Saint of the Day: Holy Family

The meaning of the celebration 

+ While devotion to the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph dates back several centuries, the Feast of the Holy Family was instituted by Pope Leo XIII in 1893. 

+ Originally celebrated on the Sunday within the Octave of the Epiphany, it is generally celebrated on the Sunday within the Octave of Christmas (or on December 30, if there is no Sunday). 

+ While this feast invites us to continue our reflection on the Mystery of Christmas, it also highlights how the Holy Family of Nazareth is a model for all Christian families. 

For prayer and reflection

“May Nazareth serve as a model of what the family should be. May it show us the family’s holy and enduring character and exemplify its basic function in society: a community of love and sharing, beautiful for the problems it poses and the rewards it brings, in sum, the perfect setting for rearing children – and for this there is no substitute.”—Pope Saint Paul VI 

Spiritual bonus

On this day we also remember Blessed José Perpiñá Nácher. A married layman who had served as a ship’s telegrapher before studying law, he worked as an attorney on behalf of the poor and, later, as a journalist. A catechist, member of Catholic Action, and a man dedicated to the Eucharist, he was martyred on December 29, 1936, in Picadero de Paterna, Spain, during the anti-Catholic persecutions of the Spanish Revolution. Blessed José was beatified with other martyrs in 2001. 

Prayer

O God, who were pleased to give us
the shining example of the Holy Family,
graciously grant that we may imitate them
in practicing the virtues of family life and in the bonds of charity,
and so, in the joy of your house,
delight one day in eternal rewards.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.

(from The Roman Missal)
Saint profiles prepared by Father Silas Henderson, S.D.S.