Almost lost between the feasts of Christmas and New Year is a Sunday with special meaning to Catholics. It’s the Feast of the Holy Family.
“I confess,” says Dr. Owen Phelps, Director of the Yeshua Institute, “that in all my years of growing up as the oldest of 10 children in a devout Catholic family, I never noticed that.”
Today he looks forward to it as a great way to be reminded, as a New Year dawns, on what’s most important in the life of a parent – any parent. “Your roles as spouse and parent have to come first, before all other aspirations,” Phelps says.
“It’s fine to set new goals and adopt new resolutions regarding your work life. But if your family roles aren’t first and foremost, you’re neglecting them.”
St. John Paul II, among others, often spoke of the family as the “domestic church” – where children develop their basic orientations toward life and faith. In that context, parents are their children’s primary catechists. Their lasting influence is based more on how they act than on what they say, but both are essential in the development of their children, including their spiritual development.
The life of the Holy Family can serve as a helpful guide for how to be leaders in your own home.
A recent story in the National Catholic Register makes that very point – offering seven ways we can imitate the Holy Family in helping our own family become more practically holy and happy in the days ahead.
CLICK HERE TO SEE 7 WAYS TO IMITATE THE HOLY FAMILY IN YOUR OWN HOME