At the same time it is also a first as we partner with EWTN where we re-broadcast from EWTN Catholic Radio where Susan Brinkman tells her story of returning to the Church. She reflects on her book "We need to talk - God speaks to a modern Girl".Her book recounts how when she decided to return to the Church, she did so kicking and screaming. She had so little faith that God had to open her eyes and heart to her true calling. When God entered Susan Brinkmann's world, he waded into knee-deep piles of sin and daily dealt with her stubborn refusal to like him. And he did something amazing. This is the story of that miracle--not just a little moment, but something huge. He didn't change her. He helped her become who she really was.
Susan is a staff writer for 'Women of Grace' which is a ministry founded by Johnette Benkovic. Sue is an author and journalist. Susan is a member of the Third Order of Discalced Carmelites and previously worked with The Catholic Standard and Times, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, where she served for six years as a correspondent. She has won numerous national awards for her work and has published several books, including two historical fiction novels and a book on Carmelite prayer entitled, “Lord Teach us to Pray”.
You can listen to this weeks programme podcast HERE which comes to us from EWTN Radio.
Gospel - Matthew 2:13-15,19-23
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| Rest on the Flight into Egypt - Source Wikipedia |
Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there till I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him." And he rose and took the child and his mother by night, and departed to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, "Out of Egypt have I called my son."
But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, "Rise, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child's life are dead." And he rose and took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus reigned over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee. And he went and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, "He shall be called a Nazarene."
Today the Church marks the feast of the Holy Family of Nazareth. It is a liturgical celebration in honor of Jesus of Nazareth, his mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and his foster father, Saint Joseph, as a family. The Feast of the Holy Family is celebrated on the Sunday following Christmas, unless that Sunday is January 1, in which case it is celebrated on December 30.
Scripture tells us practically nothing about the first years and the boyhood of the Child Jesus. All we know are the facts of the sojourn in Egypt, the return to Nazareth, and the incidents that occurred when the twelve-year-old boy accompanied his parents to Jerusalem. In her liturgy the Church hurries over this period of Christ's life with equal brevity. The general breakdown of the family, however, at the end of the past century and at the beginning of our own, prompted the popes, especially the far-sighted Leo XIII, to promote the observance of this feast with the hope that it might instill into Christian families something of the faithful love and the devoted attachment that characterize the family of Nazareth. The primary purpose of the Church in instituting and promoting this feast is to present the Holy Family as the model and exemplar of all Christian families - CatholicCulture.orgFr James Martin SJ writes a reflection on the Holy Family in the St Anthony Messenger Catholic Update.
Other reflections on this weeks gospel:
A reading from St Bernard of Clairvaux on the feast of the Holy Family
Saints of the Week
December 30th - St Egwin
December 31st - St Sylvester (Pope)
January 1st - Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God
January 2nd - St Basil & St Gregory of Nazianzen
January 3rd - St Munchin - patron of the diocese of Limerick
January 4th - St Benedicta of Rome
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