Most Holy Family Monestarytraditional Rite Mass and Ordiations

Giovanni Battista Salvi da Sassoferrato (1609-1685), La Sainte Famille

The following article appeared in the Christmas 2018 edition of The Latin Mass Magazine (27.4). Many thanks to the editors for allowing its republication here.

When I was growing up in the new rite, the Banquet of the Holy Family unit seemed ideally located. After all, when the first child is born, are not a husband and wife turned into a male parent and mother, and is non a family created? Information technology was only after attending the Latin Mass for several years that I came to appreciate a ameliorate alternative.

History of the Devotion

The cult of the Holy Family took time to develop. For the first 13 hundred years of Christianity, the term "holy family" was used only in reference to Christ's members rather than His kin; that is, the holy family was the Church. [1]  The aforementioned is true of "sacred family," which has also been used for the household of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. During the beginning millennium, even so, the expression appears only once: in a Lenten prayer over catechumens as a term for the Church's extended family. [2]

And merely equally "holy family" has meant something different for most of Church history, and then too has "family unit." Foreign as it is to say, at that place was no word for the familial unit prior to the modernistic menstruation. From the pre-Christian beginnings of the language into the seventeenth century, the Latin familia did non signify a grouping of people related to each other by claret or marriage but a household, a group of people all living under the same roof nether the dominance of a paterfamilias: parents, children, and servants. Past this definition, the mere act of growing upwardly and moving out meant that you were no longer part of the family.

Another factor affecting devotion to the Holy Family is the need to venerate each fellow member: one must dear Jesus, Mary, and Joseph earlier one tin can beloved them as a squad, so to speak. But to some extent, one cannot capeesh who Joseph is until one appreciates who Mary is, and one cannot appreciate who Mary is until ane appreciates who Jesus is. It took the early Church several centuries and several ecumenical councils to clarify her doctrinal agreement of Jesus Christ, which only then enabled Christians to gain a deeper reverence for Mary His mother.

But even with the blossoming of Marian devotion, devotion to Saint Joseph was hindered by an added complication: lukewarm press. Apocryphal literature portrayed the foster-father of Jesus as anile, ineffective, and unremarkable in his doubts about his betrothed. Joseph was still honored every bit a saint, simply every bit one can see from some medieval mystery plays, he was thought of more as a decent Everyman than a heroically virtuous patriarch.

It was the theologian Jean Gerson (1363-1429) who liberated Saint Joseph from his apocryphal doldrums. Gerson taught that the divinely-appointed guardian of Jesus and Mary was immature, vigorous, and free from fifty-fifty venial sin because like the prophet Jeremiah and Saint John the Baptist, he was sanctified in the womb. [3] Gerson too promoted devotion to the Holy Family unit as a remedy for the astute personal and economic crises that families were facing at the time. In this attempt he was joined by Saint Bernadine of Siena (1380-1444), who was probably the start person to use "Holy Family unit" for the matrimony of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.

During the Counter Reformation, the now-familiar depictions of the Holy Family of Nazareth became pop in Catholic countries. It may exist that seeing Jesus, Mary, and Joseph as a "terrestrial trinity" safeguarded the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of the Mother of God from Protestants who contended that Jesus had siblings. It is also the example that devotion to the Holy Family was all the same seen as an aid to Christian families: it spread rapidly in the New World, for example, in response to family breakdowns caused by colonization.[iv] In any event, saints such as Ignatius of Loyola, Teresa of Avila, and Francis de Sales were instrumental in encouraging the devotion. [5]

In the seventeenth century, French republic gave the cult "its decisive impetus." [vi] The so-called French school of spirituality helped to course nearly of the devotion'due south now familiar characteristics, including a focus on the hidden life of the Holy Family unit equally a doorway into the interior life, an "entering into" the details of the Holy Family through the imagination, a respect for the Jewish traditions that the Holy Family faithfully kept, and a veneration of each member of the Holy Family as a teacher of detail virtues. [7]

Worship

For the adjacent 2 centuries, the Holy Family lent its proper name and inspiration to a growing number of lay organizations and religious communities throughout Europe and eventually the U.S. But it is French Canada that tin can boast of having the first official association dedicated to the Holy Family as well as the first proper Masses in its honour. [8] Settlers to New French republic had brought their spirituality with them, and soon the cult of the Holy Family unit was taking on new life in the New World. In July 1663, the Confraternity of the Holy Family was founded in Montreal and by year's stop received the blessing of Saint Francois-Xavier de Montmorency-Laval, Quebec's first bishop.

Claude Francois, Portrait of Bishop Laval, ca. 1672

Laval proved to be an energetic supporter of the new clan and the devotion. He procured indulgences from Rome for members of the Confraternity, and in 1690 he even successfully used an image of the Holy Family to ward off a British invasion of Canada past placing the image on the cathedral steeple when the enemy sailed into port.

