Feast of the Holy Family + JMJ

 FEAST* of the HOLY FAMILY of

Jesus, Mary and Joseph

*The Sunday between Christmas and New Year's Day.

If both are Sundays, the feast is celebrated on December 30.

The Heavenly and Earthly Trinities ~ Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1675)

"Looking closely at the Holy Family we do not see the conventional model; we see a Virgin Mother, a Foster Father, and a mysterious Only Child. We also see --and this is where the model reaches us-- a mirror of the Most Holy Trinity in which each person lives in movement toward the other; receiving himself from the other, and giving himself for the other. This is family at the deepest level...

In the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, we are brought into the communion of the Most Holy Trinity, a Family unlike any other, and yet the pattern for all life together, be it that of the conventional family, or of the monastic community. The Most Holy Eucharist is the Sacrament of Unity: the mystery by which we are drawn out of ourselves toward the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit. In the Most Holy Eucharist we experience, at the deepest level, what it is to be persons-in-relationship, members of One Body.

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, by drawing us after the priest into the bosom of the Father, through and with the Son, in the Holy Spirit, plunges into Divine Love, the only Love capable of healing souls and of reconciling families scarred and broken apart by sin. The Precious Blood of Christ poured out for the many is, ultimately, what makes sinners into a "Holy Family," like that of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph." 

Dom Mark Daniel Kirby ~ Prior of Silverstream Priory, under the patronage of Our Lady of the Cenacle, Stamullen, County Meath, Ireland

 

Holy Family of Nazareth, make our family and home

more and more like Yours, until we are all one family,

happy and at peace in our true home with You. Amen.

CONSIDER THIS:  Perhaps a 2013 Year of Faith resolution might include resuming or beginning the practice of writing/typing JMJ (Jesus, Mary, Joseph) atop your papers (or emails) of correspondence.  This beautiful practice and devotion just might stir up some good conversation - and conversion. It symbolically illustrates a worldview, a mindset that reminds that we follow an example, a way that is sanctified and greater than ourselves.