Sunday is a holiday: it is the day of the Resurrection of the Lord which gives us the shivers of happiness and the sense of victory over every type of death, giving ample breathing space to true and indestructible Life. By living this experience, the couple and the family realize that living together is not a problem, but an existence situation to "enjoy the happiness" that can only be experienced in every home. Family is the most divine experience of the joy of living: being a father and mother, being loved children. The common understanding to also deal with the inconveniences that everyday life and life situations entail. The family must be the daily school of happiness, the attempt, in simplicity, to organize happiness for everyone in the family and to love each other to make everyone happy. Today, unfortunately, sometimes we go looking for happiness elsewhere, forgetting that the source of all joy is our family and that sadness is the loss of relationships with someone at home. Sunday teaches us to make life a daily celebration and not a theoretical one. A mother goes to bed at night planning the next day as a party for everyone, a father thinks of work as an opportunity to earn money to make many things possible in the family. But children must also increasingly become aware of being the joy of the family, and become increasingly "collaborators" in everyone's joy. How many children can save their parents from their marital crises with a presence that creates joy and not problems. How many times has the birth of a child given life back to extinguished dreams and everything has been reborn for everyone. it is the joy of being with family, the joy of returning home, the expectation of surprising news that gives the amazement of existing together. Joy defines the quality of a family. And we cannot let the joy be stolen by the relational ambiguities of a moment or by hours spent at the hypermarkets or by sleeping until lunchtime. Sunday is a holiday, the family is and can be, even on weekdays, a celebration of life. This is a duty for parents, this is a right for children. This sense of celebration, in the Holy Mass, is expressed with the opening song. In the family with the joyfulness of people's music: making each person's personal gifts available, their own particularities, their own sense of existential rhythm, their own creativity: it is the music of the family that becomes... 'a real band' that rejoices as a community now with the music of the individuals, now with all the instruments together.

Welcoming rites
Here is the priest: the minister who embodies the presence of Jesus the Eucharistic priest. Here is the priest: he is not a priest per se, he walks among everyone to bring everyone to God and God to everyone. Here is the priest: he is not just the don of the town, he is not just the parish priest. The family must ask themselves: is he the priest of my family? How important it is for every family to have a priest as a regular friend at home: at the table, at family celebrations, in grief, in dialogues, for confession, to be a bridge between generations and a help in education. There is a cry today in the Church: “priests, stay close to us, be found, leave your computers or trips. We are the families who need the man of God." There are too many families who don't even know the priest or see him from afar. Just as the priest invites us into the Church, so he must be invited home, according to his availability. The priest cannot only be generically the priest... of everyone, but also the priest of each one and the family must allow and welcome him. The experience of parents who are open to the priest and bring him closer to their children is beautiful. What Jesus said in the Gospel resonates in my mind: "Let the children come to me and do not hinder them". That is: do everything you can to get a child to touch the hem of the priest's... trousers. Thus the Holy Mass invites us to welcome the priest, who is Jesus, into the home-Church and into our home.

In the name of the Father,
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
With his hand he marks his body as if to allow himself to be embraced by the Trinitarian love of the Father, the Son and the Spirit. God is family and the family, on earth, is his living icon. If in this sign of the cross the couple and the family grasp the divine love that is "embodied" in their marriage, that sign should last minutes and minutes and transform into a very profound prayer: "God love, source of life and of all fatherhood and motherhood, thank you that, in us little men and women, you have imprinted this divine presence of Love. Who knows when we will be worthy of it. However, let us always walk towards a union that resembles that of your divine family. Son Jesus: we would like our children, small or large, to be a little like you, above all by learning the family love that you, Holy Trinity, have lived from eternity. That they could learn from you how to commit yourself by taking on missions of great responsibility, in a world like today's so full of risks. Holy Spirit, help us never to extinguish the love of the first look, of the first kiss, of the first intimacy, of the first sacrifice between us." Let us stop: in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: the Trinity is the source of love and family. n