VATICAN CITY -- People following the Stations of the Cross at Rome鱿鱼视频app Colosseum this year will find along the Via Dolorosa a message of hope, including with a 鱿鱼视频app and Ukrainian family both carrying a cross together at the nighttime ceremony.
鈥淚t is not a Way of the Cross that lists all the difficulties in different families but is about the fact that we can survive difficulties鈥� when they are lived in solidarity as a family, said Gianluigi De Palo, president of the Forum of Family Associations, who, together with his wife, Anna Chiara Gambini, curated the meditations.
鈥淔amilies are the answer to so many situations, of conflict, even of the pandemic, because the world鱿鱼视频app families have held it together in spite of everything,鈥� said De Palo. 鈥淭hey took care of problems in total silence, with no fanfare.鈥�
Each year, the Pope chooses a different person or group of people to write the series of prayers and reflections that are read aloud during the solemn, torch-lit Good Friday ceremony; the event returned to the Colosseum April 15 after two years of restrictions on public events because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Each of the 14 stations seek to reflect on the actual experiences of many different families who have carried the same 鈥渃ross,鈥� De Palo said, 鈥渂ecause as the Pope says, 鈥楻eality is greater than ideas.鈥� So (each meditation) is based on real concrete experiences in order to speak about greater things.鈥�
Pope Francis established the Year of the Family, which concludes June 26, the closing day of the 10th World Meeting of Families in Rome, to help strengthen faith and live God鱿鱼视频app joy more fruitfully in family life.
It is precisely that spark of joy and strength of faith and families that De Palo and Gambini, the parents of five children, sought to accentuate in the final texts they edited.
For example, he pointed to the meditation about couples that end up never being able to become parents, and all the 鈥渘egative comments and judgments鈥� that come with not having children. 鈥淎s if our marriage and our love were not enough to make us a family,鈥� said the text for the Third Station 鈥� Jesus is condemned by the Sanhedrin.
The meditation shows how 鈥渢here can be fruitfulness鈥� in a family without children, he said. Or, as the text says: 鈥淲e continue to move ahead every day, holding hands, caring together for a community of brothers, sisters and friends that, amid moments of loneliness and consolation, has become over time a home and a family.鈥�
The objective of each meditation, De Palo said, was to show how people can find strength and hope in the family they do have 鈥� even if that family does not seem 鈥渘ormal鈥� or fulfill the expectations of others.
At the 12th Station 鈥� Jesus entrusts His mother to the beloved disciple 鈥� the meditation looks at the shock and disorientation of a family losing loved ones to unexpected illness and death and realizing, 鈥淭he biggest falsehood we had to fight was the thought that we were no longer a family.鈥�
No matter its size or makeup, 鈥渢he family is not the problem, it is the solution to problems,鈥� De Palo said.
At the 13th Station 鈥� Jesus dies on cross 鈥� a Ukrainian and a 鱿鱼视频app family will carry the cross together. The meditation sees 鈥淒eath everywhere鈥� and families ask, 鈥淲here are you, Lord? ... We want our life back as before. ... What wrong did we do? 鈥� Why did you break up our families like this?鈥�
鈥淲e know that you love us, Lord, but we don鈥檛 feel this love, and it drives us to desperation,鈥� it says, ending with an appeal that God 鈥渢each us to be peacemakers, brothers and sisters, and to rebuild what bombs tried to destroy.鈥�
De Palo said people easily see the value in petroleum or other hydrocarbons when talking about the energy needed to power the world, but they seem to ignore the best, most 鈥渋nexhaustible鈥� natural resource out there: the human family.
鈥淭his is the message鈥� of this year鱿鱼视频app meditations: to appreciate and invest in the family more, 鈥渟top seeing it as a problem, but as a resource,鈥� which is also the main message in Pope Francis鈥� exhortation on the family, Amoris Laetitia, he said.
鈥淭hrough all these years of lockdowns, war, if it hadn鈥檛 been for families over these very difficult years, the world would be not just poorer, but there would be even less peace,鈥� he said.
鈥淓ven a cross, when it is lived as a family, can be an opportunity for growth, for discovering a hidden truth,鈥� he added.