Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
June 12th, 2010
"My heart rejoices in your saving power.
I will sing to the Lord for his goodness to me"
(Psalm 12)
Canticle. (1 Samuel 2)
My heart rejoices in the Lord my Saviour.
My heart exults in the Lord my strength is exalted in my God.
My mouth derides my enemies, because I rejoice in my victory.
He raises up the poor from the dust, he lifts the needy from the ash heap,
To make them sit with princes and inherit the seat of honour.
Samuel grew in favour with the Lord as did his recognition in Israel.
Samuels’s prophetic function was receiving and transmitting the Lord’s word of judgement.
Full of God’s wisdom he rejoices with the canticle of joy and thanksgiving to God who rescues the poor and lifts up the lowly from the ash heap to make them princes and inherit a seat of honour.
Prayer
Father, you prepared the heart of the Virgin Mary to be a fitting home for your Holy Spirit.
May our lives image this worthiness and become a more worthy temple of your glory.
Amen
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.”
