FILIPINO TRADITIONAL ROMAN CATHOLIC: Lesson on this Feast of the Holy Family

This Sunday is the Feast of the Holy Family. The gospel reading for this Sunday narrates how Mary and Joseph lost Jesus in the milieu. Upon finding Jesus conversing with the doctors of the Temple, Mary told Jesus how she and his father had been sorrowing looking for him. Jesus replied that it was his mission to be at His Father's House. Nobody understood all these words but Mary kept all these things in her heart. Many times, Our Lord works in marvelous ways to confound the pride of humankind. In the story of the nativity we saw how our Lord announced the birth of his Son not by an imperial edict and not to the mighty but to the shepherds. We know that in Jesus' time shepherds were despised and marginalized. But it is to them that the proclamation of God's favor was first made known. Here was the mighty Roman Empire conducting a census of its realms. But in the midst of night silently and quietly Jesus was born in a stable.

The Holy Family's Flight into Egypt

Today, I consider this celebration of the feast of the Holy Family significant because the church militant is confronted with life issues. There are laws and policies that promotes abortion and materialism as a central value of family life. Worldly people think that happiness can be measured by material things. To limit the number of children for the purpose that both husband and wife would have the chance to enjoy life. That unwanted children are better disposed of rather than given life. Where are now the values of self sacrifice? Ought not parents sacrifice for their children? I am grateful that I have parents who work so hard to provide us education and nurture us. Our parents never thought of their own personal convenience but totally gave their lives for us so that we may have a better future. As Christians we should stand for all these values. Materialism has destroyed our values. Human life is no lionger given its proper value. Let us pray for our Bishops who are courageously standing up for the truth. Let us pray for the misguided Catholic Politicians who are making a mockery of their faith in the public square. Remember that our faith is not something to be put under the closet. It is like a candle. we place it on top of the table so that everyone may be lighted.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph enfold us in your love, amen.

The blogger is

A 13 years old boy............. in 1983, but now I am a golden boy, gaining weight and wiser, but younger at heart. I consider myself as a “novus ordo baby” because I was born in the late 60s after the 2nd Vatican Council introduced the novus ordo missae and grew up confronted by the confusions as a result. Like my generation I never saw what the church was like prior to Vatican II, but I am a living witness to the gradual disappearance of religious traditions we hold dear. Young as I was then I could not understand what was going on. But I suffered the sense of loss as I saw how the modernizing influence in the church disfigured the liturgy and clouded the way we believe and practice our faith. But then being a child, powerless, not knowing what it was, and why it happened, I simply drifted into the sea of confusion, too young to understand. With a glimmer of faith in my heart, planted by baptism and confirmation, strengthened by the sound teachings of my parents and grandparents, I sailed into the sea of life, day after day, seeing the changes happen, feeling the sense of abandonment, yet God was merciful to me. In 2005 I discovered the Traditional Latin Mass or commonly known in the post-conciliar period as the Tridentine Mass. I began to love the rite of mass that has nourished my ancestors, the saints and the martyrs. I am eternally grateful to His Holiness Pope John Paul II for recognizing the rightful aspirations of Catholics attached to the ancient forms of the Roman Rite through his apostolic letter ECCLESIA DEI DI AFFLICTA. I am also eternally grateful to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI for liberating the Traditional Latin Mass through his apostolic letter Summorum Pontificum. I fully agree with the program of his pontificate regarding the Hermeneutics of Continuity and disdain the hermeneutics of rupture. Today I consider myself a Traditional Roman Catholic attached to the liturgical discipline of 1962 as outlined in the Motu Proprio SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM of his Holiness. I believe that there is only one Roman Rite, the Ordinary and the Extraordinary and that the Mass in whatever form should be celebrated with dignity. My voyage is on. Join me in this quest.

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FILIPINO TRADITIONAL ROMAN CATHOLIC

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Lesson on this Feast of the Holy Family

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