Next month we will celebrate our General Assembly in Dakar.

All WUCWO women are praying so that it may be a real moment of communion, sharing, friendship, and a living testimony of the Church, spouse of Christ, “sent by the Risen Christ to pass on to men and women the forgiveness of sins and thereby make the Kingdom of love grow, to sow peace in hearts so that they may also be strengthened in relationships, in every society, in institutions.” (Pope Francis, Regina Caeli, April 7th 2013)

WUCWO women long to pass on the love, the forgiveness of Our Lord, the project He has for each good-willing person.

“What is God’s plan? It is to make of us all a single family of his children, in which each person feels that God is close and feels loved by him feels the warmth of being God’s family. The Church is rooted in this great plan. She is not an organization established by an agreement between a few people, but — as Pope Benedict xvi has so often reminded us — she is a work of God, born precisely from this loving design which is gradually brought about in history. The Church is born from God’s wish to call all people to communion with him, to friendship with him, indeed, to share in his own divine life as his sons and daughters. The very word “Church”, from the Greek ekklesia, means “convocation”: God convokes us, he impels us to come out of our individualism, from our tendency to close ourselves into ourselves, and he calls us to belong to his family.

Furthermore this call originates in creation itself. God created us so that we might live in a profound relationship of friendship with him, and even when sin broke off this relationship with him, with others and with creation, God did not abandon us. The entire history of salvation is the story of God who seeks out human beings, offers them his love and welcomes them.” (Pope Francis, General Audience, May 29th 2013)

WUCWO women are eager to be the goal of such love and at the same time to share, to offer everyone His message of salvation, His “living water” in every reality, starting from the family we celebrated in Dublin a few days ago during the World Meeting of Families.

Further readings

Amoris Laetitia 109-113

Evangelii Gaudium 102-106

Gaudete et Exsultate 19 - 31

Laudato Sì 117 - 121

Witness - Blessed Clementina Anuarite Nengapeta, Martyr 

She was born in December 1939 in Wamba, Democratic Republic of Congo, in a pagan family: at birth her father gave her the name Nengapèta. After the conversion to Christianity, she asked to add the name of Alfonsina. Still young, she entered the Belgian congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family and almost always lived her life in the convent. In humbleness she obeys, moved by a high sense of service, of active participation and collaboration in the life of the community. On 29 November 1964, she was taken by Simba rebels with other sisters and transported on a truck to Isiro, where, on the night of the 1st December 1964, to have energetically refused to consent to the evil requests of Captain Olombe, after savage mistreatment, she was brutally killed: "I prefer to die rather than commit sin."

Before falling under the blows of the enraged Olombe, like Jesus on the cross, she forgave her killer with these words: "I forgive you, because you do not know what you are doing." She was 25 years old.

Official Family Prayer for World Meeting of Families 2018

God, our Father,

We are brothers and sisters in Jesus your Son,

One family, in the Spirit of your love.

Bless us with the joy of love.
 

Make us patient and kind,

gentle and generous,

welcoming to those in need.

Help us to live your forgiveness and peace.

Protect all families with your loving care,

Especially those for whom we now pray:

[We pause and remember family members and others by name].

Increase our faith,

Strengthen our hope,

Keep us safe in your love,

Make us always grateful for the gift of life that we share.

This we ask, through Christ our Lord,

Amen

Mary, mother and guide, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, father and protector, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

Saints Louis and Zélie Martin, pray for us.