2. A first theme is proposed to us by the Gospel of Matthew (Mt 2:13-23), and concerns the threat suffered by the Holy Family almost immediately after the birth of Jesus. The gratuitous violence that undermines his life also falls on many other families, causing the death of the Holy Innocents [...].
Remembering this terrible ordeal experienced by the Son of God and his peers, the Church feels invited to pray for all families threatened from within or without. She prays in particular for parents, whose great responsibility the Gospel of Luke especially emphasises. For God entrusts his Son to Mary, and both to Joseph. We must insistently pray for all mothers and fathers, that they may be faithful to their vocation and show themselves worthy of the trust God places in them by entrusting their children to their care.
[Pope John Paul II, General Audience 29 December 1993]