WMoF2018 - Official Prayer for Families on the Feast of the Holy Family

On the Feast of the Holy Family, 

we pray the official prayer of WMoF2018:

God, our Father,

We are brothers and sisters in Jesus your Son,

One family, in the Spirit of your love.

Bless us with the joy of love.

Make us patient and kind,

gentle and generous,

welcoming to those in need.

Help us to live your forgiveness and peace.

Protect all families with your loving care,

Especially those for whom we now pray:

[We pause and remember family members and others by name].

Increase our faith,

Strengthen our hope,

Keep us safe in your love,

Make us always grateful for the gift of life that we share.

This we ask, through Christ our Lord,

Amen

Mary, mother and guide, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, father and protector, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

Saints Louis and Zélie Martin, pray for us.

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)

December 30th 2016 - Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary & Joseph

Today is the feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary & Joseph, a day set aside in the Octave of Christmas to celebrate the holy family of Nazareth.

"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 instil 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.org

"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

Reflections:

iBenedictines - Families: holy and unholy, perfect and imperfect 

ICBC - Feast of the Holy Family

Feast of the Holy Family - Jubilee of Mercy for Families - UPDATED

(Vatican Radio) - Pope Francis prayed the Angelus with pilgrims and tourists gathered beneath a Sun-drenched Roman sky in an unseasonably warm St. Peter’s Square on Sunday, the third day of Christmas and the Feast of the Holy Family of Nazareth.

“By the example and witness of the Holy Family,” said Pope Francis, “each family can draw valuable guidance for life and lifestyle choices, and can draw strength and wisdom for the journey of every day.” He went on to say, “Our Lady and Saint Joseph teach us to welcome children as a gift from God, to get them and rear them, cooperating in a wonderful way with the Creator’s work and giving to the world, in every child, a new smile.”

“It is,” said Pope Francis, “in united families that children bring their small lives into full maturity, living the meaningful and effective experience of love freely given and received, of tenderness, mutual respect, mutual understanding, forgiveness and joy.”

27th December 2015 - Feast of the Holy Family - Medugorje

Given it is Christmastide this weeks programme is a pre-recorded programme where John explores the story of the controversial pilgrimage site which is Medjugorje in Bosnia-Herzegovina during a visit to the shrine during 2015. We have a recording of the story of the apparitions as well as the personal story of Emily Aldridge who was a Welsh pilgrim.

You can listen to the podcast of this weeks programme HERE.

Exploring the story of Medjugorje
 

In the second part of the programme we have an account of the story of Medjugorje which was recorded during a visit to the shrine in 2015.

Some other reading about Medjugorje:
 
Why Medjugorje matters - Crux
The Medjugorje web - is the very first web site created in 1995 about Medjugorje, and is still the largest, most comprehensive, and visited Medjugorje web site on the internet.
CNA - CDF reportedly judges Medjugorje apparitions false, but permits pilgrimage
NCR- Vatican Remains Mum on Medjugorje: No Decision Has Been Made
 
In the third part of the programme, John has an interview with Emily Aldridge about her experience in Medjugorje. 



John and Emily



 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The Feast of the Holy Family - Gospel (Luke 2:41-52)
 

 
The Sunday which falls within the Octave of Christmas (i.e. between 25th December and 1st January) is set aside as the Feast of the Holy Family and this year displaces the feast day of St John the Evangelist.

"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 instil 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.org



"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...."

Continue reading this reflection here.
 
"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
 

Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it.  

Assuming that he was in the group of travellers, they went a day’s journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.  

When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, “Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.” He said to them, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he said to them.  

Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favour.

