Ways to celebrate the Holy Family in your own family

Image courtesy Fr Lawrence Lew OP.

Source: Diocese of East Anglia

On Sunday December 29, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Holy Family; Jesus, Mary and Joseph living together an ordinary life, says Antonia Braithwaite in her latest Faith in the Home series.

We are invited by this feast to contemplate the mystery of this family and remember that they, like us, also had their share of struggles, toils, hurt and challenges, as well as joys and love in being together.

Whatever their circumstances they were always a living icon of faith, hope and love. Everything that happened they accepted as being from the hand of God, and they acted and reacted to their life events with love and with the eyes of faith and trust. It is significant that God the Father allowed His Divine Son to be born and brought up in a family. In doing this He elevated family life, and revealed to us that every family is invited to encounter the ups and down of ordinary life together with the Holy Family who understand what we are going through.

The Vatican has provided a few suggestions for how families can celebrate this feast day:

- The family could attend Mass together

- In prayer, every member of their family could be consecrated to the loving patronage of the Holy Family

- The parish priest could be asked to pray the Blessing of Children (as provided in the Roman Ritual Book of Blessings) over the children of the family

- Either arranging a formal ceremony or informally just in front of their family, husbands and wives could renew their marriage vows with these words:

We pledge ourselves anew to love and honour each other
for better, for worse,
for richer, for poorer,
in sickness and in health
to love and to cherish
till death us do part.
We pledge ourselves anew to love and support our children and to share with them all we value.

Additionally, there are many images available of the Holy Family and every home should have one image displayed. If we don't have one, we could look to purchase one as a Christmas gift to our family this year. Then, as we go about our daily tasks and we catch a glimpse of the Holy Family it serves as a reminder to entrust the struggles of our own family life to their assistance, and to model our lives on theirs.