The Call, the Journey and the Mission is the title of the document published by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales in view of the XIV General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, scheduled for October 2015. This is an invitation, alongside the questionnaire widely diffused in recent weeks by the Secretary General of the Synod, to reflect on the gift of marriage and the family in a highly secularized context. The Bishops of England and Wales encourage the faithful to pray the Holy Spirit to help the Church in this process of discernment, but also to reflect individually and in groups on these challenges as well as on how to strengthen the family today.
The thoughts gathered in this booklet are drawn from seven exemplary Biblical stories, from the faith of Abraham and Sarah in Genesis to the Annunciation in the Gospel of Luke, to the Wedding at Cana, and finally the meeting of the disciples on the road to Emmaus. Then, a series of questions, inspired by the words of the Holy Father, are proposed for reflection: What are your joys and hopes of marriage and family life today? What are your struggles and fears? How can we better understand marriage as a vocation? How does your marriage enrich you? How does your family life enrich those around you? In what way, through the abiding presence of God, is your family "salt of the earth and light to the world," and a place of and for handing on our faith?
The booklet concludes with an extract from the speech given by Pope Francis on October 27th, 2013, in which he prayed the Holy Family of Nazareth to restore "in our society the awareness of the sacred and inviolable character of the family, the inestimable and irreplaceable good." The booklet on the family is a part of the pastoral work already prepared for 2015 by the episcopate in England and Wales, whose most important initiative is entitled "Proclaim '15" and aims to encourage new expressions the "evangelization marked by joy" that the Pope speaks about in the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium.
