Saint Thomas, Apostle Feast
July 3rd, 2010
"Lord I believe, help thou my unbelief"
John 20 : 24 - 29
Today we celebrate the feast of St. Thomas whose name is associated not with having great faith but with having great doubt! Very little is known about him apart from the Gospel account, but tradition holds that he preached the Gospel in India. Faith is a gift, and Jesus led Thomas to faith by allowing him to see and touch his wounds. Thomas, on putting his hands into these wounds, comes to faith and declares “My Lord and my God.”
Pope Gregory the Great, reflecting on the life of St. Thomas, wrote: “The disbelief of Thomas has done more for our faith than the faith of the other Disciples.”
Jesus led Thomas from unbelief to a sure and firm faith. God will do the same for us if we turn to the Holy Spirit and ask for the gift of faith. We were healed by Jesus’ wounds and we grow as Christians as we learn to gaze on the Risen Lord.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, I believe, help me to grow in faith, and to be compassionate to those who struggle with faith.
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.”
