Father Bob's Reflections

The Sunday after Christmas

The 6th day of Christmas, December 30th — the Feast of the Holy Family (the 5th day of Kwanzaa.)

I met  this young couple at a welcome station  in the mountains of Virginia in October 2007.  As I ponder this image I see Joseph and Mary and Jesus in them.  May there be a touch of holiness — of wholeness — in their lives and in our families.   I pray for them and all young families — indeed all families on this traditional day in the Christmas season when we reflect on the  hidden, ordinary life of Joseph, and Mary and Jesus in Nazareth.  They are a model of simplicity for us.

But for many of us, our family lives were (are) very dysfunctional.

I think of those families today, Lord.  Children (many  are friends of mine) who grew up with alcoholic parents  and were in favor one moment and cast aside the next, who had little normalcy, little stability.

I remember the night, Lord, you allowed me the grace to strengthen a young mother who needed  the courage to at least temporarily separate herself  and the children from fearful dysfunction.  She and her children are now in safety.  Be with her, Lord. 

Be with all families that struggle, Lord.  Be with us because we’re imperfect and weak and selfish and perhaps capable of little love because we may not have received much love ourselves as a children.

We’re trying, Lord.   Strengthen our capacity to love, to be present to our children and our spouse.  Help us realize, Lord, that the most important role is not to have a successful career  but to love our children and our spouse.  To be a community of love in which to call forth the gifts, the love. the moral courage and strength of our children for the next generation.

And so, on this Feast of the Holy Family, we honor you, Jesus and Mary and Joseph. as I honor this young couple whose name I do not even know because I saw in them an image of you in their simple, ordinary love.  

Now, before you go, here’s a song a with a slide show with lots of family pictures. Click here.

And today’s Mass readings can be found at the following link.  Click here.  

Lord, keep us all in your loving care.

Bob Traupman

contemplative writer