December 29, 2024

Solemnity of the holy Family

by Fr. Boniface Endorf, OP

Dear St. Joseph Parish Family,

Merry Christmas! We’re still in the Octave of Christmas because the feast of Christmas is celebrated for eight days, making it one long celebration! Today we celebrate the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Our salvation comes through a domestic setting—just as God created humanity in Adam and Eve, a family, so He enters our world at Christmas through a family. Families therefore play a central role in God’s plan. It’s through love of family that we first learn to love and be loved. Families are meant to be mirrors of God’s love for us. Of course since the fall of Adam and Eve families often fail to live up to that high calling, but, through Christ’s grace, our lives and our families are healed and raised to greater love than would otherwise be possible. Christian families thus became a central way through which the Faith spread: people saw the love of Christian families and the witness they gave to God’s love in the world and wanted to share in that divine love. Let us pray that the love within our families may continue to be a witness to the divine love present today.

The Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God is Wednesday, January 1st. It’s a Holy Day of Obligation; therefore, we’ll have the vigil Mass at 7pm Tuesday night, the 12:10pm daily mass on the 1st, and a 7pm Mass the night of the 1st.

The Epiphany of the Lord is next Sunday, January 5th. We’ll again have the special blessing of Epiphany water at 5pm, before the 5:30pm Saturday Vigil Mass. We’ll give out the blessed Epiphany chalk at all the masses so that you can bless your homes with it.

God Bless,
Fr. Boniface