 
Reflections on this weeks gospel:
 
Sunday Reflections
English Dominicans
Centre for Liturgy, St Louis University
ACP Reflections on the Holy Family
 
Liturgical odds & ends
 
Liturgy of the Hours: Psalter week 1, Octave of Christmas
 
Saints of the Week
 
December 28th - The Holy Innocents (martyrs)
December 29th - St Thomas á Becket
December 30th - St Egwin
December 31st - St Sylvester
January 1st - Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. Also World Day of Peace
January 2nd - Ss Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen
January 3rd - For the diocese of Limerick - St Munchin - patron of the diocese. As the feast day of the principal patron of the diocese falls on a Sunday it is celebrated/ranked as a Solemnity in the diocese of Limerick.
January 3rd - For every where else - 2nd Sunday of Christmas

December 28th 2014 - Feast of the Holy Family

On this weeks programme we have an interview with Philip Milligan about the shrine at Paray-le-Monial. Geraldine joins us to reflect on this weeks gospel which is that of the Feast of the Holy Family.We have some other liturgical odds and ends as well.

You can listen to the podcast of the full programme HERE.

The Sanctuaries of Paray le Monial 

Wall painting, Vincent de Paul, left, before Sacred Heart of Jesus appearing to Margaret Mary Alacoque; original in convent chapel, Paray le Monial

On this weeks programme, John is out and about as a roving correspondent for SS102fm and brings you a programme he recorded during the summer in France at the shrine of Paray le Monial. For many people this Burgandian shrine of course is closely associated with the devotion to the Sacred Heart which is a favourite devotion among many in West Limerick. John is joined by Philip Milligan to discuss the history and devotion at the shrine.

You can listen to the interview with Philip excerpted from the main programme podcast HERE.

The Message of Paray le Monial
The History of Paray le Monial

The future belongs to Mercy from Sessions de Paray-le-Monial on Vimeo.


Gospel - Luke 2:22-40

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family which always occurs on the Sunday during the Octave of Christmas. This year it displaces the Feast of the Holy Innocents.The Holy Family is seen as the model of the human family, of religious community of the Church itself. The celebration of the Incarnation has brought us to see God's closeness and in the Holy Family we see the ordinariness of the life of Jesus.

Our reflection on this weeks gospel can be listened to HERE, excerpted from the main programme.


"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...." Continue reading this reflection here.

"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

Reflections on this weeks gospel:

English Dominicans - Holy Waiting
Sunday Reflections
Word on Fire

You can read more about the feast day HERE.

“May the Holy Family, who had to overcome many painful trials, watch over all the families in the world, especially those who are experiencing difficult situations.  May the Holy Family also help men and women of culture and political leaders so that they may defend the institution of the family, based on marriage, and so that they may sustain the family as it confronts the grave challenges of the modern age! . . .  may Christian families find the light and strength to be united and to grow as the ‘domestic church’ especially in their diligent participation in the celebration of the Eucharist on Sunday."

Saint John Paul II,  – Prayer from Angelus Message for the Feast of the Holy Family 2004

Reflections and prayers for the feast of the Holy Family available on the website of the Irish Bishops Conference HERE.

Liturgical odds and ends

Liturgy of the Hours - Psalter Week 1 

Saints of the Week

December 29th - St Thomas a Becket (martyr)
December 30th - Blessed Giovanni Maria Boccardo
December 31st - St Sylvester (Pope)
January 1st - Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God (also World Day of Peace)
January 2nd - Ss Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen (Bishops & Doctors of the Church) - First Friday
January 3rd - St Munchin (Bishop) - Patron of the Diocese of Limerick

29th December 2013 - Feast of the Holy Family - EWTN's Women of Grace: An interview with Sue Brinkmann

This weeks programme is a little different and  marks a small new beginnng for the SS102fm team. First off, it is our first show produced at our new "Come & See" studio in Ardagh, Co Limerick which is a new venture from the team which we hope to share more with you our listeners in 2014.

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
 

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.org

Fr James Martin SJ writes a reflection on the Holy Family in the St Anthony Messenger Catholic Update.
 

 
Other reflections on this weeks gospel:

• English Dominicans
• Word on Fire
• Centre for Liturgy

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

The Dysfunctional Family of Nazareth (Repost)

Christ-Mass - the celebration of an almost incomprehensible thing, the commemoration of the sanctification of the physical manifestation of the Eternal Word into human history. Incarnation - the in-breaking of the divine into the carnal messy existence of our humanity.

But have we lost some of our understanding of Christmas? Have we wrapped it in too much tinsel, sanitised it too much? Made it too respectable? Where is the Holy Child amidst the tree, the gifts, the music, the shopping and the excess food?


