FEAST OF THE HOLY FAMILY-ST SYLVESTER
Genesis,
Chapter 15, verse 1
Sometime
afterward, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: Do not fear, Abram! I am
your shield; I will make your reward very great.
Let us take heart for the word (Christ) appeared to
Abram and told him to not to fear the
world. Abram was sore afraid because
he had just been in battle with four Kings to rescue Lot his nephew and he feared retribution. Christ is our shield
against the world (the four kings east, west, north and south) and he has
rewarded us the spiritual children of Abram with eternal life. Our shield is
our Faith. Do you believe? Do you really
believe? Think of a shield it protects the heart from the arrows of the
devil-which is doubt. But notice the shield does not protect the eyes and the
head unless it is raise. When doubt comes around raise your shield of Faith and
after the assault lower the shield and advance using your reason and your head
and eyes in faith to make a difference in the world. Additionally in Proverbs 2
it states that he is a shield to those who walk in integrity; let us resolve to
walk resolutely in integrity by using faith and reason in the battle with the
world, the flesh and the devil. True integrity is being willing to lay down
your life for what you hold fast as the truth without wavering. Having
integrity means avoiding the sins of envy and having a true love for God our
creator and to love our neighbor as ourselves and our fellow humans treating
them with kindness. The Holy Family is our model for our love of neighbor.
Given the build-up of Christmas it might seem
strange that the feast of the
holy family is celebrated so late when the holy family has just been
formed by the birth of the son? The surprising answer is that the family had
not been formed by this event. According to the Mosaic Law, a Hebrew boy was
not part of the family until he was circumcised eight days after his birth;
only then was he given his name, i.e., his identity as an individual and as a
son of Abraham. But there is a deeper reason as well. Paradoxically, it is only
after we have contemplated the various revelations of the Light to both Jew and
Gentile that we can appreciate the period of Jesus' life that is shrouded in
obscurity. It is because we now know who the boy Jesus truly is that we can
understand the importance of His family and the excellence of His so-called
hidden life. Like the shepherds of Bethlehem, we now recognize Him as the
Messiah for whom the Jews yearned; like the Magi, whose gifts bespoke their
convictions, we now recognize Him as a King worthy of gold, as God worthy of
frankincense, and as the Suffering Servant to be one day buried with myrrh. And
like the Blessed Virgin, who -- as we learn from the Gospel on this feast--
kept all these things in her heart, we are now in a position to appreciate the
unique role of His Holy Family in the economy of our salvation. The Feast of the Holy Family of
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph holds up the domestic life of Jesus, his
mother, and foster father as the perfect model for all Catholic
households. As Pope Leo XIII explains, there is a lesson in this family for
everyone: for fathers, for mothers, for children; for nobility (the Holy Family
was from the royal house of David), for the poor (they gave up their
possessions in fleeing to Egypt), and so on. There are no prescribed or uniform
customs for the feast, but that does not mean no observances were made. The
following is an account from Father Weiser of Holy Family Sundays at our own
parish, Holy Trinity German Church, in the 1940s.
The
annual Holy Childhood procession, on the feast of the Holy Family, is one of
the most attractive ceremonies. In former years this procession was called the
"Shepherds' Procession" as the children marched through the church
dressed as shepherds and shepherdesses -- a lovely relic of popular medieval
piety (Holy Trinity Parish, 1844-1944, p. 37).
A good practice during the twelve nights of Christmas would be to turn off the TV and to rest and have joyful prayer with the family. It is good to remember that Christ’s primary teachers in the faith were Joseph and Mary. We also should remember to not rely on schools to bring up our children in devotion to the Lord and that we are the primary teachers of Faith, Hope and Love in our families.
Things
to Do[2]
·
Let us
imitate the Holy Family in our Christian families, and our family will be a stronghold
and a prefiguration of the heavenly family. Say a prayer dedicating your family
to the Holy Family. Also pray for all families and for our country to uphold
the sanctity of the marriage bond which is under attack.
