015. Some of you may remember participating in the meetings and questionnaires through which we at St. Michael’s provided input for the synod.