FAMILY ENTERPRISE

Our Family’s Enterprise

God has made the FAMILY the fundamental block of society as no other. The family satisfies the basic need for relationship, cooperative endeavour and imaginative projects. The more successful a family is in terms of these dynamics, the more benefits it generates for the human community. A thriving society is a clear indication of healthy family living. This redounds to the glory of God who is the original family, also known as the Holy Trinity – the original model of relationship and fruitfulness. The measure of a family’s faith in the Holy Trinity will articulate the family’s success in the spheres of the moral, social and economic. This demands that the members of the family are constantly endeavouring to think and act unitedly, powered by noble motives and drawn by the goals that are beneficial for themselves and society at large. Were every family vibrant with the best values and traditions proper to their respective religious cultures, one can well imagine the happiness and contentment of the society they comprise.

We worship the God of hope, the source and reason for the future prospects of our family. We look to the elders to show us the way of committed cooperation and a joyous consistency in our undertakings for an ever brighter future of every members of the family. We are blessed with hope since God is there, assuring us of a secure future.

Our trust in each other gives us the confidence to be faithful today as we move forward in the pathways of our tomorrows. We pray that by God’s grace and enablement each succeeding generation will accept the torch with enthusiasm for the enhancement of out enterprises to His glory and the good of society.

PRAYER, CONDITIONS FOR

The Conditions for Prayer

            Prayer demands a certain amount of external quietness and detachment. A noisy environment is a hindrance to prayer. The internal condition for prayer is characterised by attention, reverence, trust, and perseverance. External attention is secured by the avoidance of disturbing activities that block the mind’s positive application to the meaning of the text or formula or to the divine truth or even the divine presence. Such internal attention should preferably be actual, that is to say, it should aim at factual, on the spot attention to the content of prayer or God’s presence. However, it is sufficient to have a virtual attention, i.e. a persistent intention to pray despite momentary, involuntary distractions. For vocal prayer it is sufficient that attention is directed towards God in a general way, as it is generally not possible to attend to the meaning of every word we say. True devotion and the intention to pray are not destroyed by involuntary distractions. Besides, the state of external composure and the continued recitation of prayer formulas are apt to lead the mind back to conversing with God. In themselves, involuntary distractions are not sinful. Sinful are voluntary or deliberate distractions or they are at least an imperfection. Being voluntary, they cut into the intention to pray and thereby imply irreverence to God. A deliberately induced distraction or fantasy can well be gravely sinful if it leads to a mistake in confecting a sacrament, since the latter can thereby be exposed to invalidity. We are distracted because we are still attached to created things and to accustomed images, or the mind is preoccupied with even legitimate concerns.

            The problem of distractions at prayer is a perennial one. The radical cure is self-denial and a deeper attachment to Jesus Christ. One can also transform distractions to the good. (cf. Gasper M. Koelman, Sparks, Pune 1976, pp. 106-110). Distractions are irritating and ubiquitous insects that one can apparently do nothing about. However, we can not only render distractions harmless but also possibly make them useful matter for prayer!  For example, the thought of hurts suffered from people can make one recall the sarcasm and venomous remarks of the Pharisees and lead him to noble and benign motivations. Pleasant distractions would make one think of something joyful in the life of Jesus and how he wants us to be happy with a joy complete (cf. 1 Jn 1, 4). Present worries and future anxieties need not weigh down a person who can refer these to the carrying of the Cross or to Christ weeping for his people. The agony of Gethsemane, the scourging and the cross can replace the oppressive memory of past sins. The Gethsemane sadness can be lit up by the hopeful dawn of Easter, while the spirit-draining weight of discouragement can send one marching to Emmaus and to the joyous recognition at the breaking of bread. Like insects, distractions are God’s creatures. “Everything God created is good; nothing is to be rejected when it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by God’s word and by prayer” (1 Tim 4, 4). “Welcoming these uninvited visitors and joining hands with them in prayer, readily including these trifling items of our life (those especially we view as unimportant) will enable us to integrate in Christ everything that is genuinely human. His light will fall on hidden corners of our life, we’ll muster greater strength for our daily struggles; even humdrum occupations, dispositions of all sorts will become the incarnating matter of our life of grace. Christ will share in all our feelings, will be present at our games, will accompany us on picnics; he will be at our side when working, playing, resting; with us he will be thinking of the friends we fondly love, and he will share our dread of persons whom we would not meet” (Gasper M. Koelman, op. cit. p. 108).