It is arguable that there was nothing respectable about the Holy Dysfunctional Family of Nazareth. Again and again the Church holds up as a model the family of Nazareth and they are right to do so but maybe the interpretation has become too familiar?


“In human terms, in paschal terms – [from the Greek verb pascho with its root word in strickeness and suffering] – the story of Jesus begins with a terrified teenager birthing onto a futon of straw in a rock cavity amid the incense of the breath of livestock. It begins in a Taliban territory, a sectarian state that murders single mothers by stoning them. It begins badly and ends worse – in the public execution of her child as a condemned criminal in a rubbish dump outside the city walls.”


In very human terms, still very much happening today, frightened young girls and women are giving birth in conditions not much better and often worse, relying on the divine grace of their human female nature – often so defiled and abused by the societies that they are in - to bring to climax the process of creation which they have participated in either willingly or unwillingly. Like that young Jewish girl giving birth without the benefit of midwives they too often “experience an unescorted birth; labour without amenity…there are no women present” . It was ironic that it was “the despised shepherds of inter-testamental Palestine [who visit the birth of] the puking mite who has been born at the wrong time and in the wrong environment” . But that irony is further compounded when it is men, the stalwarts in a theatre of atrocity who will be absent from the vigil at the Cross . The roles are reversed, men welcome him into the world and women assist him out of this vale of tears.


But even before the messiness, the pain and suffering of birth in a dark cave where a mother, in her ultimate gift to the world, in bringing new life into that ungrateful world, prefigures the blood and pain of Calvary, she had suffered for her willingness to be open to the message of God.


She suffered from staring eyes and whispers behind her back which forced her to the shelter of her cousin Elizabeth to the consolation of another woman in the same predicament as she. Small consolation to her, but surely it offers hope to any woman in the situation of an unexpected pregnancy and worried about “what the neighbours may say”.


She suffered in the uncertainty as to whether her fiancée would stand by her in what in human terms he could have seen as being an ultimate betrayal. We can say that “Joseph was a very decent man. He didn’t want to give his girlfriend a bad reputation and after a reassuring dream he married her. But was it a happy life?”

She suffered “when Jesus was twelve they lost him in the crowd and when they found him, after three days of anxiously looking, their question: “Why did you do this to us?” was answered with something close to a reproach: “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house”(Luke 2:49)? This response, “But didn’t you know I have more important things to do than pay attention to you,” is hardly consoling” to Mary and Joseph but must give hope to any parents of angst-ridden teenagers.


Take and eat…take and drink….we eat of his body, broken on the Cross, birthed in pain and suffering in a dark cave. We drink of his blood poured out for us, but as blood and water flowed from his side, so too it poured forth at this birth, prefiguring the sacrifice to be made on Calvary. Simeon’s prophecy to Mary was that she would experience suffering too for having brought this child into the world, but what mother does not experience suffering from the moment of birth as her child grows further and further away from her into their own person and ultimately journeys back to the God that made them?


“When Jesus hands over his body to the disciples he is vulnerable. He is in their hands for them to do as they wish...It embodies a tenderness that means that one may well get hurt. It is a self gift that may be met with rebuff and mockery and in which one may feel oneself to be used. The Last Supper shows us with extreme realism the perils of giving ourselves to anyone…The Last Supper is the story of the risk of giving yourself to others. That is why Jesus died, because he loved. But not to take the risk is even more dangerous. It is deadly…Love is the only impetus that is sufficiently overwhelming to force us to leave the comfortable shelter of our well-armed individuality, shed the impregnable shell of self-sufficiency, and crawl nakedly into the danger zone beyond, the melting pot where individuality is purified into personhood.” Mary too, as a mother, handed over her body to the world so that the world could receive the Divine Love into its midst and then suffered again as the world rejected that Divine Love by impaling it on a cross.


