Octave of Christmas - The Feast of the Holy Family
"May Nazareth serve as a model of what the family should be. May it show us the family’s holy and enduring character. " Pope Paul VI
By Deacon keith Fournier
12/28/2008
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)
The silence of Nazareth should teach us how to meditate in peace and quiet, to reflect on the deeply spiritual, and to be open to the voice of God’s inner wisdom and the counsel of his true teachers.
CHESAPEAKE, Va. (Catholic Online) - During the Octave of Christmas we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family. The significance of the Feast grows as we come to understand the deeper truths it reveals, about Jesus, about Mary, about Joseph and about each one of us and our Baptismal vocation to live our lives now, in Christ.
The Incarnate Word became one of us. He was born into a human family. There, in what our beloved Pope Paul VI called the "school of Nazareth", he spent so many of his years. Every moment of his time among us Jesus was saving the world and to use a word from the early Church Father and Bishop St. Ireneaus, "recapitulating" the entire human experience. There, in the holy habitation of Nazareth he forever transformed family life. There in the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, the Lord still teaches us how to live our own family life now, always in His presence.
From antiquity the Christian family has been called a "domestic church" in the Christian Tradition. In our life with one another as a Christian family, Jesus Christ is truly present.We need the eyes to see Him at work, the ears to hear His instruction and the hearts to make a place for Him to continue His redemptive mission within us and through us. In our relationships, in Him and with one another, we can learn the way of selfless love and walk the path of holiness. We present an excerpt from a beautiful reflection from the late Pope Paul VI entitled "The Example of Nazareth" for all of our readers and viewers as we continue our Christmas celebration.
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posted by Dr. Denice Hanley, DPM, M.Div. @ 10:23 AM
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