Happy Father's Day!

Today in Mass the following blessing of Fathers will be done:

God our Father,
in your wisdom and love you made all things.
Bless these men,
that they may be strengthened as Christian fathers.
Let the example of their faith and love shine forth.
Grant that we, their sons and daughters,
may honor them always
with a spirit of profound respect.
Grant this through Christ our Lord.

AMEN

The Holy Family

Today is the Feast of the Holy Family. Pope Paul VI said:

Nazareth is a kind of school where we may begin to discover what Christ's life was like and even to understand his Gospel. ... First we learn from its silence. ... The silence of Nazareth should teach us how to meditate in peace and quiet, to reflect on the deeply spiritual, and to be open to the voice of God's inner wisdom ... Second, we learn about family life. May Nazareth serve as a model of what the family should be. ...  

Finally, in Nazareth, the home of the craftsman's son, we learn about work and the discipline it entails. i would especially like to recognize its value -- demanding yet redeeming -- and to give it proper respect.

During the construction, Fr Damian has been reminded of when he helped his father, a bricklayer, in his work. One of his tasks was to carry the bricks to the workers.

He recalled how he often had a difficult time keeping up with the men who could lay bricks so quickly and how he used to mix the mud for them.

As you have learned values from your family, what might Jesus have learned from His?

The Holy Family

When God chose to live among us, He (being God) could have done it in a number of ways. He choose to enter into life as part of a family. In so doing, He both emphasizes the importance of family and created a model of what a family ought to be like. Today all of should be inspired to be better family members.

St Joseph the Worker

Pius XII instituted the feast of St. Joseph the Worker in 1955. But the relationship between Joseph and workers has a longer history.

To keep Jesus from being removed from ordinary human life, the Church has proudly emphasized that Jesus was a carpenter, trained by Joseph in that vocation. Humanity is like God not only in thinking and loving, but also in creating. Whether we make a table or a cathedral, we are called to bear fruit with our hands and mind, ultimately for the building up of the Body of Christ.

“The Lord God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it” (Genesis 2:15). The Father created all and asked humanity to continue the work of creation. We find our dignity in our work, in raising a family, in participating in the life of the Father’s creation. Joseph the Worker was able to help participate in the deepest mystery of creation. Pius XII emphasized this when he said, “The spirit flows to you and to all men from the heart of the God-man, Savior of the world, but certainly, no worker was ever more completely and profoundly penetrated by it than the foster father of Jesus, who lived with Him in closest intimacy and community of family life and work. Thus, if you wish to be close to Christ, we again today repeat, ‘Go to Joseph’” (see Genesis 41:44).