AMORIS – Sacramental Moments
Martin Kennedy discusses the practical initiatives around several sacramental moments ahead of the World Meeting of Families 2018. Watch video here. |
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The AMORIS Family Cube
Have you heard about the Amoris Family Cube? Learn about this great WMOF2018 initiative for children who will be receiving First Holy Communion in 2018, which gives families a fun way to engage with key messages from The Joy of Love. Watch video here. |
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Confirmation Acts of Kindness
Kate Liffey, National Director for Catechetics, explains a WMOF2018 initiative that invites Confirmation candidates across Ireland to register special acts of kindness. This initiative, “Céad Míle Fáilte”, will be a gift to Pope Francis and WMOF2018 from children making their confirmation in 2018. Watch video here. |
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Society of Missionary Children’s Family Album
Julieann Moran explains this initiative, which will create an art exhibition on family life in Ireland. The artwork will be gathered for a parish exhibition and will then be submitted for display at the World Meeting of Families 2018. Julieanne is National Secretary for the Society of Missionary Children in Ireland, the official children’s charity of the Catholic Church worldwide. Watch video here. |
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© Brenda Drumm
CHRISTMAS CARD ICON INITIATIVE
In The Joy of Love, Pope Francis says that “every family should look to the icon of the Holy Family”. As Christmas is a time associated with families coming together, and in response to the Holy Father’s invitation, we produced a beautiful Icon tryptic card that invites families to gather around the icon of the Holy Family in their own home on Christmas Day and pray together. The card is based on the WMOF2018 Icon of the Holy Family, which is currently journeying to each of the 26 dioceses of Ireland.
We have distributed more than 700,000 cards all around Ireland and also the UK. These will be given to families at Christmas Masses so that they can display them in their homes and pray. We have had such an amazing response to the arrival of the beautiful icon cards to parishes, that we were inundated with additional orders of over 100,000 icon cards! We have also distributed them to religious, contemplative orders and missionaries in Ireland through AMRI, as well as sending 700 cards to soldiers that are serving abroad through the chaplaincy to the Defence Forces.
Read more about the icon and explore its symbolism and meaning here.
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| Fr Tim Bartlett, Secretary General for WMOF2018, gives an overview of the preparations for World Meeting of Families 2018 as we approach Christmas 2017, including the Christmas Card Icon Initiative. Watch video here. |
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| Iconographer Mihai Cucu discusses the creation of the Holy Family Icon for WMOF2018 and how icons offer a unique perspective for contemplating the divine. Watch video here. |
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The Prendeville Family, Co Limerick
FAMILY NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS
New Year’s resolutions are part of the popular culture here in Ireland and we invite families to consider making new year’s resolutions as a family. Download a simple new year’s resolution sheet from our Amoris website here and discuss it with your family. Why not do this on the 31st December which is actually the Feast of the Holy Family!
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INTERACTIVE ONLINE ADVENT CALENDAR
This Advent, we have been inviting individuals and families to take time together to pray, to talk, and to be together in preparation for Christmas. The Irish Bishops’ Conference, in conjunction with WMOF2018, launched an online Advent Calendar, a unique prayerful resource which can be enjoyed by people of all ages. In its fifth year of publication, the Advent calendar is available on the home page of www.catholicbishops.ie and on smartphones. This year’s calendar has been focusing on the theme of family as we prepare together for WMOF2018. Each day during Advent the faithful have been invited to click open a virtual door where faith content for family, school and parish can be found. Family members are encouraged to undertake an act of kindness or charity – as suggested by the daily calendar – and by doing so to reach out to help those around us. |
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INTERNATIONAL VOLUNTEER DAY
On 5th December we joined in the worldwide celebrations for International Volunteer Day with a social media campaign that reached out to thousands of people. Thank you to all who participated. Here are some of the photos we posted! We are delighted to have over 1,500 signed up volunteers and we are still actively calling for many thousands more! Thank you to everyone who shared our posts and helped us in our volunteer drive.
