Scripture Reflections for the Holy Family

Year B, Lectionary 17


For the first day of Christmas we contemplate on God being born into the world. The divine entering into humanity as one of us. Now we begin to think on how God lives among us in the family. Each member has a role and responsibility for the others and in that serving and love we have God with us. The Holy Family of Joseph, Mary and Jesus was only holy because the divine remained with them, even in times of trouble. Holiness does not depend on what we do but on keeping Jesus present in our lives.

Hate feeling lost on Sundays at church? Searching for a better explanation of the Bible than what you hear from your pastor's sermon? Check out the following collection of audio, video, and text commentaries from various Christian experts for a better understanding of today's scripture that deal with: AbrahamAnnaAttentionBodyCeremonyChallengeChildrenCommandmentCovenantEducateFaithFamilyFatherGrowthHiddenHolyHonorJosephListenMotherObeyOfferingPainParentPerfectionPrayerPreparePromisePurityRedeemReflectionRelationshipRequirementSimeonVigilantWait

Genesis 15:1-6; 21:1-3 or
Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14

“If you see someone who has a healthy relationship with their own father or their own parents the likelihood that they'll have a healthy relationship with their children is increased”

Catholic Productions | "Honor Your Father and Your Mother" | Brant Pitre | January 15, 2021
Psalm 105:1-6, 8-9 or
Psalm 128:1-5
Hebrews 11:8, 11-12, 17-19 or
Colossians 3:12-21
Luke 2:22-40

“When will Christ actually be consecrated to God? When is he going to be offered not as a symbolic sacrifice but as a real sacrifice to God? Well it's not going to be in his presentation in the Temple. It's going to be at the crucifixion”

Catholic Productions | "The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple" | Brant Pitre | January 11, 2021

“The holy family is about finding holiness where you think there is nothing holy, in the places where they'll warn you that sin is rampant and the people are unworthy, there you'll find God”

U.S. Catholic magazine | Dani M. Jiménez | December 22, 2023

“if we were to imitate the Holy Family it doesn't mean we have to be perfect, it just means we have to be prayerful. It just means that we want to give ourselves to God the Father who always took care of the Holy Family, always led the Holy Family and will lead your family and mine as well”

Holy Name of Jesus Church & Loyola Ministry | Fr. Mark E. Thibodeaux, SJ | December 26, 2020

“perhaps in a new way...the manifestation of the divine indwelling of a sleeping child will bring us like Mary and Joseph to wonder and amazement at the gift that has been received, like Simeon to the recognition of our salvation, and like Anna to the voice of our own prophecy”

Catholic Women Preach | Judith Coyle, IHM | December 27, 2017

“The heroic thing that Simeon and Anna did is not what we read in today's Gospel. The heroic thing was the decades of waiting and praying. Waiting and praying. Waiting and praying.”

Holy Name of Jesus Church & Loyola Ministry | "Presentation of the Lord 2023" | Fr. Mark E. Thibodeaux, SJ | February 2, 2023

“this wasn't just any ordinary presentation. This wasn't the dedicating of a child to God. This was God being dedicated in a deeper way to us.”

UACatholic | Fr. John Paul Forté, OP | February 2, 2021

“what am I presenting to God today and what am I sacrificing to be the light of the world?”

Fr. Emmanuel Ochigbo | February 2, 2020
Overall Readings

“So lesson one: God’s call and its fulfilment often demands patient waiting. Secondly, God’s call and its fulfilment does not have a statute of limitation or a use-by date.”

"They took him up to Jerusalem" | Fr. Geoffrey Plant | December 19, 2023

“priests are not made in the seminaries, nuns are not made in the postulancy, the novitiate or in the convents. Priest and nuns are made in their families. The formators in the seminaries, in the formation houses, only work with the raw material you present to them. It all begins from the home.”

Fr. Emmanuel Ochigbo | December 26, 2023

“Jesus's idea of family is broader than biology, it's spiritual, a community of discipleship...family for us means the places where we grow in discipleship with Jesus our brother”

Catholic Women Preach | Lisa Fullam | December 31, 2023

“A compassionate family will not allow some of our own to go hungry. A compassionate family will not watch hundreds of thousands of us die unnecessarily. A compassionate family understands that your welfare is as essential as my own.”

Saint Katharine Drexel Parish - Boston, MA | Fr. Oscar Pratt | December 27, 2020

“my sermon...message is we're called to be the holy family, not the perfect family”

St. Teresa of Avila - DC | Monsignor Raymond East | December 27, 2020

“even though we did not know the future, we know the one who owns the future, we know the one who knows the end from the beginning and so we continue to make promises, we continue to take steps relying on the the one who knows and owns all”

Fr. Emmanuel Ochigbo | December 25, 2020

“may we always remember that when we celebrate here within the home of our church is to be brought out into the streets so that others can be a part of this great and holy family”

Fr. Tony Ricard | December 31, 2023

“From a Christian perspective, of course, it's not enough to care for the needs of our own family members. We belong to them, yes, but not only to them. We belong to the wider body of Christ and we're called to be light to the world.”

Catholic Women Preach | Bridget Burke Ravizza | December 27, 2020

“See, when you turn it over God can take over. If you don't turn it over God can't take over your family. Amen. And the Lord wants to do, wants to embrace us. God makes us into one family all over the earth.”

St. Teresa of Avila - DC | Monsignor Raymond East | December 31, 2023