The Family Prayer Corner
Families of Cana build a Family Prayer Corner in a central place in their homes, where they come together once a day to dedicate the “prime time” of their family life to the Lord.
Because the Prayer Corner should assemble the entire family, from the youngest to the oldest, it should be attractive, beautiful and expressive in accordance with the aesthetic and religious sensitivity of all members of the family. It should also accompany the rhythm of the liturgical year, with creativity and simplicity, making it possible for the family to pray with the Universal Church.
At the Prayer Corner the family unites in prayer and the parents evangelise their children, always beginning from the Word of God as revealed in the Bible and the teachings of the Church. Even decorating the Prayer Corner at the start of each liturgical season is in itself a beautiful moment of religious instruction that appeals to the senses, intelligence and the heart.
Family prayers
Family prayer should involve praise, thanksgiving, petition, intercession, plea for forgiveness and reconciliation. It should contain moments of silence, words, listening, sharing, song and even dance. It should not be complicated nor excessively solemn, so as not to disrupt but rather to increase family intimacy and warmth. The Bible tells us that Moses would speak with God “as a man speaks with his friend” (Ex 33:11), and that is how we also want to pray.
Daily prayer begins with the affirmation of the primacy of God, revealed in love of our neighbour:
Shema
“Hear O Israel
The Lord our God is one God
You must love the Lord with all your heart
With all your soul and with all your strength
And you must love your neighbour as yourself.
Do this and you will find happiness”.
Amen!” (Lk 10:27-28)
The Rosary
In his Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae, Saint John Paul II recalls the episode of the Wedding at Cana in which Mary adopts the role of teacher, “as she urges the servants to do what Jesus commands” (RVM 14). In this way, the Pope concludes, “contemplating the scenes of the Rosary in union with Mary is a means of learning from her to “read” Christ, to discover his secrets and to understand his message.” (RVM 14).
Just like the servants at Cana, the Families of Cana want Mary as their teacher, learning with her to meditate on the whole life of Jesus by praying some part of the Rosary every day as a family. This prayer is as appropriate for adults as it is for Children according to what our teacher taught us in Fatima when she asked the little shepherds, who were seven, nine and ten years old, to pray the rosary every day.
The mysteries of the Rosary are truly the simplest way of telling children the story of the Gospel. A family that prays the rosary every day makes its way through the most important episodes of the Gospel in the space of one week, growing in gratitude and contemplation before a God that for us became a baby, a child and an adult and who gave himself up for us until death, and rose for us, and opens the door to heaven for us. From the meditation of the mysteries of the rosary the catechism is taught and learned and the childish riches of the Gospel are discovered. Like Mary, families that pray the rosary daily “treasure all these things and ponder them in their hearts” (cf. Lk 2:19).
Hymns