At Christmas we remember that “‘The Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us.’ God became bodily like us. One might say that Jesus became even more bodily than us, at home in his skin, at ease in himself, body and soul, a face without masks. Jesus could only give himself to us. ‘This is my body, given for you’, because he accepted himself as a gift from the Father in the first place.” We celebrate the humanity of Christ, like us in all things except sin and celebrate our humanity – our physicality. “Most of the doctrines of Christianity make no sense unless we have a clear understanding of the goodness of our corporeal existence: Creation, Incarnation, the sacraments, the resurrection of the dead, all rooted in our flesh and blood”.


It is difficult to anticipate the meaning of the suffering of Easter in the light of the joy of Christmas but the shadow of the Cross overshadows the Nativity scene. However, that shadow of a cruel instrument of torture is cast by the light streaming through the open door of an empty Tomb on Easter morn. It is the lens of the Resurrection through which we understand and from that understanding, can dare to celebrate Christmas.The fact that God-made-Man, entered into our existence, entered into our human history, experienced our pains, our joys, our needs, “like us in all things except sin,” is the ultimate hope given to us. The in-breaking of God into human history enables us to share in the ultimate love between the persons of the Godhead expressed as the Holy Spirit. Because Christ has taken on our frail human nature, we are able to participate in, no rather are part of, the Divine Eros, the Divine Love epitomised by the sending of that Spirit of Love on the first Pentecost, the manifestation of love on the world. No longer are we just made in the image and likeness of God, through His sharing in our humanity we share ultimately in his divinity.


At Christmas we should pause and reflect, rediscover the humanity of the season, the celebration of that humanity and ultimately recall that:

“Though he was in the form of God

Jesus did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.

He emptied himself

Taking the form of a servant,

Being born in the likeness of men.

And being found in human form,

He humbled himself and became obedient unto death,

Even death on a Cross.

Therefore God has highly exalted him

And bestowed on him the name which above every name…..” (Phil 2:6-11)

Quotes and references acknowledgements:

A. Matthews, In the Poorer Quarters (2007, Veritas, Dublin); H. Nouwen, Sabbatical Journey, (1998, The Crossroad Publishing Company, New York); T. Radcliffe, What is the point of being a Christian?, (2005, Burns & Oates, Continuum, London)

30th December 2012 - The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph

As we come to close of another year, this week's programme naturally turns to reflecting on the year past and looking forward to the year to come. This week's programme is available on podcast HERE. 

 

Source

 

At the start of each programme we have a little prayer space - a time to reconnect with God - a time to bring our needs, cares, worries, joys, dreams and aspirations to our Heavenly Father through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit. At the beginning of 2012, we composed a number of prayer intentions for the year that we invited our listeners to carry these intentions in their prayers to God.  This year, again, we invite our listeners to become part of our Sacred Space 102fm prayer group. 

 

On the programme we introduced our suggested prayer intentions and heavenly intercessors for 2013:

 

• Year of Faith - 12 Apostles and Doctors of the Church (e.g. St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, and St. Catherine of Sienna)
• Protection of the unborn - St. Joseph, Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Gianna Beretta Molla
• Marriage and family life - The Holy Family
• Peace - St. Zachary, Our Lady Queen of Peace, St. Francis of Assisi and the Child of Prague
• Persecuted Christians - St. Stephen, Martyrs of Uganda, Martyrs of Vietnam and St. Michael the Archangel
• Government and civil leaders - St. Thomas Moore and St. Jude
• Cancer patients - St. Peregrine
• The sick - Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Camillus
• Diocese of Limerick and the selection of our new bishop - St. Munchin and St. Ita
• The unemployed and those seeking work - St. Joseph the Worker
• Emigrants - St. Patrick
• Vocations - St. Alphonsus Ligouri
• Priests - St. John Vianney
• Pope Benedict XVI - St. Peter, St. Benedict and St. Joseph
• The Church - St. Michael the Archangel
• Youth - St. John Bosco, St. Francesco and St. Jacinta (Seers of Fatima) and Blessed Pier Georgio Frassati

Source

In the second part of our programme we recapped some of the events which took place in the universal Church during 2012 including:

