"As families, be especially mindful of our call to be missionary disciples of Jesus. This means being ready to go beyond your homes and to care for our brothers and sisters who are most in need. I ask you especially to show concern for those who do not have a family of their own, in particular those who are elderly and children without parents."
Pope Francis addressed these words to the families gathered a few days ago to meet him during his trip to the Philippines, in the sports hall "Mall of Asia Arena" in Manila. Focusing on the importance of dreaming, he said: "For nine months every mother and father dream about their baby. Am I right? [Yes!] They dream about what kind of child he or she will be... You can't have a family without dreams. Once a family loses the ability to dream, children do not grow, love does not grow, life shrivels up and dies. So I ask you each evening, when you make your examination of conscience, to also ask yourselves this question: Today did I dream about my children's future? [...] Dreaming is very important. Especially dreaming in families. Do not lose this ability to dream!" With respect to difficulties in married life, according to the Pope, they "are resolved when we leave room for dreaming, when we stop a moment to think of our spouse, and we dream about the goodness present in the good things all around us. So it is very important to reclaim love by what we do each day. Do not ever stop being newlyweds!"
"The pressures on family life today are many" and "countless families are still suffering from the effects of natural disasters", however, "while all too many people live in dire poverty, others are caught up in materialism and lifestyles which are destructive of family life and the most basic demands of Christian morality. These are forms of ideological colonization. The family—the Pope said—is also threatened by growing efforts on the part of some to redefine the very institution of marriage, by relativism, by the culture of the ephemeral, by a lack of openness to life." Yet "our world needs good and strong families to overcome these threats," because "every threat to the family is a threat to society itself." Francis reiterated the call to protect the families: "See in them your country's greatest treasure and nourish them always by prayer and the grace of the sacraments. [...] be living examples of love, forgiveness and care. Be sanctuaries of respect for life, proclaiming—he concluded—the sacredness of every human life from conception to natural death."