Only Laval's most important contribution to the devotion was to put information technology on the calendar. In 1665 he gave the Confraternity permission to gloat the Feast of the Holy Family unit on either the Feast of the Espousals of Joseph and Mary (January 22) or the Second Sunday after Epiphany (the Sunday closest to the Espousals) by using the propers for the Feast of the Annunciation. Later he asked four of his diocesan priests to compose a Mass and Function in honor of the Holy Family unit, which were so edited by Father Jean-Baptiste Santeul, a poet and renowned liturgist in Paris. In November 1684, Laval elevated the banquet to the rank of double first class with an octave and commanded that it henceforth be celebrated throughout his diocese on the Third Sunday after Easter to circumvent Quebec's harsh winters and facilitate a greater celebration. [9]

During this period, the discussion familia gradually came to take on its current pregnant. Could devotion to the Holy Family have given u.s. the notion of the nuclear family as nosotros know it today?

Pope Leo XIII

Papal Promotions

In the nineteenth century, Pope Leo Thirteen considered the cult of the Holy Family an antidote to the troubles plaguing the family unit in the industrialized world. One on manus, Leo worried that backer employers might non keep in mind the expert of the working human'southward soul and might facilitate his neglect of dwelling house and family. [10] On the other, the Pope saw that socialists "act against natural justice and destroy the structure of the domicile" when they supervene upon parents with the Land. [11] Leo XIII deplored any power that tried to take away a parent's right to educate his children:

Information technology is, then, incumbent on parents to strain every nerve to ward off such an outrage, and to strive manfully to have and to concord exclusive authorisation to direct the pedagogy of their offspring, as is plumbing fixtures, in a Christian manner, and beginning and foremost to continue them away from schools where there is gamble of their drinking in the poison of impiety. [12]

To counteract these subversive trends, in June 1892 the Holy Father consolidated the various pious associations defended to the Holy Family with the Apostolic Letter Neminem fugit, and a year later on he instituted a Feast of the Holy Family on the Tertiary Sunday afterwards Epiphany for any diocese that petitioned for it. Leo even composed function of the Mass and Divine Office himself, including the hymns for Vespers, Matins, and Lauds. Passages from Neminem fugit were subsequently included equally readings in the Office of Matins that show how there is a lesson in the Holy Family unit for everyone: for fathers, mothers, children, workers, the poor, and fifty-fifty royalty.

Pope Bridegroom Xv shared Leo's confidence that devotion to the Holy Family leads to familial and social renewal. In 1921, afterwards the ravages of the first World War, he placed the banquet on the universal calendar, assigning it to the Sunday within the Octave of Epiphany. Although no reason was given for the new date, information technology is, as we shall soon fence, optimally placed.

Subsequent Popes, such every bit Paul VI, Benedict XVI, and especially John Paul II, have continued to develop the theme of the Holy Family as a model for all.

Meaning

Both in content and in placement, the Feast of the Holy Family in the 1962 agenda captures all of the same meanings and purposes of the devotion.

In content, the Mass gives us various glimpses into the life of the Holy Family unit, including their hidden life of "teaching and admonishing i another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual canticles" (Epistle), the Finding in the Temple (Gospel), and the Presentation (Offertory). The Mass's proper prayers, on the other mitt, bring together with the Part hymns and readings to depict the Holy Family as an exemplum of domestic life and a powerful intercessor for all families.

In placement, past falling on the Dominicus after Epiphany the Feast has merely the correct altitude from Christmas. It is far enough away to let the true-blue to accept in the early on life of the Holy Family: Christ'southward birth (December 25), the Flight into Arab republic of egypt (December 28), the Presentation in the Temple (Sunday after Christmas), the Circumcision (Jan ane), the Holy Nam[ing] (January 2), and the visit of the Magi (Jan 6). These foundational events of the Holy Family set the stage for, and enable united states of america to enter into imaginatively, their repose years together in Nazareth.

On the other hand, the feast is not as well far away from Christmas. It takes identify before the Celebration of the Baptism of our Lord (January thirteen) and the liturgical proclamation of the wedding of Cana (Second Dominicus after Epiphany), biblical events that take place after the decease of Saint Joseph.

Consecration

Leo XIII also wanted Christian families to consecrate themselves to the Holy Family unit. Iii years before instituting the Banquet, he approved a formula for consecration entitled "O Jesus, our most loving Redeemer." [13]  Prior to Vatican Ii, a fractional indulgence was granted for this beautiful prayer's recital and a plenary indulgence for its recital "with devotion every twenty-four hours for a month." [xiv]  In the latest edition of the Enchiridion (1999), a plenary indulgence is granted to the family unit that consecrates itself to the Holy Family for the beginning time in forepart of an image of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph and a partial indulgence to the family unit that recites the prayer on the anniversary of their consecration. [15] Consecrating one's family on the Banquet of the Holy Family unit is not required, only information technology certainly is fitting.

