Vol. 37 No. 7                             (Cycle C)     HOLY FAMILY   Kindness to a father will not be forgotten ENTRANCE ANTIPHON The shepherds hastened to Bethlehem, where they found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. PENITENTIAL RITE During this holy season of Christmas, Jesus, Mary and Joseph should be remembered frequently by every Christian. To help us to remember them and above all to imitate them, the Church has dedicated this Sunday to the memory of the Holy Family. As we begin this Eucharist let us ask pardon fron God for our sins ansd failures. During this Holy Mass let us also lift up each member of our family to God and pray for God’s blessings on us all. I confess… Glory to God... OPENING PRAYER Let us pray: Father, help us to live as the holy family, united in respect and love. Bring us to the joy and peace of your eternal home. Grant this… FIRST READING (The author of Ecclesiasticus speaks of good family relationships. The children who respect and obey their parents are in fact giving glory to God and storing up spiritual treasures for themselves.) A reading from the Book of Ecclesiasticus (3:2-6,12-14) The Lord honoured the father above the children, and he confirmed the right of the mother over her sons. Whoever honours his father atones for sins, and whoever glorifies his mother is like one who lays up treasure. Whoever honours his father will be gladdened by his own children, and when he prays he will be heard. Whoever glorifies his father will have long life, and whoever obeys the Lord will refresh his mother. O son, help your father in his old age, and do not grieve him as long as he lives; even if he is lacking in understanding, show forbearance; in all your strength do not despise him. For kindness to a father will not be forgotten, and against your sins it will be credited to you. This is the Word of the Lord PSALM (127) Response: O blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways! O blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways! By the labour of your hands you shall eat. You will be happy and prosper. R./ Your wife will be like a fruitful vine in the heart of your house; your children like shoots of the olive, around your table. R./ Indeed thus shall be blessed the man who fears the Lord. May the Lord bless you from Zion all the days of your life! R./ SECOND READING (St Paul encourages the Colossians to persevere in the true faith based on the solid foundation of Christ’s divinity and to keep on living a true Christian life.) A reading from the Letter of St Paul to the Colossians (3:12-21) Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience, forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as you teach and admonish one another in all wisdom, and as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. This is the Word of the Lord ACCLAMATION (Col 3:15-16) Alleluia, alleluia! May the peace of Christ reign in your hearts; let the message of Christ find a home with you. Alleluia! GOSPEL (In today’s Gospel episode St Luke narrates how the boy Jesus permits Mary and Joseph to grieve over his loss in the Temple to prepare them, especially his Mother, for greater sorrows that are to come.) A reading from the Holy Gospel according to St Luke (2:41-52) The parents of Jesus went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom; and when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, but supposing him to be in the company they went a day’s journey, and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintances; and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking 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. And when they saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been looking for you anxiously.” And he said to them, “How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” And they did not understand the saying which he spoke to them. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favour with God and man. This is the Gospel of the Lord I believe in God,/the Father Almighty,/ Creator of heaven and earth./ I believe in Jesus Christ,/his only Son, our Lord./ He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit/and born of the Virgin Mary./He suffered under Pontius Pilate,/was crucified, died, and was buried./He descended to the dead./On the third day he rose again./He ascended into Heaven,/and is seated at the right hand of the Father./He will come again to judge the living and the dead./I believe in the Holy Spirit,/the Holy Catholic Church,/the communion of saints,/the forgiveness of sins,/the resurrection of the body,/and the life everlasting./Amen. PRAYER OF THE FAITHFUL Cel: Beloved in Christ, as we are in God’s house, let us remember that we form part of the family of the People of God. With confidence let us approach our heavenly Father for all our needs, saying: Response: Father, graciously hear the prayers of your children. 