#wmf2015

[frfrankpavone]

Dr Alveda King at the World Meeting of Families Pro-Life Symposium (@AlvedaKing)

[frfrankpavone]

Steven Bozza at the World Meeting of Families Pro-Life Symposium  

[frfrankpavone]

Astrid Bennett Gutierrez at the World Meeting of Families Pro-Life Symposium

[phillyandfrancis]

Gestures of love

Joe and Diane Rybak of Morganton and four of their six children went on the diocesan pilgrimage to Philadelphia for the World Meeting of Families and apostolic visit of Pope Francis. Here, they pose next to a fun stand-up image of the Holy Father upon their arrival to Philadelphia. Throughout the journey, their witness was a testament to the beauty of family life, as Pope Francis preached.

"Our families, our homes, are true domestic churches. They are the right place for faith to become life, and life to become faith," Pope Francis said in his homily for the Mass closing the World Meeting of Families.

"Little gestures" of love exist daily in the lives of family and serve to carry on God's love as well. "These little gestures are those we learn at home, in the family. They get lost amid all the other things we do, yet they do make each day different. They are the quiet things done by mothers and grandmothers, by fathers and grandfathers, by children. They are little signs of tenderness, affection and compassion.”

[phillyandfrancis]

Two buses from the Diocese of Charlotte left Charlotte and Greensboro in the early morning hours of Sept. 23, filled with pilgrims hoping to see Pope Francis and to attend Mass with him that following Sunday in Philadelphia.

The group of pilgrims with Father Michael Kottar and Deacon Jim Trombley at the Shrine of St. Katherine Drexel in Philadelphia.

[phillyandfrancis]

The Rybaks don their yellow scarves in anticipation of going to the Festival of Families on Saturday and to see Pope Francis. All of the pilgrims received yellow scarves for the pilgrimage, and they came in very handy to be able to spot fellow pilgrims amid the sea of hundreds of thousands of people in Philadelphia.

[phillyandfrancis]

Throughout the five-day pilgrimage to Philadelphia, Joe Rybak would lovingly carry his son Nathan from the boy's wheelchair to the bus and back. "Nathan is a blessing," mom Diane Rybak says. "Nathan is a blessing to us and he's a blessing to everyone."

[frfrankpavone]

watch & comment/share: Fr. Frank (Me) at the World Meeting of Families Pro-Life Symposium

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