Rebecca Vitz Cherico - Pope Francis Family Devotional: 365 Reflections to Share With Your Kids

Pope Francis

Family Devotional

Pope Francis

Family Devotional

365 Reflections to Share with Your Kids

Edited by

Rebecca Vitz Cherico

www.osv.com

Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division

Our Sunday Visitor, Inc.

Huntington, Indiana 46750

Every reasonable effort has been made to determine copyright holders of excerpted materials and to secure permissions as needed. If any copyrighted materials have been inadvertently used in this work without proper credit being given in one form or another, please notify Our Sunday Visitor in writing so that future printings of this work may be corrected accordingly.

Quotations from Pope Francis

copyright by Libreria Editrice Vaticana.

Reflections copyright 2016 by Rebecca Vitz Cherico.

Published 2016 by Our Sunday Visitor.

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All rights reserved. With the exception of short excerpts for critical reviews, no part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means whatsoever without permission from the publisher. For more information, visit: www.osv.com/permissions.

Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, Our Sunday Visitor, Inc., 200 Noll Plaza, Huntington, IN 46750; 1-800-348-2440

ISBN: 978-1-68192-014-6 (Inventory No. T1774)

eISBN: 978-1-68192-015-3

LCCN: 2016941234

Cover design: Amanda Falk

Cover art: Giulio Napolitano/Shutterstock.com; Shutterstock

Interior design: Dianne Nelson

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

Introduction

Working on the reflections for this book has been a real joy: a bit too much work to be pure pleasure, but deeply rewarding and inspiring. I have attempted to get to the heart of what Pope Francis is saying, and how he wants to challenge us, even though his words at times are hard to hear or understand. There were days he spoke about joy that felt far from me, and other times he wrote about suffering I have not known. Like any good teacher, he repeats himself, and I learned to find inspiration in the things he felt most needed repeating. I hope that the repetitions in my own reflections resonate both with his words and your experience.

I kept my own family in mind while writing: both the words my own children would understand and the things that we all need to hear and still need to learn.

Families are different in many ways: when, where, and how you use this book will vary greatly. I hope you feel free to adapt it to your circumstances. I have tried to make it flexible enough to use at different times of the day and for people of different ages and stages of life.

On those daysand I hope they are many!when you are able to pray with your whole family, you may want to add your own experiences to the reflections and discuss some of the questions with your childrenor make up your own.

More than anything, I hope that my reflections allow the truth that Pope Francis communicates to take root. My hope for you is the same one I have for myself: that the words contained here not be dead letters, but that they may bring us all closer to the Lord and to the fullness of his Incarnation.

Rebecca Cherico, Editor

January 1

Mary Is Always There for Us

Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God

Mary is the Mother of God, our mother and mother of the Church. So many men and women, young and old have turned to her to say thank you and to beg a favor.

Mary takes us to Jesus and Jesus gives us peace. Let us turn to her, trusting in her assistance, with courage and hope.

~Address, Meeting with Young People, Castelpetroso, Italy, July 5, 2014

Reflection: Mary is a very loving mother, and she wants to help us more than she cares about being recognized or acknowledged. So we dont need to be embarrassed to ask the same things over and over.

Shes happy to help: she has been uniting people to her son from the moment he was conceived.

January 2

Thank You, Lord

How many young people, how many of you, today have the opportunity to study, to sit at the table with your family every day, not to worry about the essentials. How many of you enjoy this? Altogether, those of you who have these things let us say, Thank you, Lord!

~Address, Meeting with Young People, Asuncin, Paraguay, July 12, 2015

Reflection: There is a famous joke about two young fish that meet an older fish as they are swimming along. Hows the water? the older fish asks. After he swishes off, one of the younger fish turns to the other and asks, Whats water?

So often we take the most basic things for grantedso much that we dont really enjoy or appreciate them. Let us try to see all that weve been given today.

Lord, when I fail to recognize how much Ive been given, help me to see it! Lead me to see what I dont!

January 3

Respect for Those in Need

The poor person is just like me and, if he or she is going through a difficult time for many reasons, be they economic, political, social, or personal, it could be me in their place, me longing for someone to help me. As well as desiring this help, if I am in their shoes, I have the right to be respected.

~Address, Meeting with Civic Leaders, Asuncin, Paraguay, July 11, 2015

Reflection: When we think of poor people, we usually think of people without moneyand rightly so. But people can be poor in many ways. They can be (or feel) unable to take care of themselves or their families in many ways.

The more I recognize my own povertythe ways in which I am incapable of taking care of myself or those I lovethe more I can look at a person who is poor (financially or otherwise) with compassion and generosity.

Realizing how much I depend on our good and gracious God unites me to my poor neighborand brings riches to both our lives.

January 4

Nothing Lukewarm

We dont want namby-pambies, young people who are just there, lukewarm, unable to say either yes or no. We dont want young people who tire quickly and who are always weary, with bored faces.

We want young people who are strong. We want young people full of hope and strength. Why? Because they know Jesus, because they know God. Because they have a heart that is free.

~Address, Meeting with Young People, Asuncin, Paraguay, July 12, 2015

Reflection: Parents often complain about strong-willed childrenand children dont always like their parents to be strong-willed, either! But being strong-willed isnt just a question of character; its a question of desire.

Many quiet, unassuming people can be very strong in the face of a real challenge, because the truest desires of their heart are at stake, whereas many people may seem passionate about something until they have to work really hard for it.

But Jesus can sustain us in our enthusiasm and drive, because he answers our deepest desires and allows our passions to come through in all the best ways, whatever temperament God gave us.