1. For the Church: that it may be a place where people of all races and nations can experience the love and mercy of Christ. R./ 2. For all Christian families: that they may set an example of unity and peace to a fragmented and troubled world. R./ 3. For all families: that Christ, who knew what it was to be part of a human family, may turn the hearts of parents towards their children and the hearts of children towards their parents. R./ 4. For those families that have been orphaned or widowed, or experiencing problems of any kind. Grant them security, strength and joy. R./ 5. For parents who mourn the death of their children: that God may visit them with comfort and peace. R./ (Pray for local and personal needs) Cel: Abba, Father, we thank and praise you for the love you have showered upon us through our family members. Make all homes places of love, joy and peace; may they become schools for learning human values and virtues. We make this prayer… PRAYER OVER THE GIFTS Lord, accept this sacrifice and through the prayers of Mary, the virgin Mother of God, and of her husband, Joseph, unite our families in peace and love. We ask this… Preface (P 5) Father, all-powerful and ever-living God, we do well always and everywhere to give you thanks through Jesus Christ our Lord. Today in him a new light has dawned upon the world: God has become one with man, and man has become one again with God. Your eternal Word has taken upon himself our human weakness, giving our mortal nature immortal value. So marvellous is this oneness between God and man that in Christ man restores to man the gift of everlasting life. In our joy we sing to your glory with all the choirs of angels: All: Holy, holy, holy... COMMUNION ANTIPHON Our God has appeared on earth, and lived among men. PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION Eternal Father, we want to live as Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, in peace with you and one another. May this communion strengthen us to face the troubles of life. We ask this…   Liturgy and Life God became man and chose to dwell in a human family, as though to suggest that the ideal setting for God’s love to abide with us is the heart of a home. The Holy Family of Nazareth, thus, became the meeting place of heaven and earth, where God reached out to us humans in an act of bonding. Ever after, relationships within every human family assumed a divine dimension. It is in the context of the family that love takes origin and grows. It is around the family hearth that true relationships are nurtured, laying the foundation of human personality. It is there that parents mirror God’s love to their children and children bloom as God’s precious gifts to their parents. Today the Holy Family of Nazareth is offered to us as the model of an ideal family life. But we should be wrong if we assumed that it was something of a heaven on earth. It was certainly not all peace, tranquillity and joy. Joseph, Mary and Jesus had their full share of struggles and problems. They were a poor family struggling to make a living but sustained always by a deep faith in God and profound love for one another. In the Gospel passage we have a terrible crisis faced by Mary and Joseph. They experienced in full measure the anxiety and worry of losing someone too precious—Jesus—who, they knew was God’s Son entrusted to their safe keeping and proper grooming. Panic-stricken they ran back and forth looking for him. They also experienced the joy of finding what was lost! What a relief! Yet how strange the answer of the 12-year-old boy! Were they facing a crisis of authority? For one thing, they must have realized that they were only keepers of Jesus, not owners. How well Kahlil Gibran put it: Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts. For they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. Too often families get into crisis when children begin to assert their independence, maybe by choosing a direction not envisaged by the parents. At times they feel they have lost their children and are overcome with worry and anxiety. Parents spend days looking for their children; and then, unexpectedly they are found at ease in their temple. There are times in life when children must step out on their own although parents will be wanting to bring them back to Nazareth. As Fr Michael De Verteuil puts it, “as a Church we tend to remain within our concerns, safe in Nazareth where we know the rules of the game, who is subject to whom, and we can feel sure we are growing in wisdom, in stature, and in favour with God and with the influential people in society.” The Church too may need “to take the risk of being lost for days at a time,” even though this will worry her leaders, “so that Jesus can be among the learned people of our time … and modern generations like the previous ones can be astounded by the wisdom of his message.” —Fr Joseph Thenasseril, ssp Dec 09/Jan 2010 READINGS OF THE WEEK Office Proper 28 Mon (R) The Holy Innocents, (Fst.), 1 Jn 1:5-2:2; Ps 123:2-3,4-5,7b-8; Mt 2:13-18 29 Tue (W) St Thomas Becket, 1 Jn 2:3-11; Ps 95:1-2a,2b-3,5b-6; Lk 2:22-35 30 Wed (W) 1 Jn 2:12-17; Ps 95:7-8a,8b-9,10; Lk 2:36-40 31 Thu (W) St Sylvester, 1 Jn 2:18-21; Ps 95:1-2,11-12,13; Jn 1:1-18 1 Fri (W) MARY, MOTHER OF GOD, (Sol.) — NEW YEAR DAY 2 Sat (W) Sts Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, 1 Jn 2:22-28; Ps 97:1,2-3ab,3cd-4; Jn 1:19-28