Today, we look at a spirituality of care, consolation and incentive, starting with Vatican II:
321. “Christian couples are, for each other, for their children and for their relatives, cooperators of grace and witnesses of the faith”.(Apostolicam Actuositatem 11) God calls them to bestow life and to care for life.
And moving to Pope Francis and his second predecessor:
For this reason the family “has always been the nearest ‘hospital’”.(Catechesis (10 June 2015)) So let us care for one another, guide and encourage one another, and experience this as a part of our family spirituality. Life as a couple is a daily sharing in God’s creative work, and each person is for the other a constant challenge from the Holy Spirit. God’s love is proclaimed “through the living and concrete word whereby a man and the woman express their conjugal love”.(Familiaris Consortio 12) The two are thus mutual reflections of that divine love which comforts with a word, a look, a helping hand, a caress, an embrace. For this reason “to want to form a family is to resolve to be a part of God’s dream, to choose to dream with him, to want to build with him, to join him in this saga of building a world where no one will feel alone”.(Address at the Prayer Vigil of the Festival of Families, Philadelphia (26 September 2015))
Any thoughts to add? For your reference, remember that Amoris Laetitia is online here.
Catholic Sensibility 