The daily prayers of the Families of Cana
Families of Cana start their family prayer with the Jewish Shema (Deut 6:45), to which, according to the Gospels, Jesus added a verse from the Book of Leviticus: “Love your neighbour as yourself” (Lev 19:18). To love God and love your neighbour: there’s the summary of the entire Gospel, and therefore that is the initial affirmation of our family prayer. We know that by putting this Word of Jesus into practice we will be completely happy!
Then, like children who abandon themselves to the arms of their mother, we pray our consecration to Our Lady Help of Christians, Mother of Cana. It’s a very simple prayer in which we invoke Mary in the mystery of the Wedding at Cana, the mystery that brings Mary into each home and each family as the Mediatrix of all graces, the Help of Christians. In this short prayer, we don’t forget St. Joseph, Mary’s husband, because as believers in eternal life we know that at Cana he remained present in Jesus’s life as a father, as well as in the life of Mary as the first ever person to be consecrated to Her.
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)
Consecration
“Mary Help of Christians, Mother of Cana,
Today and forever we consecrate our family to you.
We trust in your motherly intercession,
That in our house we will never want for
the wine of faith, of hope and of love.
Make us servants of the Lord
like you and Joseph your husband
and teach us to do whatever Jesus tells us.
Amen!”
The traditional prayers of the Church and family prayer
Throughout the liturgical year, the Tradition of the Church suggests some particular forms of prayer to Christians – novenas, the Stations of the Cross etc. – as a way of preparing for solemnities and specifica feast days. Although family prayer should be simple and light, from time to time it can be enriched with these forms of prayer, that feed the faith, deepen meditaion, and, by bringing novelty into prayer, can be uplifting.
Because the spirituality of the Families of Cana is profoundly biblical, the meditations for the Stations of the Cross and novenas proposed here are above all based on Holy Scripture. May these prayers be for the greater glory of God!
(Watch this page for updates, with new novenas and prayers available in English on the coming days, weeks and months!)
Hymns