As our journey through the Season of Christmas continues today we focus on the gift of the Holy Family - Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
The first Sunday after Christmas, on the liturgical calendar, celebrates the Holy Family. Pope Leo XIII instituted this feast in 1892, encouraging societies honoring the Holy Family to be established everywhere. He established this feast day to remind families of the sacredness of the family and to provide the laity with a model upon which to structure their own families. In 1974 Pope Paul VI wrote, in his Apostolic Exhortation, Marialis Cultus (For the Right Ordering and Development of Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary):
On the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph (the Sunday within the octave of Christmas) the Church meditates with profound reverence upon the holy life led in the house at Nazareth by Jesus, the Son of God and Son of Man, Mary His Mother, and Joseph the just man (cf. Mt. 1:19).
HT Living Catholicism Blog
1 comment:
This is such a beautiful feast day, our Priest had an excellent homily on the Holy Family.. it had so much meaning for me.. I left Mass feeling humble but ready to work on the areas that I need to change in my life.
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