World Meeting of Families Comes to Nottingham!

This year’s theme, chosen by Pope Francis, is ‘Family Love: A Vocation and a Path to Holiness.’ Inspired by Amoris Laeitia and Gaudete et Exsultate, it is ‘intended to highlight family love as a vocation and as a way of holiness, so as to understand and share the profound and salvific meaning of family relationships in daily life.’ (See Cardinal Farrell speaking at the Press Conference)

‍

It is the biggest gathering of Catholic families in the world, but this year it is going to be celebrated a lot closer to home. Instead of dioceses sending families to Rome for the celebrations, families are encouraged to celebrate this meeting in their parishes, communities and home dioceses. The Vatican hopes this new format of local WMoF celebrations will ‘give a new impetus to family ministry’ and the Pope hopes that mean more families can engage with the event in their locality.  

Resources from Rome

You can find a variety of resources from the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life to help you, your family, community or parish celebrate WMoF this year.  

Get familiar with the official ‘Rome’ programme here, all of which will be livestreamed, for you to follow along at home.

Check out this ‘Pastoral Kit’ with ideas for liturgical celebrations, homilies, bidding prayers and animating the catechesis for WMoF 2022. This page also hosts the official logo, hymn, prayers, catechesis and other reflections.

Finally, download the WMoF App, which will enable you to access all the official resources and to follow the events from Rome, straight from the palm of your hand:

Diocesan Events and Celebrations

Alongside this programme from Rome, our Adult Formation for Mission team are pleased to be hosting the following programme of events for families in the Diocese of Nottingham:  

‍

Tuesday 21st June, 8pm, Zoom Talk  

‘Parenting as a Way to Sainthood: What We Can Learn from Ss Louis and Zelie Martin’ with Canon John Udris.  

This talk will explore the lives of the saintly parents of St Therese of Lisieux and what they can teach us about growing in faith as a family. Register here.

‍

Thursday 23rd June, 8pm, Zoom Talk

‘Evangelising your Children’ with Michael and Alicia Hernon from the Messy Family Project

This talk will look at what it means to be an evangelising parent and how to pass the faith on to your children. Register here.

Saturday 25th June, 4pm, Our Lady of Lincoln Church, Lincoln.

Diocesan Mass for the World Meeting of Families followed by BBQ and Social Gathering for Families.

Bishop Patrick will celebrate a Mass for the families of the Diocese of Nottingham, to coincide with the World Meeting of Families in Rome. Our Lady of Lincoln parish will host the Mass and following it there will be a social gathering for families with a BBQ, music, ice cream van, games and the opportunity to socialise with other families. Tickets are free but booking is essential, for catering purposes. More details and ticket bookings.

Other Helpful Resources

Our friends at CELEBRATE Trust have put together these ‘prayer stations’ for families, parishes and groups to create an interactive prayer station. They can be used at any time of the year; however, they have been created as a response to the 10th WMoF.

Is your family, community or parish celebrating World Meeting of Families? Don’t forget to tag @nottsdiocese and make use of the hashtag #WMOF2022 if sharing your celebrations online.

‍