Reverence is another condition for prayer. As an aspect of humility, it is the attitude towards God as the “mysterium tremendum”. In practice, it consists in suitable comportment, acknowledgement of sinfulness and insignificance, and an internal respect for God’s holiness and will, which is incompatible with deliberate adherence to mortal sin. This should not discourage sinners from praying, provided they do so with a desire for conversion and sanctification. Prayer, to be valid and worthwhile, must change our lives. Reverence must be blended with trust, an attitude characterised by confidence in God’s goodness and fidelity. A trustful person has no fear or reservation to place himself in the hands of God.

            In impetratory prayer, it is presumed that the petition is morally good and somehow related to salvation, thereby coming under the purview of the virtue of Hope. Thus the petition envisages God’s kingdom, eternal salvation, spiritual and temporal goods in the service of eternal values. Everything is left to God’s discretion in the certainty that God will not abandon his children.

PRAYER PROBLEMATIC

The Prayer Problematic The range of the problematic of prayer is from a radical rejection to a serious endeavour to arrive at profound prayer. As a consequence of denying God, the atheist declares that prayer is absurd. Strangely enough, some believers in God consider it their duty to reject prayer by reason of the divine sublimity. Since God is unchangeable in his fullness, nothing can affect him: neither the prayer of praise as he does not need our glory, nor the prayer of petition since he cannot change his decision. Prayer, therefore, is only for our human consolation and, as such, is something self-centred. For example, we have stopped praying for rain and good weather. Such prayers were once the “oratio imperata” of the official liturgy. In the case of illness, if the medicine works, prayer was not needed. If the person recovered after hope was abandoned, it could have been an act of God. But could one prove that it was due to prayer? Some people say that from all eternity God arranged things in two groups. One group of things is fixed, like the workings of natural creation. The other group is conditional, that is to say, the events take place provided prayers were offered for them to happen. Now, since for God everything is in the present, he has arranged the events with the foreknowledge that prayers would be offered for them in historical time. So where does this leave us?

 We have to keep on praying for an event to happen in the hopes that this is one of the events which God had predetermined but made it conditional to our prayers which he foresaw. Such a highly mechanistic explanation can lead to ridiculous situations. The person praying will always want to know if she has prayed sufficiently and intensively enough to fulfil the conditions attaching to the favour or for precipitating the event! As a result, for many people the best way to answer the problem of prayer (at least of petition) is to reject the impetratory prayer altogether. They maintain that scientific or technological man should be able to confront his own needs without having to degrade himself by invoking another’s aid. He should help himself by making use of his God-given faculties without having to degrade God by bringing him down to the level of attending to the desires of man. The Spirit need not be domesticated!

An Answer to the Problem

            The best answer to the problem of prayer is to approach it from the angle of the theological virtues. But first let us consider a few other definitions of prayer. (Cf. J. Giallanza, “But What do You do”, in Review for Religious, January 1981).

a)     A dialogue with God, with one of the persons of the Blessed Trinity, and, by analogy, with the saints. This is a strongly psychological definition. Dialogue presupposes that two people are talking. Prayer can also be silent, as one can praise God and glorify his incomprehensibility by a silent adoration. Dialogue can be presumptuous, especially since both the speakers are not on the same level.

b)    According to St. John Damascene, prayer is the raising of the mind and heart to God. This is a mind-will definition and, as such, is incomplete in itself, unless it includes the fact that God, out of his loving liberality, has called man through creation via the orientation of the human spirit towards himself (God) and through the revelation of Jesus Christ. Prayer, therefore, recognises God’s initiative as it expresses man’s response to God’s call.

c)     St. Thérèse of Lisieux: “For me, prayer is the upward leap of the heart, the untroubled glance towards heaven, a cry of gratitude and love which I utter from the depths of sorrow as well as from the heights of joy. It has a supernatural grandeur which expands the soul and unites it with God.” The movements, “leap”, “glance”, “cry” are the person’s own activities in prayer. The description would be incomplete without the presupposition of the complete dependence on God for all activities, indicated by the “supernatural grandeur which expands the soul…”

d)    “In my opinion,” says St. Teresa of Avila, “mental prayer is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us.” Here the activity of “sharing” necessitates “taking time frequently” for a mutual dialogue as between friends alone. Hence, an intimate dialogue that is exclusive. This is the friendship model of prayer.

e)     According to St. John of the Cross, “Contemplation is nothing else than a secret and peaceful and loving inflow of God, which, if not hampered, fires the soul in the spirit of love.” “Inflow of God” is primarily an action of God, a movement from God to the person praying. There seems to be here a passive openness to divine love, and having the qualities of “secret, peaceful and loving.” But the effect is to be fired with love.

