Solemnity of the Holy Family - 26 December
26th December 2021
Solemnity of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary & Joseph - 26 December
The Holy Family Prayer
Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary, bless our family. Graciously inspire in us the unity, peace, and mutual love that You found in Your own family in the little town of Nazareth.
Mary, Mother of Jesus and our Mother, nourish our family with your faith and your love. Keep us close to Your Son, Jesus, in all our sorrows and joys.
Joseph, foster-father to Jesus, guardian and spouse of Mary, keep our family safe from harm. Help us in all times of discouragement and anxiety.
Holy Family of Nazareth, make our family one with you. Help us to be instruments of peace. Grant that love, strengthened by grace, may prove mightier than all the weaknesses and trials through which our families sometimes pass. May we always have God at the centre of our hearts and homes until we are all one family, happy and at peace in our true home with you. Amen. 🙏💖💐
Reflection
A reflection on today's gospel reading by the Venerable Archbishop Fulton J Sheen:
"After fulfilling the rites [of Passover], the men and women left in separate caravans, to meet again at night. But the boy Jesus, unknown to His parents, stayed behind in Jerusalem. They, thinking that He was among their traveling companions, had gone a day’s journey before they missed Him. It was thus that Jesus was 'lost' for three days. In those three days, Mary came to know one of the effects of sin, namely, the loss of God. Though she was without sin, nevertheless she knew the fears and the loneliness, the darkness and the isolation which every sinner experiences when he loses God. It was a king of glorified hide-and-seek. He was hers; that was why she sought Him. He was on the business of redemption; that was why He left her and went to the temple.
"There was a school in the temple, in which a number of Rabbis taught...It was in this school of Rabbis that Mary and Joseph found Him. The fact that He was sitting in the midst of the doctors would indicate that they received Him not just as a learner, but as a professor. 'Seeing Him there, they were full of wonder.' They were probably astonished because of the learning which He displayed. In a land where the authority of the father was supreme, it was not Joseph the foster father, but Mary, who spoke. The Virgin Birth was implied in her questioning. Her question implied that the emphasis was more on the fact that He was her Son than upon the fact that He was also the Son of God. This distinction is further underlined by the fact that she added a note about fatherhood, saying 'Your father and I.' The Divine Child answered by making a distinction between the one whom He honoured as a father on earth and the Eternal Father. This answer affirmed a parting of the ways; it did not diminish the filial duty that He owed to Mary and Joseph, for He became immediately subject to them again, but it decisively put them in a second place. These are the first recorded words of Jesus in the Gospels, and they are in the form of a question. When He said that His mother should have known He was about His Father’s business, He was evidently referring to what she had learned at the Annunciation when the Angel said to her: 'The holy offspring of thine shall be known for the Son of God.'" (Life of Christ)
