Читать книгу Our Monthly Devotions - Albert A. Lings - Страница 42

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What a beautiful sight is the Holy Family dwelling on earth! God could not create anything more beautiful than this Holy Family; He reached the limit of possibilities in creation when He had accomplished this. It is indeed a great example to us, and a model which we ought to hold before our eyes during this month, in order that we may study the foundations of what a holy family ought to be; what a life that should be, where the holiest are bound together in ties of most affectionate friendship and relationship.

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 [pg 071] 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.

It is therefore a most useful practice of piety to become members of the sodality of the Holy Family; you will then place yourselves under its special protection, and choose Jesus, Mary, and Joseph for your particular advocates before God. Look upon the members of the Holy Family as the most perfect models for imitation, whose examples will teach you what to correct and what to avoid, what to do for your temporal and eternal welfare, and that of your families.

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