Dublin: The Preparatory Catecheses are Online

Starting today, the Feast of the Lord’s Presentation in the Temple, the Catecheses for the Dublin World Meeting of Families (21-26 August 2018) are available in five languages on our website. The seven catecheses, one for each month from here to August, accompanied by a musical itineraries—one for each catechesis—and videos of music, are built around the Gospel narrative of the loss of the 12-year-old Jesus and his recovery in the Temple (Luke 2:41–52), with threads woven between the text of Amoris Laetitia—which inspires the Dublin Meeting—and the unique story of the Holy Family of Nazareth that reveal how timely and prophetic the proclamation of the Gospel of the family is.

As Prefect Kevin Farrell explained during a conference in the Press Office of the Holy See a few days ago, in these catecheses, “We start from a concrete look at today’s families (first), indicating the relevance of the Word of God which can illuminate the family’s daily life at home (second) to reach the great dream that God has for every family (third), even where fragility and weakness seem to break it (fourth). All this makes the family generate a new culture in the world, that of life (fifth), of hope (sixth), and of joy (seventh). Each catechesis—he added—opens with a prayer and concludes with some questions that may be shared in the family or in the ecclesial community.”

The catecheses are accompanied by a musical itinerary with videos of the concert given by Andrea Bocelli at the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, a stage of the project “The Great Mystery,” and, as an additional aid, multimedia art clips produced on a monthly basis. All the material is available in Italian, English, Spanish, French and Portuguese.