Day 1 – Pentecost Novena – Communion with Families and Youth

Pentecost Novena 2018

Year of Communion with Others

Building Bridges of Friendship

In a world that places so many frontiers and increases barriers, we SSpS choose to extend our circle of communion and build bridges with all people who for some reason are not close to us, those who we consider others.

The Pentecost Novena offers us a privileged opportunity to deepen the meaning of building bridges of friendship especially with those people that God puts in our path and at first sight has nothing to do with us.

May we can discover the face of Jesus who welcomes all in his love in all these people from other cultures, religions or ideologies.

“The Triune God is a communion of love, and the family is its living reflection.” Pope Francis, Amoris Laetitia 11

The family is described as the “domestic church” (LG 11). Today’s youth, upon whose shoulders the future of the Church rests, could be considered as the pillars of tomorrow’s Church. For the majority of us our family, with all its goodness and shortcomings, was the first school in the faith and the place where love and care for our neighbor and the whole of creation was learned and nurtured.

In his exhortation “Amoris Laetitia” Pope Francis writes: “The couple that loves and begets life is a true, living icon… capable of revealing God the Creator and Savior.”  He goes on to affirm: “The Triune God is a communion of love, and the family is its living reflection” (AL 11). This reveals for us the profoundly divine vocation of the family to “be love” in the world.

Intercessions

Come, Lord Jesus, send Your Spirit to renew the face of the earth.

• For poor families wherein mothers are frantic trying to clothe and feed their children, fathers are frustrated because they cannot provide the basic daily needs of the family, and children cry because they are hungry.
• For families separated by war or disasters, for families on the move to escape conflict and famine, for homeless families living in temporary shelters and refugee camps.
• For families wounded by broken relationships, addiction and domestic violence.
• For young people, especially those who feel disappointed and frustrated with life.             
• For the youth, that they may know that they are truly appreciated and loved.         
• For teachers, youth leaders and all who work with our youth that they may support and encourage our young people to develop their gifts and to understand their calling in life.