Free Republic

The 'Jesus was a refugee' trope is tired and inaccurate. It's time for leftist politicians to stop exploiting Christmas by making false arguments about history.To profane a holy day, politicize it. Politicians’ profanity du jour is to exploit Christmas by making false arguments about immigration policy. Yet their rhetoric unintentionally supports the opposite points from what these politicians intend. Consider Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana. On Christmas day, he said, “[D]ivinity on earth … came into this world not in riches but in poverty, not as a citizen but as a refugee.” Today I join millions around the...

Matt. 2:13-18 Joseph is warned by an angel in a dream to take Jesus and Mary to Egypt to escape King Herod’s wrath (see 3 on Map 4). They escape by night, just before Herod orders the murder of all baby boys born in and around Bethlehem during the last two years. The ‘massacre of the innocents’ was typical of Herod’s extreme behaviour recorded independently by the Jewish historian Josephus. Herod was intensely jealous and chronically insecure. He had suffered a severe breakdown in 29BC after he murdered his wife Mariamne and his brother-in-law Joseph after falsely accusing them of...

Posted on December 28, 2019December 28, 2019 by Msgr. Charles Pope Biblical Teaching on Marriage and Family – A Homily for the Feast of the Holy Family It is not difficult to demonstrate that most of our modern problems center around struggles and misunderstandings regarding marriage, sexuality, and the family. Collectively as a nation and the culture, we have departed significantly from the teachings of God and common sense, when it comes to our thinking and behavior regarding these three fundamental pillars.Today’s Feast of the Holy Family presents us an opportunity to reflect, and provides a rich tapestry of...

December 29 2019 The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph Reading 1 Sir 3:2-6, 12-14 God sets a father in honor over his children;a mother's authority he confirms over her sons.Whoever honors his father atones for sins,and preserves himself from them.When he prays, he is heard;he stores up riches who reveres his mother.Whoever honors his father is gladdened by children,and, when he prays, is heard.Whoever reveres his father will live a long life;he who obeys his father brings comfort to his mother. My son, take care of your father when he is old;grieve him not as long as...

A Homily for the Feast of the Holy Family Msgr. Charles Pope • December 29, 2018 • Christ Among the Doctors of the Temple, by Giotto (1304-06)Here in the middle of the Christmas Octave, the Church bids us to celebrate the feast of the Holy Family. On the old calendar, the feast of the Holy Family falls on the Sunday after Epiphany, which makes some sense. It is a bit odd to read, a mere five days after celebrating Jesus’ birth, a Gospel in which He is 12 years old. And then, next week, we have the Feast of...

What is a Holy Family? A Homily for the Feast of the Holy Family Msgr. Charles Pope • December 30, 2017 • Here in the Christmas Octave, the Church bids us to celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family. On the old calendar, it falls later (the Sunday after Epiphany), which makes a little more sense as the Gospels appointed for the feast often take place far forward in time from His birth. The Gospel this year is only forty days into the future (as compared to other years, when the gospel takes place twelve years into the future),...

December 31, 2017 The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph Reading 1 Sir 3:2-6, 12-14 God sets a father in honor over his children;a mother's authority he confirms over her sons.Whoever honors his father atones for sins,and preserves himself from them.When he prays, he is heard;he stores up riches who reveres his mother.Whoever honors his father is gladdened by children,and, when he prays, is heard.Whoever reveres his father will live a long life;he who obeys his father brings comfort to his mother. My son, take care of your father when he is old;grieve him not as long as...

December 30, 2016 The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph When a Sunday does not occur between December 25 and January 1, this feast is celebrated on December 30 with only one reading before the Gospel. Reading 1 Sir 3:2-6, 12-14 God sets a father in honor over his children;a mother’s authority he confirms over her sons.Whoever honors his father atones for sins,and preserves himself from them.When he prays, he is heard;he stores up riches who reveres his mother.Whoever honors his father is gladdened by children,and, when he prays, is heard.Whoever reveres his father will live a long...

St. Joseph Teaches Us How to Live Out AdventFr. Ed Broom, OMV Saint Joseph can help us to live a most fruitful Advent, and for many reasons. Let us quietly meditate upon five extraordinary virtues of this greatest of all saints so that we can live a most fervent Advent season and allow Jesus to be born in the depths of our hearts this Christmas!1. Silence. Not once in the Bible do we hear a word from the great Saint Joseph. This silence of Saint Joseph is very eloquent. It teaches us a fundamental attitude to enter into deep prayer:...

God's Plan for Marriage and Family - A Homily for the Feast of the Holy Family Msgr. Charles Pope December 26, 2015 Here in the middle of the Christmas Octave, the Church bids us to celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family. On the old calendar, the feast of the Holy Family fell on the Sunday after Epiphany, which makes some sense. For it is a bit odd with the new calendar to read a gospel portraying Jesus at twelve years of age when we celebrated His birth just a few days ago. And then next week, on the Feast...

