USCCB Offers Resources To Help Families Celebrate The Year Of Faith

WASHINGTON—As the Catholic Church celebrates the Year of Faith, the U.S. bishops' Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth is providing resources for families, including tips for keeping Sundays holy and centered on family, prayers and devotionals for the family, and ideas for building the presence of the Church in the home.

The resources are available online at www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/how-we-teach/new-evangelization/year-of-faith/year-of-faith-family-resources.cfm and include prayers for special occasions, guides for celebrating the Sacraments as a family, suggestions for praying as a married couple and reflections by Blessed Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Sean O'Malley, OFM Cap., of Boston. Additional resources will be added throughout the Year of Faith.

"The Year of Faith is a wonderful opportunity for the entire Church, and especially for families, to be renewed in the joy of what it means to be faithful disciples of the Lord Jesus," said Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, chairman of the Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). "Encountering Christ through prayer and the sacraments, especially the Eucharist and Penance, is essential for this renewal."

One resource, the Family Prayer for the Year of Faith, is available as a bilingual prayer card at www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/prayers/family-prayer-for-the-year-of-faith.cfm.

The Year of Faith began October 11 and will continue to November 24, 2013. The year commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council and the twentieth anniversary of the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

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Keywords: Year of Faith, family resources, Family Prayer for the Year of Faith, Bishop Kevin Rhoades, USCCB, U.S. bishops, Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth

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