Tuesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
Family prayer
“You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father. Mt 5,13-16
The salt does not exist by itself, but to give food a flavour, as well as the light exists so that people can see. This is the purpose of the Christian testimony, and it is also the reason why this collection of family meditations was born: what the Lord has told us for years in secret prayer, that must be brought to light. We decided upon it a year ago, in an evening when we had been invited to the castle Pasquini in Castiglioncello to make a public testimony on the family prayer. We talked about our life, our days, about our fourteen children and the apostolic and professional commitments we had been living for decades. We concluded the testimony by stating that the melting pot where God’s will shows up, day after day, was the family morning prayer, explaining what it consisted of. In the end, we added: “We do not know your life plans, and we know even less what the Lord wants from you. We only know that, whatever they may be, they will be fulfilled only in an atmosphere of prayer”. At the time to say goodbye, some people expressed their wish to start in their turn a journey of family prayer and meditation of the Sacred Scripture, which the Church proposes to us every day. We gave some indications, but we realized that they were not enough. The idea of this collection was born then; it is dedicated to the families who want to start the day with a family prayer, letting the word of God enlighten their steps and their daily duties. The families who begin this journey will realize that life takes on a different flavour and a different and wider meaning. They are the salt of the earth and the light of the world that are transmitted, from family to family, as the north wind brings about, from leaf to leaf, the scent of the woods.