The recent pastoral letter, issued on the occasion of the feast of the Assumption by Gozo Bishop Mario Grech, entitled Balm of Mercy for the Family, was soaked in God’s mercy.

As Bishop Grech rightly wrote: “God’s mercy... is at the heart of Christian doctrine.” Including of course the sad present-day situations wherein marriage and the family are experiencing storms of all kinds.

As the pastoral letter aptly shows, it is possible that while the Church “remain[s] faithful to the gospel of the family” as a loving mother, she can be pastorally guided by “the gospel of God’s mercy” in order to respond evangelically to the heartbreaking situations where a marriage or a relationship no longer exists.

As Mgr Grech reiterated, it is the Church’s mission “to help the penitent sinner who yearns to break free from his past prison and re-concile himself with God and with the Church without expecting him to shoulder burdens which he morally cannot do”.

Let us all pray and fast for the upcoming synod in October on the theme ‘The vocation and mission of the family in the Church and contemporary world’. The rosary will surely play a definite role in opening the hearts of the Synod Fathers in order that human misery can be lovingly led to “savour the delicacies of God love”.

Let us pray the rosary with this holy intention so that the suffering Church will receive once again the abundant grace of mercy that will make her a more committed disciple of her Lord Jesus Christ!