Our Holy Father Leo XIII. has seen the great importance of the Christian
family: the family established by the laws of the Church and the country,
where marriages are legalized and solemnized; where continence and modesty
reign; where children, under kind and parental subjection, are brought up
to be good men and women, good for religion and for society. When poverty
strikes such a family there is patience and forbearance shown; when
sickness and death come, there is resignation to the will of God. In the
Christian home there is surpassing peace, and not that crazy restlessness
that looks for satisfaction in grasping at possessions, never satisfied
day nor night.
I do not think that this devotion has been appointed for this month by any
authority, except the idea that after having adored the divine infancy
during the month of January, the devotion to the Holy Family may follow as
a natural sequence. Should any one desire to make this devotion during
another month, it would certainly not be out of the way, for save only in
a few cases has a certain devotion been assigned to a particular time. The
devotion to the Holy Family is a beautiful and instructive one; the
Christian family should be built on this great model. The Holy Family
consisted of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph; the father, Mother, and Child. All
other families are made up of the same constituents.
Those who are actually in a family, or who intend to choose that mode of
life by which they may get to heaven, will love this devotion and find
instruction and consolation in it.
One of the greatest works of God in this world is the Holy Family at
Bethlehem and Nazareth. He sent down upon the earth His only Son, Jesus
Christ; prepared a most holy Mother for Him, Mary immaculate, and selected
for Him a foster‐father and a protector. He held them together in the most
tender family ties of father, Mother, and Child. He kept them in that
relation until St. Joseph died a blessed death, and the Lord Jesus went
forth on His sacred mission of teaching and redeeming mankind.
What a beautiful sight to us poor human beings! what a glory to God was
that Holy Family, dwelling in the humble abode of Nazareth! We find here
the model on which we shall reflect for this month of February. We will
consecrate this month to praising God with the members of the Holy Family;
we will study the ways by which they were so pleasing to God, and we will
draw from these considerations many valuable lessons for our own conduct.
Our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIII., with an ever‐watchful eye to the
necessities of our time, has seen the importance of a devotion to the Holy
Family, and has recommended it to the faithful, and with his own authority
established a sodality of the Holy Family; he has invested it with many
indulgences in order to encourage the faithful in taking the Holy Family
as their model. Here is, then, a practical way to teach ourselves the way
of salvation by the example of others.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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