Novena: prayer for families

This image of Blessed Louis and Zélie Martin, the parents of St Thérèse who were beatified in October 2008, is shown today as in the Diocesan Novena we begin a week of prayer for married couples and for the welfare of family life.

Intention for this week: marriage and family life

Thérèse was fortunate to be born into a loving family, but her happiness was short-lived. Her mother Zélie died on 29 August 1877 (132 years ago this week), when Thérèse was just four years old. The family home was a faith-filled environment, from which Thérèse and all four of her surviving sisters entered religious life. Her father, with whom she was very close, suffered with dementia at the end of his life, and this caused Thérèse and her sisters great pain. Last October Thérèse’s father and mother were beatified: now Blessed Louis and Zélie Martin are venerated as models of holiness in married life. As today we hear St Paul remind us that love is at the heart of both family life and the Church, let us pray that all families may grow in holiness and in love.

Intercession:
Let us pray for families – that by the prayers of St Thérèse and of her blessed parents, all homes may be places of holiness and love.