At the center of family life - the Eucharist

“Let us pray that Catholics place at the centre of their lives the Eucharistic Celebration, which transforms human relationships and opens up an encounter with God and their brothers and sisters”.

This is the prayer intention for the month of July that Pope Francis entrusts to the entire Church, through the Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network

In the video in which he explains his intention, the Holy Father invites us to reflect, affirming that «if you are the same at the end of Mass, as you were at the beginning, something is wrong». «The Eucharistic – continues the Holy Father – is the presence of Jesus, it is deeply transforming.  Jesus comes and must transform you. (…) Each time we participate in the Eucharist, Jesus comes and Jesus gives us the strength to love like He loved, because it gives us the courage to encounter others, to go out of ourselves, and to open ourselves to others with love».

The Eucharist deeply transforms family relationships

Last June 30 to July 2, in Assisi, there was a conference entitled: “From the Eucharist spring the origin and destiny of marriage and family”, in which the close relationship between the Eucharist and family life was explored. The theme explains - in a spousal key - the Holy Father's prayer intention and what is written in Amoris Laetitia: «For the food of the Eucharist offers the spouses the strength and incentive needed to live the marriage covenant each day as a “domestic Church». (AL 318)

The Under-secretary of the Dicastery for Family, Laity and Life, Prof. Gabriella Gambino, participated in the Conference organized by “Progetto misterogrande” with a talk on “The Eucharist celebrated and adored is source and summit of the development of family life (FC 57)”. In her speech she pointed out that, «just as the celebration of the Eucharist is the heart of the Church, so Jesus desires to be at the heart of the small domestic Church, that is, the family». «With the Eucharist - Prof. Gambino continued - marriage is in-habited by Christ, who becomes present between the spouses, extending Himself to the children, and then all around the family.  What is extraordinary becomes ordinary. Love is transfigured, that is, trans-formed in its appearance and expression. It takes on a new form, imbued with His love and Spirit» «Frequent participation in Eucharistic Celebrations is essential for married couples. (…) They can love with "a new heart" (cf. Jer. 31:31) if they allow themselves to be transformed. This is so, if, when hungry, they approach the Eucharist open to the possibility of letting themselves be shaped by Him, the source of their mutual love and the eternally new form of this love».

«Thus married couples, with Jesus, - as called for in the Holy Father's prayer intention - can become “daily bread” for the family and the community».