"So many of our adolescents and young people perceive that for some time now there is no longer any of this wine in their homes! How many single and saddened women wonder when love disappeared, when love slipped away from their lives! How many of the elderly feel left out of the celebrations of their families, abandoned in a corner, and now without the daily nourishment of love from their children, their grandchildren and great-grandchildren! The lack of wine can also be the consequence of the lack of work, of sickness, and of problematic situations that our families around the world are experiencing."

In these contexts Maria, as "caring mother," turns with confidence to Jesus, asking him to intervene, the Pope continued with reference to the episode of the miracle at the wedding in Cana. Francis insisted again on the three words that are learned in the family: please, sorry, thank you. "Small gestures" that—he stressed—"help construction," especially where suffering is great. "The family—he said—is the nearest hospital, where the one who is sick should be cared for. The family is the first school for children, the reference point for young people, and the best home for the elderly."

"The family is the great social asset that cannot be replaced by other institutions, and which must be helped and strengthened, so that the true sense of the services rendered by society to its citizens may not be lost. In fact, these services that society provides to citizens are not a form of charity, but rather—he underlined—a genuine 'social debt' toward the family institution, which is the basis and contributes so much to the common good."

The Pope invited the faithful to pray for October's Synod, which will try to "find solutions and practical forms of help," because "even what seems impure to us," shocks and frightens us, "can be turned into a miracle by God, when He makes it pass through His 'hour'. Today the family—he concluded—needs this miracle."