·
Read
more about Pope
Leo XIII who instituted the Feast of the Holy Family and read his
encyclical On Christian Marriage. You can also check out the Vatican's
page of Papal documents on the Family.
·
Read the
explanation of Jesus' knowledge in the activities section. Read Pope Pius X's Syllabus of
Errors which condemns the modernist assertion that Christ did not
always possess the consciousness of His Messianic dignity.
·
Have the
whole family participate in cooking dinner. You might try a Lebanese meal. Some
suggestions: stuffed grape leaves, stuffed cabbage rolls, lentils and rice,
spinach and meat pies, chicken and dumplings, hummus, Lebanese bread, tabbouleh
— a Lebanese salad and kibbi, a traditional Lebanese dish of specially ground
meat mixed with spices and cracked wheat. This is the same kind of food that
Mary served Jesus and St. Joseph. It's healthy and delicious.
Christmas Calendar[3]
Read: Today, we honor the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and
Joseph. Take time to read Pope
Francis's homily on the Feast of the Holy Family in 2014. The ideas and
messages he presented are still relevant today.
Reflect: "Christmas celebrates the fruit of Mary
and Joseph's trust in God. The long-awaited Messiah, sent to save us from our
sins and win back the eternal blessedness lost by Adam's sin, is born. The Son
of God is like us in all things but sin. We learn from the Incarnation that our
success is in God's hands. Without the Father's love, we would be lost for all
eternity. Mary and Joseph sacrificed greatly to make the arduous journey to
Bethlehem, to obey God's directive to flee into Egypt, and to go to Nazareth to
raise Jesus. Ambiguity, uncertainty, and brokenness touched the Holy Family.
Their lives teach us that we cannot understand God's designs. This wonderful
lesson urges parents to put their families in God's hands and trust that their
efforts will bear fruit. Faithful parents are examples for us, single or
married. We, too, are to put ourselves in God's hands. In so doing, God's grace
helps us realize better the depths of who we are and what we are called to
become."
Pray: It's New Year's Eve! Say this Prayer for the New Year today.
Act: "A few minutes can be found each day to come
together before the living God, to tell him our worries, to ask for the needs
of our family, to pray for someone experiencing difficulty, to ask for help in
showing love, to give thanks for life and for its blessings, and to ask Our
Lady to protect us beneath her maternal mantle." —Pope Francis,
Amoris Laetitia, no. 318
At the start of this
New Year, make a commitment to pray together as a family every day. Make it a
habit to share your prayers before meals or before bed so that you may grow in
faith and love together.
Seventh
Day of Christmas[4] Seven Swans a-Swimming =
the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit
- wisdom
- understanding
- counsel
- fortitude
- knowledge
- piety
- fear of the Lord
Also, the seven sacraments of
the Catholic faith [Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Eucharist, Penance, Extreme
Unction, Holy Orders, and Matrimony]
Saint Sylvester/New Year’s
Eve[5]
The night of the Holy Saint Sylvester, the last night of the
year, has always been the night of fun. Every year Berlin hosts one of the
largest New Year's Eve celebrations in all of Europe, attended by over a
million people. The focal point is the Brandenburg Gate, where midnight
fireworks are centered. Germans toast the New Year with a glass of Sekt (German
sparkling wine) or champagne. The saint of this day, Pope Sylvester I,
according to legend is the man who healed from leprosy and baptized the Roman
Emperor Constantine the Great.
Sylvester I and Constantine
Sylvester was a Roman, the son of Rufinus. He was ordained a
priest by Marcellinus. Chosen Pope in 314, he continued the work of organizing
the peacetime Church so well begun by St. Miltiades. Sylvester saw the building
of famous churches, notably the Basilica of St. Peter and the Basilica of St.