Focused on a Functional Family: A Homily for the Feast of the Holy Family By: Msgr. Charles PopeHere in the middle of the Christmas Octave, the Church bids us to celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family. On the old calendar, the Feast of the Holy Family falls on the Sunday after Epiphany, which makes a little more sense since the gospels appointed for the feast often take us far forward in time mere days after He is born. The gospel this year is only forty days into the future  (unlike other years when the gospel takes us twelve years into the...

December 28, 2014The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph    Reading 1 Sir 3:2-6, 12-14 God sets a father in honor over his children;a mother’s authority he confirms over her sons.Whoever honors his father atones for sins,and preserves himself from them.When he prays, he is heard;he stores up riches who reveres his mother.Whoever honors his father is gladdened by children,and, when he prays, is heard.Whoever reveres his father will live a long life;he who obeys his father brings comfort to his mother. My son, take care of your father when he is old;grieve him not as long as...

It is not difficult to demonstrate that most of our modern problems center around struggles and misunderstandings regarding marriage, sexuality, and the family. Collectively as a nation and the culture, we have departed significantly from the teachings of God and common sense, when it comes to our thinking and behavior regarding these three fundamental pillars.Today’s Feast of the Holy Family presents us an opportunity to reflect, and provides a rich tapestry of Scriptures. Many of these teachings are not “politically correct,” but for that, no apology should be made. They remain God’s teachings and it is hard to argue that...

Imitating the Holy Family Four Traits that Make It Possible Like many parents, every day my wife and I face real and challenging issues in our family. We have two teenage sons and three younger children. Like many families, our children fight and bicker.Sometimes they are loving and kind, but at other times they are disrespectful. Sometimes they resist doing chores and homework.In addition to these very common problems with our children, my wife and I have to balance work and family life, make educational decisions for our kids, track our finances, and work through marital disagreements. This is...

December 30, 2012 Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph   Reading 1 Sir 3:2-6, 12-14 God sets a father in honor over his children;a mother's authority he confirms over her sons.Whoever honors his father atones for sins,and preserves himself from them.When he prays, he is heard;he stores up riches who reveres his mother.Whoever honors his father is gladdened by children,and, when he prays, is heard.Whoever reveres his father will live a long life;he who obeys his father brings comfort to his mother. My son, take care of your father when he is old;grieve him not as...

On Prayer in the Life of the Holy Family Dear Brothers and Sisters, Our continuing catechesis on prayer leads us, during this Christmas season, to reflect on the place of prayer in the life of the Holy Family of Nazareth. In the home of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, we learn to contemplate the mystery of God’s presence and to grow as faithful disciples of Christ. The Gospels present Mary as the supreme model of prayerful medition on the mysteries of Christ’s life; in praying the Rosary, in fact, we unite ourselves to her contemplation of those mysteries in faith and...

December 30, 2011 Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph   Reading 1 Gn 15:1-6; 21:1-3 The word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying:"Fear not, Abram!"I am your shield;I will make your reward very great."But Abram said,"O Lord GOD, what good will your gifts be,if I keep on being childlessand have as my heir the steward of my house, Eliezer?"Abram continued,"See, you have given me no offspring,and so one of my servants will be my heir." Then the word of the LORD came to him:"No, that one shall not be your heir;your...

Joseph, Mary and Jesus: A Model Familyby Fr. Rufus Pereira Introduction:The Feast of St. Joseph the Worker, on 1st May, should take us back to the double Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, on 25th March, (4th April this year), and of his Birth, on 25th December, that commemorates and celebrates the greatest event that ever took place of the Almighty God's intervention in weak humankind: the Nativity, and the greatest mystery that ever was of the Holy God's love for sinful man: the Incarnation (Jn 1:14, 3:16). But a re-reading of the two Infancy Narratives (Mt 1 &...

Painting of the Holy Family from an exhibit of art in the Cusco School style in the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, DC, August 2008. [The following is excerpted from the book "The Divine Favors Granted to St. Joseph," by Pere Binet, S.J., reprinted by TAN Books, pgs. 59-60, 86-87.] "Let us consider...how, as father and spouse, this incomparable Saint [Joseph] has a right to be honoured by Jesus and Mary, since it is a precept, both natural and divine, that every son must honour his father, every wife her husband. Here Gerson expresses a sweet and loving thought;...

    Feast of the Holy Family   SUNDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF THE EPIPHANY  [January 6]FEAST OF THE HOLY FAMILY December 30 [New Calendar] THIS Sunday has been chosen by the Church for the celebration of the Feast of the Holy Family; the liturgy of the day, as expressed in the Gospel, harmonizes well with the mystery of the new Feast, for it already carries us forward to the childhood of our Emmanuel and gives us those wonderful words which, after the example of his Blessed Mother, we must ever ponder within our hearts: 'And he went down...