{"id":3515,"date":"2024-12-29T10:52:41","date_gmt":"2024-12-29T10:52:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/?p=3515"},"modified":"2024-12-29T11:06:20","modified_gmt":"2024-12-29T11:06:20","slug":"the-feast-of-the-holy-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/2024\/12\/29\/the-feast-of-the-holy-family\/benedictine-spirituality\/3515\/","title":{"rendered":"The feast of the Holy Family."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Image by Mabel Amber from pixabay.com
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It\u2019s tempting dismiss this feast as irrelevant. We can see it as holding up an image of a \u201cperfectly happy\u201d family that we can\u2019t emulate. Yet that\u2019s not the image the gospel presents of the holy family. The circumstances of Jesus\u2019 conception and birth presents a family about as far from any norms as its possible to imagine.

Today\u2019s gospel also paints a much more realistic picture of family life. It presents a family dealing with mistakes, slip ups and misunderstandings that we all recognise. Having gone up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover Mary and Joseph have lost Jesus.

We can imagine the fear that gripped them when they discovered he was missing, and their relief when they found him safe in the Temple. Yet the relief soon gives way to more uncertainty and conflict as they see a new side to Jesus emerging as he tells them:

\u201cWhy were you looking for me?\u2019 he replied. \u2018Did you not know that I must be busy with my Father\u2019s affairs?\u2019 But they did not understand what he meant.\u201d <\/em>

This is an exchange that any family with growing children recognises, that changing balance between dependence and independence, safety and freedom that can sometimes be fractious. They find a way through, with Jesus returning to Nazareth with is family:

\u201cHe then went down with them and came to Nazareth and lived under their authority.\u201d <\/em>

Mary\u2019s response to the shifting situation shows wisdom and insight:

\u201cHis mother stored up all these things in her heart.\u201d<\/em>

At a busy and stressful time of year this feast invites us to reflect on what we store in our heart, what we allow to grow there and how that might impact our relationships.

What are you pondering in your heart this Christmastide?
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s tempting dismiss this feast as irrelevant. We can see it as holding up an image of a \u201cperfectly happy\u201d family that we can\u2019t emulate. Yet that\u2019s not the image the gospel presents of the holy family. The circumstances of Jesus\u2019 conception and birth presents a family about as far from any norms as its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,494,313,461,239,271,537,246],"tags":[28,18,53,223,314,752,6,610,8,33,229,13,29,15,251,70,10],"class_list":["post-3515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-benedictine-spirituality","category-christ","category-christmastide","category-divine-office","category-gospel","category-lectio-divina","category-liturgy","category-scripture","tag-benedictine","tag-challenge","tag-christ","tag-christlike","tag-christmastide","tag-familylife","tag-gospel","tag-holyfamily","tag-hope","tag-kingdom","tag-kingdomvalues","tag-lectiodivina","tag-love","tag-newlife","tag-reflection","tag-temple","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3515"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3524,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3515\/revisions\/3524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}