For the third time this year, the national leaders of CANA are meeting in a webinar on “The Joy of Love”. They are already preparing for the World Meeting of Families in Rome.

A valuable meeting

Friday 4 March (3pm Paris time).  On that day, the CANA couples from the Americas had to get up very early and those from Asia and Oceania had to stay up very late to participate in the webinar reserved for them. For those from Africa and Europe, it was in the middle of the day. The programme included formal and informal exchanges, teaching on Amoris Laetitia ­— the Joy of Love — as well as testimonies of couples who allow themselves to be guided by the Word of God, a time as a couple and the latest news from the CANA Fraternity.  

The webinar was attended by CANA leaders from 42 countries, with over 70 connections. Simultaneous translation was provided in 5 languages: English, Russian, Slovak, Czech and Polish.

At the heart of the meeting

At the heart of this third meeting, we studied a new aspect of Amoris Laetitia – The Joy of Love. Catherine DENIS, mother of a large family, doctor of moral theology, focused her teaching on the covenant that God makes with each of us, each of our couples, and how this covenant motivates us to announce the Gospel of the family today. Here is a short summary.

God makes a covenant with each of us in the complexity of our lives

Catherine encourages us to re-read the family stories that are scattered throughout the Bible from the first page to the last (AL 8). This God who makes a covenant with each of us in the complexity and reality of our lives (AL 32. 36-37). It is there that we are invited to welcome grace.

The Trinity as source and model

This God of the covenant is a triune God. The Trinity is our source. Let us take the Trinity as a model for our couples and families for differentiated relationships, for giving, mutual exchange, hospitality and openness.

The couple and the family as a reflection of the Trinity

It is our vocation. It is like a path to understand how my couple, in all its fragility, can be a reflection of the Trinity, even if we are not perfect.

Proclaiming the Gospel of the family today 

And Catherine DENIS concludes: “The Synod Fathers insisted that Christian families, through the grace of the sacrament of marriage, are the main actors in the pastoral care of the family, especially by bearing “the joyful witness of spouses and families as domestic churches”. (AL 200). For this reason, it is pointed out that “it is a matter of enabling people to experience that the Gospel of the family is a joy that fills the heart and the whole of life”, because in Christ we are “freed from sin, from sadness, from inner emptiness, from isolation” (Evangelii Gaudium, § 1).

In the light of the parable of the sower (Mt 13:3-9),
our duty is to cooperate in sowing.
The rest is God’s work.

Next meeting: Rome, 21-26 June 2022

Preparations are already underway for the next meeting of national leaders in this CANA year 2021-2022. This time, it will be face-to-face…in Rome, on the occasion of the World Meeting of Families! A wonderful opportunity to finally discover each other in the flesh. About a hundred people are expected from 21 to 26 June in the house of the Chemin Neuf Community.

It is important to start early because there is a lot of preparatory work to be done: finding funding, preparing the necessary documents (visa applications, etc.), organising transport, arranging the venue, defining the programme and choosing speakers and interpreters…

The webinar ended with a time of prayer.