Marian spirituality in the family

Fr. Alexandre Awi Mello, Secretary of the Dicastery, participated in the Catholic Shalom Community’s conference which, due to the international health crisis, was held online from 28 – 29 June. In his address, the full version of which is available on YouTube, he underscored how the family was challenged during this time of pandemic, and yet at the same time was also shown to be a valuable resource.

Recalling the two messages sent out by the Dicastery during this period (a concrete proposal for being the “domestic Church”, and how the coronavirus kills more in loneliness, he explained that “the elderly, children, adolescents, and people with disabilities would have been completely neglected if they had not had family to be concerned about them during this time of pandemic.”

This Marian path is a concrete way to live the popular spirituality that Evangelii Nuntiandi, the document of Aparecida, and Evangelii Gaudium describe as “spirituality incarnate in the culture of the simple.” In this context, Fr. Awi Mello called to mind the centrality of the Marian prayer of the rosary, which Fr. Patrick Peyton described with the words: “The family is the greatest treasure the earth posseses. God is the greatest treasure of heaven. The Rosary is the link of steel that has the power to unite them both together for time and eternity.”