John Lateran, built near the former imperial palace of that name. It is quite
probable too that the first martyrology or list of Roman martyrs was drawn up
in his reign. St. Sylvester died in 335. He was buried in a church which he
himself had built over the Catacomb of Priscilla on the Via Salaria. His feast
is kept on December 31.
Bleigiessen ("Lead pouring") an
old German New Year tradition
In many of the German-speaking areas the change of the year is
celebrated noisily and merrily. Guests are invited, and groups attend a
"Sylvester Ball." There is eating, drinking, dancing and singing. It
may be accompanied by the popular "Sylvester" custom of Bleigiessen.
A small piece of lead will be melted over a flame in an old spoon and dropped
into a bowl of cold water. From the shape you can supposedly tell your fortune
for the coming year. For instance, if the lead forms a ball (der Ball), that means luck will
roll your way. The shape of an anchor (der Anker) means help in need. But a cross (das Kreuz) signifies death. At
midnight, when the old year is almost gone and the New Year is about to start,
glasses are filled with champagne or wine, and toasts and hugs go with wishing
each other "ein gutes neues Jahr". Some go out into the streets and
listen to the bells ringing throughout the land. Others participate in shooting
in the New Year, or put on their private fireworks.
St.
Sylvester's Day Celebrations[6]
The day that celebrates the first pope to enjoy civic peace is
appropriately marked by family customs petitioning peace for the New Year. On
New Year's Eve it was traditional in France and other countries for the father to bless all members
of the family, and for the children
to thank their parents for all of their love and care. In Spain, it
was considered good luck to eat twelve
grapes at the twelve strokes of midnight. Services thanking God for the blessings of the year and
seeking blessings for the new one were not uncommon, and neither were special Sylvester
treats.
Last
10 Things[7]
Today would be a good day to review
the 10 Last things
in preparation for the New Year. The Four Last Things refer to death, judgment,
heaven and hell. The 10 Last Things as a phrase does not exist, but
all are found in Scripture and Tradition.
So, when is Jesus coming back
to earth? The answer: At the
end of the world. When is the end of the world? Jesus said, “Watch therefore,
for you know neither the day nor the hour.”—Mt 25:13. A theologian of Scripture
here in the USA said he believes one reason why so many men have left the
Catholic faith for Protestantism is because the Catholic pulpit is silent on
the apocalypse. It’s sad, especially since we have the clearest and richest
tradition. Although we’ll be discussing no specific dates, the Sacred
Scriptures and the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) both name the
ten things that must come at the end of the world:
1.
The Gospel must
first be preached to the whole world. The
extent of the level of the orthodoxy of the proclaimer is not clear,
nor is it clear if every person or simply every nation will have heard the
truth of Christ and His Church before the end of the world. At least
every land will have heard the basics by the second coming of Christ.
2.
The Jews will
return to the Holy Land and ultimately enter the Catholic Faith. Obviously, the first of these has happened (1948) and the
second has not yet happened. I had thought that the first was only a
vestage of Protestant dispensationalism, but I recently discovered in Yves
Dupont’s Catholic Prophesy
that Saints like Alphonsus Liguori had taught that the Jews must return
to Israel before Christ’s second return.
3.
The Great
Tribulation and Apostasy. Before the end
of the world, CCC 675 speaks of “the Church’s ultimate trial” which will be
both “apostasy from the truth” and “persecution.” Perhaps this one has been
fulfilled. Indeed, many Catholics have apostatized, formally or informally.
However, many Catholics and other Christians are being persecuted for following
Christ. Since Christ’s birth, there have been 70 million Christian martyrs. Of
these, the past hundred years have witnessed the majority— 45,500,000 of all
70,000,000 martyrdoms! Granted, most of these were Orthodox at the hands of
communists; it’s still persecution of Christians. Jesus said this tribulation
would also be accompanied by an increase in earthquakes (Mt 24:7.) Even CNN
admits a marked increase in earthquakes the past 100 years.
