Liturgical Index
Feast of the Holy Family
Today's readings remind us just how unholy some families can be - even royal ones. We should not be surprised that King Herod massacred innocent... more »
Holy pictures of the Flight into Egypt have a certain charm about them. There is Mary, with Jesus in her arms, riding a camel that is led by... more »
At this time of the year when families move heaven and earth to be together for a few days, it's appropriate that the Church presents us with the... more »
In the Office of Readings for today's feast Pope Paul VI suggests that in meditating upon the Holy Familywe learn the method which will permit us to... more »
Among Catholics there has been a special and popular devotion to the Holy Family for centuries. Today it is found to be less convincing. The... more »
In the Summa Theologiae, St Thomas Aquinas works by first giving the arguments in favour of the position he rejects. He even gives arguments for... more »
Nothing beautiful is visible,said St Ignatius of Antioch in his Letter to the Romans, written around AD 100.He might well have had in mind the Holy... more »
Cycle: C - 30th December 2012: Holy Families
This Feast of the Holy Family can help us see that families can be holy. We must find all the help we can, to work out how they can be. We have this... more »
A Dominican novice once wrote home to his father, complaining of his many duties and the demands of the divine office, even rising in the early hours... more »
Cycle: C - 31st December 2006: Letting Go
At supper with friends, I asked where was their sixteen-year-old daughter. The mother replied, 'We do not know. She is with her friends, but we do... more »
"I don't belong to anyone."This could be a manifesto of the confidently tough-minded, of those who pride themselves on their independence and resist... more »
Is the Holy Family an impossible ideal? Does the family life of Jesus, Mary and Joseph even seem real? Sweet and overcoloured, the pictures of the... more »
