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Feast of the Holy Family 28 December 2008
This week in the parish
Sunday: Mass at 11am and 5.30pm. During the 11am Mass Harry and Paul Ngambet will be initiated into the life of the church.
Blyth’s Sunday café, join us in the hall after mass for mass for hot buttered toast, sweet treats and fair-trade refreshments.
J Team Family Christmas Party – open to all parishioners. Tickets on sale now £3 adults, £2 children, £10 family. Details from Susan or text on 07922166596.
Monday: Service of Word and Communion at 10am.
No J team mega session tonight.
SSVP meeting 7:30pm. ll children in P1 to P5. £1:00 name, I am there with them.St Jude’s Losers in the sacristy 7pm.
Tuesday: Mass at 10am in Burnmouth Court. No Bingo.
Wednesday: Mass at 10am. Mass to bring in the New Year 11.30pm. Refreshments in the hall afterwards afterwards.
Thursday: Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. Mass at 10am.
Friday: Mass at 12 noon. (NB the changed time.)
Saturday: Mass at 10am. Vigil at 6pm. J Team outing to see Cinderella panto at the Kings, bus leaves church 1pm for 2 pm performance.
Next Sunday: Mass at 11.00am and 5.30pm. Flo & Margaret at the Sunday café, join us in the hall after 11am mass.
All tickets for Buddy show to be paid by today, still some tickets available see Lynn Gallagher.
J Team children’s club is taking a break over the Christmas season, we will be back with our mega session on Monday 12 January at 5.30, we would like to thank everyone for their continued support and wish you all a Happy and Holy Christmas.
Sick: Betty McSherry, Sally McClafferty, Gerald Deighan, Andy & Jenny Connolly, Roseann Murphy, Helen Marie McGlone, Robert Warnock, John Wright, Jennifer Maher, Jonathon Friel, Robert McManus
RIP: Margaret Stewart, Thomas Strain
Anniversaries: John Shivers, Barry Crossan, Anna Heany, Mary Green, Edward Lannigan, Hannah Commisky, John O’Halloran, Anne Manning, Hugh McCall
Vincentian Reflection December 28—Holy Family: Today is the feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. We hear the words: The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favour of God was upon him.” As we remember the poor during this New Year may we also grow in wisdom and have the favour of God upon us. Please remember to support the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in the coming year so that together we can continue to bring comfort and peace to our brothers and sisters who are suffering.
Every Blessing for the year of the Lord 2009.
Zooming in on Joseph. Biblical Reflection for the Feast of Holy Family
In the afterglow of Christmas, the Church celebrates the feast of the Holy Family. This weekend we are invited to reflect on the gift and mystery of life and the blessing of family life in particular.
In Luke's Gospel scene of the Presentation of the Child Jesus in the Temple in Jerusalem, we encounter four individuals who embrace the new life of Jesus held in their arms: the elderly and faithful Simeon, the old, wise prophetess Anna, and the young couple, Mary and Joseph, who in faithful obedience offer their child to the Lord. Simeon’s beautiful prayer is nothing more than an anthology of the prayer of ancient Israel:
“Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel” (Luke 2:29-32).
The whole scene of the Presentation, and the carefully chosen words of Simeon's prayer raise several questions for us: How do I see God's glory in my life? Do I thirst for justice and peace? What are the new situations and who are the new people who have entered my life in the last little while? How am I light and salvation for other people?
Today I would like to borrow from my new profession of television production and zoom in on Joseph, one of the characters found in this most touching Gospel scene of the Presentation. To “zoom” in on the foster father of the Lord gives us some profound insights into the family background of our Saviour.
Joseph is often overshadowed by the glory of Christ and the purity of Mary. But he, too, waited for God to speak to him and then responded with obedience. Luke and Matthew both mark Joseph’s descent from David, the greatest king of Israel (Matthew 1:1-16 and Luke 3:23-38). Scripture has left us with the most important knowledge about him: he was "a righteous man" (Matthew 1:18).
Joseph was a compassionate, caring man. When he discovered Mary was pregnant after they had been engaged, he knew the child was not his but was as yet unaware that she was carrying the Son of God. He planned to divorce Mary according to the law but he was concerned for her suffering and safety. Joseph was also a man of faith, obedient to whatever God asked of him without knowing the outcome. When the angel came to Joseph in a dream and told him the truth about the child Mary was carrying, Joseph immediately and without question or concern for gossip, took Mary as his wife. When the angel came again to tell him that hi s family was in danger, he immediately left everything he owned, all his family and friends, and fled to a strange country with his young wife and the baby. He waited in Egypt until the angel told him it was safe to go back (Matthew 2:13-23).
We are told that Joseph was a carpenter, (more likely a builder), a man who worked to provide for his family. Joseph wasn't a wealthy man, for when he took Jesus to the Temple to be circumcised and Mary to be purified he offered the sacrifice of two turtledoves or a pair of pigeons, allowed only for those who could not afford a lamb.
Joseph revealed in his humanity the unique role of fathers to proclaim God's truth by word and deed. His paradoxical situation of "foster father to Jesus" draws attention to the truth about fatherhood, which is more than a mere fact of biological generation. A man is a father most when he invests himself in the spiritual and moral formation of his children. He was keenly aware , as every father should be, that he served as the representative of God the Father.
Joseph protected and provided for Jesus and Mary. He named Jesus, taught him how to pray, how to work, how to be a man. While no words or texts are attributed to him, we can be sure that Joseph pronounced two of the most important words that could ever be spoken when he named his son "Jesus" and called him "Emmanuel." When the child stayed behind in the Temple we are told Joseph (along with Mary) searched with great anxiety for three days for him (Luke 2:48).
Joseph’s life reminds us that a home or community is not built on power and possessions but goodness; not on riches and wealth, but on faith, fidelity, purity and mutual love.
The present challenges to fatherhood and masculinity cannot be understood in isolation from the culture in which we live. The effect of fatherlessness on children is deeply alarming. How many young people toda y have been affected by the crisis of fatherhood and paternity! How many have been deprived of a father or grandfather in their life?
It is not for naught that St. Joseph is patron of the Universal Church and principal patron of Canada. If there was ever a time when we needed a strong, saintly male role model who is a father, it is our time. And the feast of the Holy Family is a very significant day to go to Joseph and beg him to send us good fathers who will head families.
Joseph and Mary, more than anyone else, were the first to behold the glory of their One and Only who came from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). May St. Joseph make of us good priests, religious and laymen who will imitate the humble worker from Nazareth, who listened to the Lord, treasured a gift that was not his, all the while modeling to Jesus how the Word becomes flesh and lives among us.
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