Pope Francis received the Équipes Notre Dame in the Vatican: "Form and accompany young couples in the faith, with constantly renewed creativity"
An encouragement to live deeply, with constancy, the spirituality of the teams in their married life, a call to strengthen the missionary commitment, and great gratitude for what has been accomplished on a daily basis by each member of the movement. In his address in the Vatican‘s Clementine Hall, on Thursday, 10 September, Pope Francis above all wanted to transmit these messages to the Teams of Our Lady on the occasion of their worldwide gathering.
The Holy Father, first of all recalling "the concrete points of engagement" of teams, asked those present to increasingly apply these good practices in everyday life, thus becoming models for the families who are farthest from the Church: "I have in mind—he said—especially the prayer of the couple and of the family, a beautiful and necessary tradition that has always sustained the faith and hope of Christians, but that has unfortunately been abandoned in many regions of the world; I’m also thinking of the time proposed for a monthly dialogue between spouses—the famous and challenging "sit-down," which so strongly goes against the current, in comparison to the habits of the busy and agitated world, impregnated with individualism—, a moment to exchange on what is being lived, in truth under the Lord‘s gaze, which is a precious time of thanksgiving, forgiveness, mutual respect and care for one’s partner." The other exhortation then concerned the mission, which Pope Francis asked the teams to strengthen, especially by going out to meet young couples and wounded families: "This mission entrusted to them is all the more important because the image of the family—as God intended it, composed of a man and a woman, for the good of the spouses and also for the generation and education of children—is deformed by powerful contrasting projects supported by ideological colonization. I invite you to commit yourselves, as you can, in a more concrete way and with constantly renewed creativity, in the activities that can be organized to receive, form and accompany especially young couples in faith, before and after marriage." Finally, focusing on the quickly approaching Synod, Pope Francis asked the guests present and "all the teams‘ couples to pray with faith and fervor for the Synod Fathers and for me."