We recall the Birth of Jesus Christ, God made man. This is a masterpiece of love!
God descends from Heaven to the earth, to save His poor creatures. Yes,
He came from Heaven; He became man, embracing the humble existence of
His creation! He, who is eternal God as the Father, equal to the Father
in power, wisdom, and love! Born as a man, but is eternal as God!
He came into the world and was made man and was manifested as Light, Light that shines in the darkness: Present among us today as then,
but now his humanity is veiled; is present in His Word and by His
Works, in the Eucharist and in the Sacraments, the Church and in the person of each of our brothers and sisters. For those who follow Christ, find in Him the Light and Life.
This is how the Birth of Jesus Christ took place:«Joseph,
leaving the city of Nazareth, in Galilee, went to Judea, to the city of
David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and
lineage of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his wife, who was with
child. And, while they were there, she gave birth to her first-born and
wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there
was no room for them in the inn.
In
the same region, there were shepherds (...) The Angel of the Lord
appeared to them and said to them: “Be not afraid; for behold, I bring
you good news of a great joy which will come to all people; this day, in the city of David, a Savior was born for you, who is Christ the Lord”» (Lk 2, 4-12).
St. Luke then refers to the
shepherds, who saw and heard what was said to them and they believed and
praised God. In the same way, we should also revive our faith in the
revelation which God gives us here; we must believe and say: «My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love You. I ask pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love You».
And, like Our Lady, we must keep all these truths in our hearts, with faith, hope and love.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph
to you, Holy Family of Nazareth,
today we turn our gaze
with admiration and confidence;
in you we contemplate
the beauty of communion in true love;
to you we commend our families,
so that in them marvels of grace be renewed.
Holy Family of Nazareth,
alluring school of the Gospel:
teach us to imitate your virtues
with a wise spiritual discipline,
grant us a clear vision
that recognizes the work of Providence
in the daily realities of life.
Holy Family of Nazareth,
faithful custodian of the mystery of salvation:
help us to regain an appreciation for silence,
make our families cenacles of prayer
and transform them into little domestic Churches,
renew the desire for sanctity,
sustain the noble toil of work, of education,
of listening, of mutual understanding and of forgiveness.
Holy Family of Nazareth,
reawaken in our society the consciousness
of the sacred and inviolable character of the family,
an inestimable and irreplaceable good.
May every family be a place where goodness and peace are welcomed for children
and for the elderly,
for those who are sick and alone,
for those who are poor and needy.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
we pray to you with confidence, we entrust ourselves to you with joy.
St. Luke 1:27 The Virgin was betrothed to a man named Joseph,
of the House of David.
Pope Benedict XVI,Vatican
Gardens, 5 July 2010: The espousals between Joseph and Mary are an episode of great
importance. Joseph was of the royal line of David and, in virtue of his marriage
to Mary, would confer on the Son of the Virgin - on God's Son - the legal tile
of "Son of David," thus fulfilling the prophecies. The espousals of
Joseph and Mary are, because of this, a human event, but determinant in the
history of humanity's salvation, in the realization of the promises of God;
because of this, it also has a supernatural connotation, which the two
protagonists accept with humility and trust.
Venerable Maria de Agreda: The Most High spoke to the heart of the high
priest, inspiring him to place into the hands of each one of the young men a
dry stick, with the command that each ask his Majesty with a lively faith, to
single out the one whom He had chosen as the spouse of Mary. While they were
thus engaged in prayer the staff which Joseph held was seen to blossom and at
the same time a dove of purest white and resplendent with admirable light, was
seen to descend and rest upon the head of the saint... And the priest espoused
Mary to the most chaste and holy of men, Saint Joseph.
St Josemaria Escriva: You don't have to wait to be old or lifeless to practice the
virtue of chastity. Purity comes from love; and the strength and gaiety of
youth is no obstacle for noble love. Joseph had a young heart and a young body
when he married Mary, when he learned of the mystery of her divine motherhood,
when he lived in her company, respecting the integrity God wished to give the
world as one more sign that he had come to share the life of his creatures.
