“A Synod means walking together but also praying together. I ask all the faithful to participate. #praywithus” The message tweeted by Pope Francis, on the vigil of the opening of the Synod, requested two things: to walk together, move forward, look ahead, give responses relevant to ethe present and to pray together, going down to our knees together, to adore, to invoke the God of love and life so that he embraces, in his fatherly love, the family, the domestic church, the vital cell of society.

If we want to focus on the theme of the pastoral challenges in the family in the context of evangelization, which will be the focus of events from the 5th to 19th of October, then we must have the prophetic courage to know how to read the situation of the family today and respond to the numerous questions that come from the many areas.

The challenges are “pastoral”, in that they involve in the first place pastors- bishops, priests and the lay faithful involved - to face with courage the new situations in which the family lives today. Evangelization thus must flow outward from the family, from that community of love and life that transmits the faith, gives witness to hope, and lives in charity. The evangelization in the family is the prayer of the family. Only to be together in a socioeconomic sense is not enough. Education in prayer, commitment to the parish community and witness to the values that life and family require today in a pluralistic society are all needed. Needed as well are the involvement of the family in the “living out together” of the prophetic nature of the first Christian communities that were one in heart and soul through the sharing of goods, solidarity in needs, and value given to the diverse charisms.

This, in the first place, is what the synod seeks to promote. Also, linked to this theology of the domestic church, is the task of delving deeper into other connected themes that merit pastoral attention. Going from doctrine into the actual practical situations becomes thus a duty, an urgent one of our times. With an open heart, mercy, and attention upon, above all, the wounded families that are suffering in difficult situations and deserving to be heard, will receive responses that have in themselves the tenderness of God.