Category Archives: Family

St. Joseph: Model of Fatherhood

20 Sunday Jun 2021

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St. Joseph 5

Father’s Day is celebrated in the United States on the third Sunday of June. It is a day to celebrate fatherhood, paternal bonds, and the influence of fathers in society, especially in the foundation of society, the family.

The Church holds up St. Joseph as the model and exemplar of fatherhood. In Joseph’s marriage to Mary, God ushers in the sacrament of the New Covenant. St. John Paul II in his apostolic exhortation Redemptoris Custos (On the Person and Mission of Saint Joseph in the Life of Christ and of the Church), speaks of how God used Mary and Joseph to break the curse of original sin ushered in by Adam and Eve…

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Family Devotion to the Two Hearts

11 Friday Jun 2021

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Today, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and tomorrow, the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Friday, June 11 and Saturday, June 12, 2021). Devotion to both the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart is encouraged three times in the Fatima message.

First, in the spring of 1916, the Angel of Peace spoke these words to the three children of Fatima: “The Hearts of Jesus and Mary are attentive to the voice of your supplications.”

Again in the summer of 1916, the Angel says: “The Holy Hearts of Jesus and Mary have merciful designs for you.”

Finally, in the fall of 1916, the angel dictates a prayer to the children which in part says: “And I draw upon the infinite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary that You might convert poor sinners.”

In addition, on several occasions, Jesus told Sister Lucia that He desired adoration of both hearts.

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Solemnity of Corpus Christi – Marital Imagery in the Eucharist

06 Sunday Jun 2021

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Adoration

Today the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist – His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. Did you know that marriage is an image of the Holy Eucharist?

Since its earliest days, the Church has held up marriage as a profound image of God’s love for His people, brought to fruition in Christ’s love for His bride, the Church.

Pope Benedict XVI, in his book The Spirit of the Liturgy, describes how God’s covenant with His people Israel images the union of man and woman in marriage:

The election of Israel…appears as the love story of God and his people. The covenant is expounded through the analogy of betrothal and marriage, as the binding of God’s love to man and of man to God. Thus human love was able to serve as a profoundly real analogy of God’s action in Israel.[1]

He further describes how the Eucharist parallels the union of man and woman in marriage:

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Family: Mirror of the Holy Trinity

30 Sunday May 2021

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Today the Church celebrates the Feast of the Holy Trinity. Since A.D. 200, Christians have described God as the Holy Trinity or three persons in one. It is the central belief or doctrine of the Church and has been celebrated as the feast of the Holy Trinity since the ninth century.

Despite this longstanding doctrine or belief, the Trinity, according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church “is a mystery of faith in the strict sense, one of the ‘mysteries that are hidden in God, which can never be known unless they are revealed by God’” (237). So how can we better understand this mystery and live it out in our marriages and families?

The Holy Trinity is a divine community of life and love, the intimate community of three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God created us “in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gen 1:27). We were created in the image of God who lives and loves in intimate community.

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Sent on Mission by the Holy Spirit

23 Sunday May 2021

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Pentecost
Jean II Restout, c. 1732

Today the Church celebrates the Feast of Pentecost when Holy Spirit descends on Mary, the Apostles, and other disciples of Jesus, just as He promised before His Ascension.

So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samar′ia and to the end of the earth.” And when he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. Acts 1:6-9 (emphasis added)

Jesus’ promise of the Holy Spirit was not just for His Apostles and disciples in the Upper Room. He continues to pour out His Spirit upon us and His Church today. He is also sending us out on mission to preach the Gospel of His saving work on the cross. He has equipped us with the Holy Spirit who will guide us in all knowledge and truth; “the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things” (Jn 14:26).

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Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord

16 Sunday May 2021

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The Ascension__Benjamin West_c1801

The Ascension
Benjamin West, c.1801
Denver Art Museum

Depending on where you live in the United States, the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord occurs on the Thursday of the Sixth Week of Easter (40 days after Easter) or is transferred to the Seventh Sunday of Easter. This feast commemorates Jesus’ triumphant ascension into heaven. It is a foreshadowing of our own ascension to heaven.

“Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. John 14:1-3

This is our hope and our assurance. Jesus also promises to send us the Holy Spirit to lead us in all truth.

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Honoring the Loving Hearts of Women

09 Sunday May 2021

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Today in the United States is Mother’s Day, when we honor the matrons of our families.

Saint John Paul II in his Apostolic Letter Mulieris Dignitatem (On the Dignity and Vocation of Women), speaks beautifully of the irreplaceable role of women in their families and in the whole world.

The moral and spiritual strength of a woman is joined to her awareness that God entrusts the human being to her in a special way…

A woman is strong because of her awareness of this entrusting, strong because of the fact that God “entrusts the human being to her”, always and in every way, even in the situations of social discrimination in which she may find herself. This awareness and this fundamental vocation speak to women of the dignity which they receive from God himself, and this makes them “strong” and strengthens their vocation.

Thus the “perfect woman” (cf. Prov 31:10) becomes an irreplaceable support and source of spiritual strength for other people, who perceive the great energies of her spirit. These “perfect women” are owed much by their families, and sometimes by whole nations.[1]  (emphasis added)

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Flourish or Wither?

02 Sunday May 2021

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Garden

Plants, like all living organisms, have basic needs: a source of nutrition, water, air, favorable climate, and light. For most plants, these needs are summarized as light, air, water, and nutrients (known by the acronym LAWN). If a plant does not receive all of these, it will wither and die.

The spiritual life is a lot like growing a garden. To flourish and grow, we need LAWN. Jesus is the source of life.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:1-5 (emphasis added)

Jesus provides the light, air, water and nutrients we need to grow and produce fruit.

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Turn to Me

25 Sunday Apr 2021

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Adoration of the Golden Calf
Nicolas Poussin, c. 1634

In those days…every man did what was right in his own eyes. Judges 17:6

The book of Judges in the Old Testament could be called the “Book of What Not to Do.” Time and time again, God delivers His people Israel from bondage, oppression, and captivity. Time and time again, the Israelites quickly turn away from the one True God to worship foreign gods. Repeatedly during the Exodus from captivity in Egypt, God called them, “a stiff-necked people” (Ex 32:9).

Do not now be stiff-necked as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the Lord, and come to his sanctuary, which he has sanctified for ever, and serve the Lord your God, that his fierce anger may turn away from you. 2 Chronicles 30:8

When we read the Old Testament, we wonder how a people could be so unyielding toward the God who performed so many miracles of provision and protection for His chosen ones. But are we any better than they were? What gods do you worship in your life? Do you truly “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might” (Dt 6:5)?

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Importance of Godly Friendships in Marriage

18 Sunday Apr 2021

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Do you and your beloved have married friends who share your values and beliefs? Do you spend quality time with other couples who inspire and encourage you to deepen your marriage relationship?

Or do you spend time with friends who do not share your values and beliefs? Do they encourage you to spend time away from your beloved and your children? To give up when you experience difficulties?

Scripture cautions us to not seek the counsel of the ungodly:

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