4.
The Anti-Christ or
the man of lawlessness. Although there
have been many anti-Christs (1 John 2:18) we’re going to have to experience the
big one, “the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every
so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of
God, proclaiming himself to be God.”—2 Thess 2:3-4. See CCC 676–680.
5.
The Restrainer. Mercy is defined as the divine limit to evil. The
anti-Christ will deceive so many people that God will send someone to limit
evil. His name in the Bible is “The Restrainer.” (I know “the Restrainer”
sounds like the coolest Marvel Comic book hero. But he’s right in the Bible,
which might explain why our Protestant brothers and sisters speculate about him
more than Catholics.) Anyway, this mysterious good-guy will come along at the
end of the world as an agent of Divine Mercy so that the man of lawlessness
doesn’t win. “Only he who now restrains it will do so until [the man of
lawlessness] is out of the way.”—2 Thess 2:7. Some Catholic theologians
speculate the Restrainer will be St. John the Baptist or St. Michael the
Archangel. But he is unknown at this point.
6.
Widespread disturbances
in nature. “Immediately after the distress
of those days the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky and the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At
that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the
nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the
clouds of the sky, with power and great glory.”—Mt 24:29-30
7.
Second Coming of
Jesus Christ. There’s an actual “day and
hour” (Mt 24:36) to Christ’s return to earth. This day has definitely not yet
come. “As the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so
will be the coming of the Son of Man.”—Mt 24:27. Once, at a lunch, a priest
with several impressive degrees snickered at me for taking these words
literally. Then, I have to wonder: If Jesus doesn’t return with power, maybe
he’ll return on a My Little Pony Cutie Mark Magic Princess Twilight Sparkle
Charm Carriage Playset? (That’s an actual toy at Target! I have to wonder who
named that…An 8 year old girl in love with a cutie named Mark who was allowed
to combine her eleven favorite words randomly?) Anyway, my point isn’t to rally
tough-guy fundamentalism. I just can’t imagine a fitting middle ground between
Christ coming as a baby and then coming in glory. Unless…Jesus comes strolling
into Seattle with corduroy pants and a Dockers short-sleeve at His awful second
coming. For my part, I’ll believe the Apostle’s description of the last day:
“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the
voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead
in Christ will rise first.”—1 Thess 4:16. See CCC 681 and the 13th century hymn
Dies Irae, “Day of wrath and doom impending…heaven and earth in ashes ending.”
Google it. The rest of it gets even more terrible, in the ancient Latin sense
of the word.
8.
Final Judgment. The Church teaches that every one of us on earth will be
judged by Christ at the end of life, be it our particular judgment or the
general judgment. The particular judgment is what you will experience if you
die before Jesus returns in glory. It’s simply your judgment when you come
before God a bit after cardiac arrest. A great Spanish priest described that
moment as a 2-dimensional instantaneous download of your entire life, replete
with Christ’s judgment of you (heaven or hell). The general judgment, or the
Last Judgment, however, is what everyone will experience when Christ returns to
earth. This will also affect those who have already died. For everyone, it will
be like a 3-dimensional instantaneous download of every good and evil action
committed by every person on the planet (Luke 8:17) and how it affected you and
vice-versa. In short, during your death and/or Christ’s return, your chance for
mercy will be done. That’s what the confessional is for. On judgment day, you
will answer for any unconfessed sins, and you will see how every one of your
actions affected the whole world, for better or for worse. I’m not trying to
scare you. This is Our Faith: You matter. See CCC 1021 and CCC 1038–1041.
9.