This was also a great opportunity to say THANK YOU to everyone that has registered with us and those who have been helping us so much in the last couple of months. Did you know that we have over 30 volunteers coming in to the office weekly from near and far – some even take early trains from Westport and Belfast to be here at 9AM!
Consider becoming a volunteer
If you are a resident of the island of Ireland, why not consider volunteering for WMOF2018, either as an individual or as part of a group? No previous volunteering experience is necessary, and we have roles for everyone, from logistics to liturgical, from translations to transport, among others. Apply to volunteer at www.worldmeeting2018.ie/Volunteer
The Volunteer Training Sessions have begun!
After completing the Volunteer online application forms; the garda vetting and reference checks, all volunteers will have their first Induction Training. This will be done in batches and our first 400+ volunteers have attended training. These first sessions have been a huge success and we will be inviting more volunteers to complete this training in the coming months. |
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© World Meeting of Families 2018
HOST A PILGRIM / FAMILY!
Thousands of people will be travelling from very distant places to participate in World Meeting of Families 2018. Many would be unable to come if they also had to cover the cost of accommodation. Do you have a spare room? Would you be willing to host a person, a couple or a family next August? Help us welcome visiting families to Ireland and have a home-from-home experience.
Click here to learn more. Please call us on 01 567 6800, email us at hostingteam@worldmeeting2018.ie
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© World Meeting of Families 2018
REGISTRATIONS
Registration for all WMOF2018 events is open online. Individual pilgrims and families can now register for the main three-day WMOF2018 Congress from August 22nd to 24th, guaranteeing your ticket(s) for the Festival of Families on Saturday 25th August and for the Closing Mass on Sunday, 26th August. Thousands of people have already registered with considerable interest from overseas. Don’t miss out on these once in a generation events. REGISTER NOW!
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© WMOF2015
WORK IN PROGRESS FOR THE FESTIVAL OF FAMILIES
A meeting at the Dicastery to choose the testimonies to be presented in Dublin in a festive atmosphere, families from all over the world will meet, and some will offer their testimonies, hopefully in the presence of the Holy Father. During a recent meeting at the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, experts and organisers discussed the choice of the most significant testimonies from different parts of the world to be presented in Dublin during the Festival of the Families.
The meeting organised by Msgr. Carlos Simon was attended by Father Colin Rothery from Dublin, Dr. Marco Brusati, the Dicastery’s delegate for the event, and the spouses Anna and Alberto Friso, who shared their experience of organising previous world meetings and are actively engaged in the search for testimonies that will be included in the event in Ireland.
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CATHOLIC SCHOOLS WEEK 2018 AND WMOF2018
Catholic Schools Week 2018 will take place across Ireland from 28 January – 4 Februaryand will focus on Family, with the theme: ‘Catholic Schools: Called to be a Family of Families’. Catholic schools will be invited to reflect on and to celebrate the relationship that exists between home, school and parish. It also presents a special opportunity for school families to celebrate the fact that parents are the primary educators of their children, as well as the vital role that Catholic schools play in supporting parents as they raise their children.
Catholic Schools Week is an annual all-Ireland celebration which invites schools to give expression in an exceptional way to the ethos of Catholic education. It acknowledges the tremendous contribution that our Catholic primary and post-primary schools make, not just to Irish society, but to the mission of the Church. Special educational resources have been prepared to support students and teachers at primary and post-primary level.
Video! David Kennedy outlines the resources that the Catholic Schools Week committee has prepared for the year leading up to WMOF 2018.
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© WMOF2018
FROM OUR BLOG
It’s not Google Translate!
Read about what it takes to create, edit and publish a multilingual website and the work that goes on behind the scenes to make this possible! Read here.
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FROM OUR PODCAST
We have released seven episodes of our ‘Let’s Talk Family’ Podcast, featuring interviews and news about how preparations are going for World Meeting of Families 2018, as well as discussions about the joys and challenges of family life as we journey towards next year’s event. Catch up with our latest episodes here!
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| Please note the WMOF2018 Office will be closed from Friday 22nd December 2017 for Christmas. We will reopen on Tuesday 2nd January 2018 at 9am. |
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