• The 50th International Eucharistic Congress (June 10th to 17th 2012)
• The Thirteenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on "The New Evangelisation for the Transmission of the Christian Faith"
• The Year of Faith (October 11th 2012 to November 24th 2013)
• The 50th Anniversary of the convocation of the Second Vatican Council (October 11th 2012)
• Pope Benedict XVI's first papal tweets (December 12th 2012)
• Two Consistories (February 18th 2012 and November 24th 2012)
• Vatileaks
• Papal trips - Mexico and Republic of Cuba (March 23rd to 29th 2012) and Lebanon (September 14th to 16th 2012)
• The Infancy Narratives - Jesus of Nazareth - Pope Benedict publishes the final installment of the trilogy on the life of Christ
• Bethlehem made a UNESCO world heritage site (June 29th 2012)
• Continuing exodus of Christians from the Middle East
• The persecution of the bishops and Christians in China
• Expansion of the Anglican Ordinature

What were your Church higlights or lowlights of 2012?

Gospel - Luke 2:41-52 - The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph (Year C)

The Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph gives us the opportunity to reflect upon the last verses of St. Luke's infancy narratives.  In this reading we reflect upon the incident behind the fifth joyful mystery - the finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple, but for Mary and Joseph we can imagine that the three days Jesus was lost was a time fraught with anxiety and guilt.  Each thinking that Jesus was in the company of the other, Mary and Joseph travelled a day's journey before they noticed that Jesus was missing.  When they found Jesus, He was in the Temple among the doctors listening to them and asking them questions (cf. Vs. 46).  What feelings may they have experienced?  If you are a parent, imagine the panic that goes through your mind when you think your child is missing - perhaps you just turned around for a minute in a shop and they have disappeared down another aisle... Can you imagine what it must have felt like for Mary and Joseph to find him there?  Relief? Certainly! Joy to find their son safe? Yes... but other feelings too - confusion, misunderstanding, hurt...

                       Source

 

Mary's question to Jesus is poignant - "My child, why have you done this to us? See how worried your father and I have been, looking for you." (Lk 2:49).  It is a question that encapsulates the myriad of emotions that Joseph and Mary felt.  Jesus' answer seems almost flippant at first - "Why were you looking for me?" he replied.  "Did you not know that I must be busy with my Father's affairs" (Lk 2:50).  It appears as if Jesus is dismissing Mary and Joseph's concern and worry, yet, if we reflect on this for a moment - to be busy with His Father's affairs is the reason why the Son of God became man.  The Father's will comes before all personal ties for Jesus.  This is in no way dismissive of the role of Mary as His Mother and Joseph as His step-father, indeed, we read in Vs. 51 that "He then went down with them and came to Nazareth and lived under their authority".  God the Father's will comes first.

 

We are told that Mary "stored up all these things in her heart" (Lk 2:51).  Even though she did not understand God's will, she stored it in her heart, returning to it, thinking over it, ruminating on it, praying about it.  She is the model for us when we find ourselves not understanding God's will.

 

Two little thoughts for further reflection:

 

1) Have we left Jesus in the Temple?  Do we leave Jesus in church after Sunday Mass?  Are we quite happy to meet with Jesus for 40 minutes each week, but that is the extent of our relationship?  As Christians, we are called to be Christ-bearers - do we bring Him into every situation and to every person we meet?

 

2) If you are a parent or grandparent, do your children or grandchildren sometimes do things that baffle you or worry you?  Perhaps when you approached them about it, you did not understand what they meant (cf. Vs. 50)?  Can you put yourself in their position and pray to the Holy Family to help you see God's will in this situation? 

 

Other reflections on this week's Gospel: -

 

Word on Fire

Sunday Reflections

English Dominicans

Centre for Liturgy

Homily of Deacon Marton Brown OSB (Glenstal)

 

Liturgical Odds and Ends:

 

Divine Office - Week 1

 

Saints of the Week:

 

December 31st - St. Sylvester, pope

January 1st - Mary, the Holy Mother of God (also World Day of Peace)

January 2nd - St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory Nazianzen, bishops and doctors of the Church

January 3rd - St. Munchin (patron of the Diocese of Limerick) and The Holy Name of Jesus

January 5th - St. Charles of St. Andrew