31 December 2017 - Feast of the Holy Family

This New Year's Eve is the Sunday within the Octave of Christmas and so is the feast of the Holy Family and is such an appropriate way to end the year in the season so associated with family. As we end 2017, our final programme is a review of some of the podcasts from WMoF2018 as well as our regular reflection on the Sunday gospel plus liturgical odds and ends.

You can listen to the full programme podcast HERE

Feast of the Holy Family

"Think about it. The creator of the universe spent most of his human life as a craftsman, working with dad in the family business and ultimately taking it over. Mary, the holiest of all creatures, spent most of her time changing diapers, cooking, and cleaning. The secret to holiness is not to do extraordinary things, but to do ordinary things with extraordinary love and gratitude...."

"Nazareth is a kind of school where we may begin to discover what Christ’s life was like and even to understand his Gospel . . . How I would like to return to my childhood and attend the simple yet profound school that is Nazareth! How wonderful to be close to Mary, learning again the lesson of the true meaning of life, learning again God’s truth. . . May Nazareth serve as a model of what the family should be. May it show us the family’s holy and enduring character and exemplify its basic function in society: a community of love and sharing, beautiful for the problems it poses and the rewards it brings, in sum, the perfect setting for rearing children – and for this there is no substitute."  

- From an address given by Blessed Paul VI in Nazareth, January 5 1964

WMoF2018 Podcasts

On this weeks programme we bring together a number of the WMoF2018 podcasts which are produced by Brenda Drumm for WMoF 2018 and are available on their Soundcloud account page HERE.

To listen to the most recent podcasts and to keep up to date with WMoF2018 make sure you check out the link above.

WMoF2018 podcasts excerpted from the main programme HERE


Gospel - John 1:1-18

In the beginning was the Word,and the Word was with God,and the Word was God.He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him,and without him nothing came to be.What came to be through him was life,and this life was the light of the human race;the light shines in the darkness,and the darkness has not overcome it.A man named John was sent from God.He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.He was not the light,but came to testify to the light.The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.He was in the world,and the world came to be through him,but the world did not know him.He came to what was his own,but his own people did not accept him.

But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man's decision but of God.And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us,and we saw his glory,the glory as of the Father's only Son,full of grace and truth.John testified to him and cried out, saying, "This was he of whom I said, 'The one who is coming after me ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.'"From his fullness we have all received,grace in place of grace,because while the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.No one has ever seen God.The only Son, God, who is at the Father's side, has revealed him.

Reflections on this weeks gospel:

Word on Fire
Sunday Reflection
Centre for Liturgy

Liturgical odds & ends

Liturgy of the Hours - Psalter week 1

Saints of the Week 

January 1st - Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God
January 2nd - St Basil and St Gregory of Nazianzen
January 3rd - St Munchin -Patron of the diocese of Limerick
January 4th - St Elizabeth Ann Seton
January 5th - St Charles of Mt Argus (First Friday)
January 6th - Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord (First Saturday)
January 7th - The Baptism of the Lord (and the close of Christmastide)