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16th Sunday of the year

July 18th, 2010

“What I want is mercy, not sacrifice …The Son of Man is master of the Sabbath.”
Mt 12:8

Jesus is trying to open the eyes of the Pharisee, who adhere to the letter of the Law, ‘Remember to keep holy the Sabbath Day,’ (Ex 20:8) without any thought or depth of meaning. The Pharisees kept to the letter of the Law Moses had received from God, seeing holiness merely as the number of prayers said or being present at worship in the synagogue. It did not matter to them that someone through sickness, infirmity or about to lose their livelihood due to natural catastrphes, should need help at a particular time. Ignoring the urgent plight of others in preference to presence in the synagogue, is condemned by St. James in his letter: ‘Faith without good works is useless.’

Prayer


Pray Lord, you healed the sick and the lame on the Sabbath, but you now have no body on earth but mine. Mine are the hands with which you bless others in their need. Use me Lord to come to the aid of those who suffer in any way.

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The prayer for each day has been prepared by various members of the Holy Family Association. All who visit our website are remembered in prayer. If you would like us to pray for a particular need, simply complete and submit the form on the right hand side of this page. You may wish to leave a comment in the space below.

Just a Thought

How the Holy Family prayer: A Reflection by Pope Benedict XVI

“I would like to invite you to reflect on the place of prayer in the life of the Holy Family of Nazareth. The home of Nazareth, in fact, is a school of prayer where we learn to listen, to ponder and to penetrate the profound meaning of the manifestation of the Son of God, drawing our example from Mary, Joseph and Jesus.

Pope Paul VI during his visit to Nazareth said “we come to understand the need for a spiritual discipline, if we wish to follow the teaching of the Gospel and become disciples of Christ.” And he added: “First, it teaches us silence. Oh! That there would be reborn in us the esteem for silence, that wonderful and indispensable atmosphere of the spirit: while we are deafened by so many noises, sounds and clamorous voices in the frantic and tumultuous times of modern life. Oh! Silence of Nazareth, teach us to be resolute in good thoughts, intent upon the interior life, ready to listen well to the secret inspirations of God and the exhortations of the true masters.”

We can glean several insights on the Holy Family’s prayer and relationship with God from the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ childhood. We may begin with the Presentation of Jesus in the temple. St. Luke tells us that Mary and Joseph, “when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, brought the child up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord”(2:22). Like every observant Jewish family, Jesus’ parents go up to the temple to consecrate the firstborn son to God and to offer sacrifice. Moved by fidelity to the law’s prescriptions, they set off from Bethlehem and go up to Jerusalem with Jesus, who is now forty days old. Instead of a one-year-old lamb, they present the offering of simple families; that is two young pigeons. The Holy Family’s pilgrimage is one of faith, of the offering of gifts, a symbol of prayer, and of encounter with the Lord, whom Mary and Joseph already see in the son Jesus.”

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