Anyone who cannot understand a love like that knows very little of true love
and is a complete stranger to the Christian meaning of chastity.
St Albert the Great:Here is the name of Joseph which deserves the
homage of virtue, because Mary was espoused to the just Joseph, but not united
to him in concupiscence.Reflect on the
vow of virginity of both these spouses, for it is stated that the angel was
sent by God to a virgin espoused to a man named Joseph.And this is said because she was found to be
with child before they were united.Since therefore she had been espoused before this was revealed to her
that is since she had been entrusted to his care, up to the time when, because
of her physical condition, she was found to be with child, this union would not
have continued unless, by mutual consent, they had already made a vow of
virginity.
St. Francis de Sales:How exalted in the virtue of virginity must
Joseph have been who was destined by the Eternal Father to be the companion in
virginity of Mary! Both had made a vow to preserve virginity for their entire
lives, and it was the Will of God to join them in the bond of a holy marriage.
Pope Benedict XVI,Yaoundé,
Cameroon, 18 March 2009: Joseph teaches us that it is possible to love
without possessing. In contemplating Joseph, all men and women can, by God’s
grace, come to experience healing from their emotional wounds, if only they
embrace the plan that God has begun to bring about in those close to him, just
as Joseph entered into the work of redemption through Mary and as a result of
what God had already done in her.
St. Bernardino of Siena: St
Joseph was the living image of his Virgin Spouse; they resembled each other
like two pearls.
Pope St. John Paul II, Redemptoris
Custos: In the Liturgy, Mary is celebrated as "united to Joseph, the
just man, by a bond of marital and virginal love." There are really two
kinds of love here, both of which together represent the mystery of the Church
-virgin and spouse - as symbolized in the marriage of Mary and Joseph.
“Virginity or celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom of God not only does not
contradict the dignity of marriage but presupposes and confirms it. Marriage
and virginity are two ways of expressing and living the one mystery of the
Covenant of God with his people,” the Covenant which is a communion of love
between God and human beings.
St. Jerome:That God was born of a virgin we believe because
we read it.That Mary consummated
marriage after her childbirth we do not believe because we do not read it.Nor do we say this in order to condemn
marriage, for virginity is itself a fruit of marriage, but because there is no
license to draw rash conclusions about holy men.For if we wish to take the mere possibility
into consideration, we can contend that Joseph had several wives because
Abraham and Jacob had several wives and that from these wives, the ‘brethren of
the Lord’ were born, a fiction which most people invent with not so much pious
as presumptuous audacity.You say that
Mary did not remain a virgin; even more do I claim that Joseph was virginal
through Mary, in order that from a virginal marriage a virginal son might be
born.For if the charge of fornication
does not fall on this holy man, and if it is not written that he had another
wife, and if he was more of a protector than a husband of Mary, whom he was
thought to have as his wife, it remains to assert that he who merited to be
called the father of the Lord remained virginal with her.
Pope Leo XIII,Quamquam Pluries: There are special reasons why Blessed
Joseph should be explicitly named Patron of the Church and why the Church
should in turn expect much from his patronage and guardianship. For he,
indeed, was the husband of Mary and the father, as was supposed, of Jesus
Christ. From this arises all his dignity, grace, holiness, and
glory. The dignity of the Mother of God is certainly so sublime that
nothing can surpass it; but none the less, since the bond of marriage existed
between Joseph and the Blessed Virgin, there can be no doubt that, more than
any other person, he approached that supereminent dignity by which the Mother
of God is raised far above all created natures. For marriage is the
closest possible union and relationship whereby each spouse mutually
participates in the goods of the other. Consequently, if God gave Joseph
as a spouse to the Virgin he assuredly gave him not only as a companion in
life, a witness of her virginity, and the guardian of her honor, but also as a
sharer in her exalted dignity by reason of the conjugal tie itself.
