Feast day highlights the importance of our families' rootedness in God
by Sister Lynne Marie Simonich
Today’s Feast of the Holy Family brings us a 12-year-old Jesus who causes great anxiety for Mary and Joseph. Many parents can identify with the fear and panic Mary and Joseph experienced not knowing where their son was. Jesus, however, felt quite at home in the Temple and didn’t understand why they were so upset.
Like families today, we see that the Holy Family had difficulties and times of anxiety as well as days of joy and peace. Their faith and love held the family together. Their trust in God kept their hopes alive. They all grew together in “wisdom, favor, and grace before God”.
Reflection questions:
- What does it mean to be a “holy family”?
- How have you grown in wisdom, favor, and grace before God?
“O God, who were pleased to give us the shining example of the Holy Family, graciously grant that we may imitate them in practicing the virtues of family life and in the bonds of charity, and so, in the joy of your house, delight one day in eternal rewards. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.”
(Opening Prayer for the Feast of the Holy Family, ©2010 International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation. All rights reserved.)
Your "Reflection questions" are priceless! They challenge us to think and answer them! Thanks!