Resurrection of the
Body. Simultaneous to #5, everyone will
get their body back. It will be physical, spiritual and hopefully glorified. I
write “hopefully” because even those even in hell will get a body back for
eternal torture (John 5:29.) Happily, 100% of those in purgatory will go to
heaven and also get their glorified body back. But most adult Catholics think
of heaven as an amorphous reality for the soul…kind of like a nursing home hot
tub where billions of doped-up souls stare in a smiley bliss. Rather, let’s
consider Jesus’ resurrection: He could eat fish but walk through walls; He
shined with glory, but He had wounds. In fact, the four Catholic doctrinal
points of the resurrection is that your new body will be: 1) Glorified (like
Jesus at the Transfiguration), 2) Agile (not subject to gravity. I promise I’m
not making this up.), 3) Subtle (from the Latin, meaning the body will obey the
soul as the essential form of the body…meaning you won’t accidentally burp in
your new body.) and 4) Impassible (unable to suffer.) Does this all sound just
a little fantastic? CCC 996 says: “From the beginning, Christian faith in the
resurrection has met with incomprehension and opposition. On no point does the
Christian faith encounter more opposition than on the resurrection of the
body.” Wait. No other point met with more opposition? What about contraception
and same-sex marriage? You see, the resurrection of the body is the foundation
of all other Catholic morality since “we must all appear before the judgment
seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done
in the body, whether good or evil.”—2 Cor 5:10. Apparently, man’s notion of
once-saved always-saved doesn’t fool God. See CCC 988–1019.
10.
New Heavens
and a New Earth. First, this earth will
burn (2 Pt 3:10.) Then God will make a New Heavens and a New Earth (Is 65:17.)
Where else did you expect to use your new body? Notice that the physical
reality of eternity is already found in the Old Testament. For the Jews, the
“age to come” will not be any more nebulous than this age. But it will be an
era of peace. That era of the Messiah’s peace will permeate so deeply into
creation that even the lion will lie down with the calf. (Show off that Bible
trick at parties since 99% of you thought I should have written “lamb.” You’re
wrong! See Isaiah 11:6.) There’s a solid section on the New Heavens and the New
Earth in CCC 1042–1060. Finally, since I made fun of a goofy notion of heaven
in #5, I really should highlight all of Christian history’s most beautiful
description of heaven. It’s composed by the Holy Spirit through the Apostle
John. This description of heaven spans from Revelation 21 to 22 (the last two
chapters of the Bible) but here’s my favorite, the beginning of the end,
literally and eschatologically: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for
the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the
throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell
with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as
their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no
more.—Rev 21:1-4a
During this Christmas season let us take up the nature of God by
reflecting on these traits that make us a model for our children and our
sisters and brothers in Christ. Today reflect on:
Patience vs. Restlessness
Accepting a difficult situation from God without giving Him a deadline to remove it (Romans 5:3–4)
30
"Let the hearts of those who seek
the LORD rejoice." Although man can forget God or reject him, He never ceases
to call every man to seek him, so as to find life and happiness. But this
search for God demands of man every effort of intellect, a sound will, "an
upright heart", as well as the witness of others who teach him to seek
God.
You are great, O Lord, and greatly to
be praised: great is your power and your wisdom is without measure. And man, so
small a part of your creation, wants to praise you: this man, though clothed
with mortality and bearing the evidence of sin and the proof that you withstand
the proud. Despite everything, man, though but a small a part of your creation,
wants to praise you. You yourself encourage him to delight in your praise, for
you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.
2522 Modesty
protects the mystery of persons and their love. It encourages patience and
moderation in loving relationships; it requires that the conditions for the
definitive giving and commitment of man and woman to one another be fulfilled.
Modesty is decency. It inspires one's choice of clothing. It keeps silence or
reserve where there is evident risk of unhealthy curiosity. It is discreet.
2772 From
this unshakeable faith springs forth the hope that sustains each of the seven
petitions, which express the groanings of the present age, this time of
patience and expectation during which "it does not yet appear what we
shall be." The Eucharist and the Lord's Prayer look eagerly for the Lord's
return, "until he comes."
Daily Devotions
·
Novena
to the Holy Face Day 5
·
Please pray for me and this ministry
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