Novus Ordo

In 1969, the Feast of the Holy Family unit was moved from the Sunday later on Epiphany to the Sunday after Christmas according to a somewhat complicated rationale. In 1955, the octave of Epiphany had been suppressed, just in 1960 a celebration of the Baptism of the Lord was assigned to January 13, thereby restoring some semblance of an octave. Epiphany technically celebrates three "epiphanies"—our Lord'due south revelation to the Magi, His beginning miracle at the wedding of Cana, and His baptism in the River Hashemite kingdom of jordan—but the feast on Jan 6 understandably tends to be dominated by the visit of the Magi. It was thus advisable that viii days after the true-blue would accept the opportunity to meditate more on the Lord's baptism. The miracle at Cana, on the other mitt, is the Gospel for the nearby Second Lord's day after Epiphany.

But the subcommittee responsible for reforming the calendar was non impressed. Father Pierre Jounel, the relator of the group, writes that the Celebration of the Baptism had been "timidly" established and should be historic on a Sunday and in fake of Eastern rather than Roman tradition. The subcommittee decided to assign the baptismal feast to the Sun afterward Epiphany and to move the Feast of the Holy Family to the Sunday after Christmas, "where it will appear more in the radiance of the Nativity." [sixteen]

The transferred feast does indeed enjoy in the Nativity's radiance, although it does so at the expense of the now suppressed Mass for the Dominicus after Christmas, the importance of which I have defended elsewhere. [17] Its prayers and readings also maintain a focus on the entire life of the Holy Family but, it seems to me, less effectively.

First, the feast's proximity to Christmas Day makes it difficult to concentrate on all xxx years of our Lord's hidden life, every bit it is only natural and so to go along to be filled with affection for Him as a Babe in the manger. The feast is supposed to retrieve the life of the Holy Family unit in Nazareth, yet past placing the banquet within the octave of Christmas, that Family is yet narratively stuck in a stable in Bethlehem.

2nd, the faithful have not yet had the do good of liturgically celebrating the diverse events in the life of the Holy Family that infuse the devotion with so much pregnant and that shape our understanding of their life together. The New Lectionary's three-twelvemonth Gospel bicycle attempts to compensate for this deficiency with alternate readings on the Flying into Egypt (Yr A), the Presentation (B), and the Finding in the Temple (C); simply every fourth dimension i result is proclaimed, two are left out. It is likewise disconcerting having a rotation of Gospels for a feast.

3rd, although the new Liturgy of the Hours contains a lovely reading by Pope Paul Six on Nazareth as a "schoolhouse" for agreement the Gospel, the theme of the Holy Family as a relevant model of virtue is weakened by the omission of Leo 13'south magnificent hymns and Matin readings.

But perhaps the chief oddity of the Feast's new location is that it occurs prior to a commemoration of our Lord's circumcision. January 1 had been the Feast of the Circumcision for centuries; in 1960, Pope John XXIII dropped the name but kept the proper prayers and readings. Pope Paul Half dozen made January 1 the Solemnity of the Mother of God just also retained the Gospel reading of Jesus' circumcision. (Luke 2,21)

The Circumcision is an important event because it is a crucial symbol of the Holy Family's "arrival." Genesis 17 ominously states a male person baby who is not circumcised "shall be destroyed out of [cut off from] his people considering he hath cleaved my covenant." (Gen. 17,14) Circumcision is what initiated a newborn male into the Chosen People, and thus in a certain style information technology solidifies the family bond (at the fourth dimension of Jesus, a pious Jewish family unit with an uncircumcised male was unthinkable). The mysteries of Christmastide cannot always be historic in chronological order, but the traditional organization of jubilant the Holy Family afterwards the Circumcision is a chronology worth preserving. With the new dating, the Church building celebrates the Holy Family before it has fully come into its own, at least in terms of the Police force. (encounter Ex. 12,48-49) And past downplaying the Mosaic Police, the Church building fails to show respect for the Holy Family's meticulous observance of information technology, which as we have already noted is a hallmark of this devotion. For Joseph and Mary did everything for their divine Son "according to the custom of the law." (Lk. 2,27) [xviii]

Besides, with the new dating the Church celebrates the Holy Family unit before Jesus is chosen Jesus. Equally Saint Luke makes clear, a kid was named only at his circumcision; every bit if to underscore this point, Luke does non straight call Mary's newborn kid Jesus until later his narration of the Circumcision even though the angel Gabriel had foretold the proper noun. (see Luke 2,6-21) I am not suggesting that nosotros adhere to an excessive literalism and start calling the new solemnity the Feast of X, Mary, and Joseph, but respecting the natural unfolding of the Christmas narrative encourages the faithful to engage it imaginatively—again, another hallmark of the devotion.

