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30th Sunday of the year

October 24th, 2010

"Behold the bridegroom is coming. Go forth to meet him."
Mt. 25 : 6

Sooner or later each of us has to die. Perhaps we would rather forget that. We don””t like to be reminded of it. Birth and death, the beginning and the end are all one in God. Death is part of life. It is part of who and what I am. A limited time on earth is allotted to each one of us. That time is a free gift of God.

Death reminds me that I am not indispensable. Once life begins it never ends. When death comes, my body is no longer viable. It can be buried, cremated or donated for medical research.

We need to let go. We can only do this if we put our trust in God. Death is letting go of everything and surrendering ourselves to God. We are not going into the unknown. We are going to the God who created us in love and will continue to love us for all eternity.

Prayer


Prayer : Lord God, may the end of my life be the best part of it. May I look forward to meeting you and all those now dead who, helped me on life''''''''s journey. Don''t let me be afraid. "Having died with Jesus I know I will rise with him to new life." Amen. Romans 6 : 8

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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.”

Daily Prayers

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