Ironically, the power of the feast'south original location is testified by the Pontiff who took it abroad. In 1974, Pope Paul VI issued Marialis Cultus, a document that attempted to bolster flagging Marian devotion after Vatican 2. In it he writes:

The Christmas season is a prolonged commemoration of the divine, virginal and salvific motherhood of her whose "inviolate virginity brought the Saviour into the world." In fact, on the Solemnity of the Nascency of Christ the Church building both adores the Savior and venerates His glorious Mother. On the Epiphany… the Church contemplates the Blessed Virgin… who presents to the Wise Men, for their admiration, the Redeemer of all peoples... On the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph (the Sunday within the octave of Christmas) the Church meditates with profound reverence upon the holy life led in the firm at Nazareth by Jesus… Mary His Mother, and Joseph the merely man (five).

What is noteworthy nearly this statement is its sequence. Paul Half-dozen is promoting the changes that Archbishop Bugnini had convinced him to brand five years earlier, but the Pope's narration follows the traditional arrangement of holy days. Even when the beleaguered Pope is trying to justify the new social club he is still thinking in terms of the onetime, so much has it shaped his spiritual imagination.

Pope St. Paul Half dozen

Moreover, the Holy Father's explanation only begs the question: If the signal of the banquet is to contemplate the "holy life led in the house at Nazareth," then why was it parachuted in then close to the altogether of the Baby Jesus in Bethlehem? It seems much more suitably placed after the Church has implicitly commemorated the return of the Holy Family unit to their hometown and as a capstone closer to the stop of the Christmas bicycle.

Decision

In its 2015 "Homiletic Directory," the Congregation for Divine Worship soberly notes that "the institution of the family faces great challenges in various parts of the globe today" (121). Nosotros may even say that the significant of the discussion "family," which devotion to the Holy Family helped to change from a household to the nuclear parent-child bail, is now being changed back to a more amorphous "household" in the wake of the Sexual Revolution and related ideological movements. The new modern "family" is based non on nature or grace but the will of its participants to define their own concept of beingness, [19] and information technology is gaining support non but from secular gild but from forces inside the Church building. Now more than ever, nosotros need the beacon from Nazareth to evidence us who we are and what we should be as a family.

Notes

[i] See Augustine, Enarratio in Psalmos, Ps. 118, sermo 2, 1.

[2] Come across Sacramentarium Gelasianum 1.26.199 et al. Catechumens are part of the Church building's sacred family unit because they accept been consecrated for baptism but are not yet sanctified members of the Church building's holy family unit.

[3] See Fr. Joseph F. Chorpenning, The Holy Family Devotion: A Brief History (Centre de recherche et de documentation Oratoire Saint-Joseph, 1997), 5.

[four] Eastward.1000., virtually mestizos did not know their Spanish fathers. Run across Chorpenning, Holy Family Devotion, 43.

[5] The Holy Family in Art and Devotion, ed. Fr. Joseph F. Chorpenning, OSFS (Saint Joseph'due south University Printing, 1998), 18-52.

[six] John Saward, "'The Early Home of the Eternal Begetter': The Holy Family unit in the Spirituality of the French Schoolhouse," in Holy Family in Art, 55.

[7] Saward, 55-6.

[eight] The following three paragraphs are based on Roland Gauthier's "Devotion to the Holy Family in Seventeenth-Century Canada," in Holy Family in Art, 68-76.

[9] Chorpenning, Holy Family Devotion, 53.

[10] Rerum Novarum, 20.

[11] Rerum Novarum, 14.

[12] Sapientiae Christianae, 42.

[thirteen] Acta Sanctae Sedis 23 (1890-91): 318-20.

[14] Raccolta or Manual of Indulgences (Benziger Bros, 1957), no. 706.

[xv] Apostolic Penitentiary, Transmission of Indulgences (United States Catholic Conference of Bishops, 2006), https://sttheresaij.org/documents/2018/4/Indulgences_v2.pdf, retrieved October 29, 2018.

[16] Pierre Jounel, "L'organisation de l'année liturgique," La Maison-Dieu 100 (1969), 148, trans. mine.

[17] Michael P. Foley, "Divine Adoption Sunday," TLM 25:four (Christmas 2016), 52-56.

[18] Pope St. John Paul Ii writes: "The birth of the Child in the nighttime at Bethlehem started the Family. For this reason, the Sunday during the octave of Christmas is the feast of the Family of Nazareth" (General Audience, iii January 1979). The just trouble with this statement is that it overlooks circumcision as the signature commemoration of the new family.

[nineteen] A paraphrase of Justice Anthony Kennedy's postmodern rendering of freedom in the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

churchbeand1981.blogspot.com

Source: http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2022/01/the-feast-of-holy-family.html

Share this post