A Comprehensive Definition of Prayer

            Prayer is the most elementary religious act. It is the maintenance and development of the supernatural life we received in Baptism. Specifically, it is the maintenance, development and articulation of the theological virtues. God has infused the theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Love into us. Prayer is our primary and most elementary collaboration with God in his continuous action of infusing the virtues. It is the act of the whole person; otherwise it would degenerate into mere enquiry and study on the one hand, and, on the other, a blind movement of abandonment to the immutable decisions of God. Mere abandonment to God’s providence in prayer would ignore its dialogic character. Abandonment may stress one truth, namely, the immutability of God (which, taken in isolation, would mean that prayer is impossible or unneeded) and forget the other, namely, that God is personally concerned with our affairs. The immutability of God must not be reduced to a proposition that can be manipulated in the usual categories of human thinking. It must be kept open for the truth of the Incarnation and Crucifixion, for the truth that God “changes” for the sake of man. This is the only possible underpinning of the dialogical character of prayer.

            If prayer is considered as the living reception (articulate or inarticulate) of the theological virtues, then, as such, it answers all the difficulties of the prayer problematic. Silence, for example, is an inarticulate form of receptivity; yet no one can deny its profound existential. The believing Christian who has received the gift of Faith at Baptism prays that he may continue to remain open to this precious self-gift of God as the supreme Knowable and all that he reveals in his Son through the Church. The believer will further express the joy of receiving this gift by acts of faith, adoration, praise and thanksgiving. Here the dialogue is complete. It is evident that prayer helps the expression of our receptivity to divine Love. Here prayer consists of acts of love for the supreme Lover and the joy of being possessed by the Holy Spirit. Finally, the problem of impetratory prayer is answered if prayer is also seen as expressively receptive of theological Hope, which is founded on God’s faithfulness to his promises. This includes the promise of salvation that is evoked in every cry for mercy.

Prayer, an Imperative?           The importance and obligation of prayer can be understood from what we have said above. Lack of prayer would dry up or atrophy our receptivity to the continuous infusion of the theological virtues or the supernatural action of God. Prayer keeps us open to the supernatural virtues and articulates them. Add to this the obligation of man to worship and praise God in definite ways, the primary way being prayer. Jesus Christ, by word and example, is the norm for prayer. Mt 26, 41: “watch and pray.”  Mt 17, 21: certain demons are cast out by “prayer and fasting.” As exemplar, Jesus spent much time communing with his Father. Jesus often addressed his Father before the crowds and the disciples in prayer formulas of thanksgiving and praise. Cf. Mk 1, 35; Mt 14, 23; Lk 6, 12. According to St. Paul and St. James, the argument for prayer is the same as for worship, prayer being the most elementary form of worship. Cf. Rom 12, 12; Col 4, 12; Jas 4, 2; 5, 13.

            The theological reason for prayer can be resumed in its necessity for salvation. In order to be saved one must possess sanctifying grace. Ordinarily, adults do not receive grace unless they ask for it and are receptive to it, cooperate with and dispose themselves for it. These conditions are seen to by prayer. In general, the omission of prayer for a considerable time results in sin. It is a matter of life and death for each individual and for the whole Church to learn how to pray and to help one another in the life of prayer in order to transform all life into adoration of God. In a special way this applies to all priests who by vocation are meant to lead the community in prayer; and unless he maintains a wholesome prayer life he would be a hollow reed producing empty sounds. If prayer is to become a virtue, and virtue is understood as the felicitous ease for doing our duty, then prayer should be the weave of our daily life; nothing artificial or formal but as normal and regular as breathing. If men and women did not pray at specifically determined times at morning and evening, they would soon forget to pray altogether. A life without prayer is the perfect path to perdition.

Flying Self-centredness

“I am thoroughly distracted, thoughts rushing to and fro like commuter trains on a busy platform. I can’t concentrate. My mind is like a marketplace, bombarded by destructive feelings. Memories of the past and images of persons who have hurt me stream into my consciousness, leaving me angry and frustrated. This time of praying could be better utilized doing something more practical.” Such sentiments summarise what many people would describe as their prayer. While that is true, they need not settle for it, because this negative experience is an indicator that something has gone amiss and needs to be corrected. Call it what you like, but actually this is a form of depression resulting from easy-going ways, decreasing vigilance, and carelessness of heart. Basically they have their roots in egoism or self-centredness. The person is not really seeking God but the consolations expected from him, some rest or security or a feeling of well-being. This is how religion goes off the rails: expecting God to fit into our plans and schedules, trying to tame and domesticate the Holy Spirit. When these do not happen, the selfish person is easily persuaded to abandon prayer as useless.

            On the other hand, the humble person is not taken aback, for he knows the frailty of his nature. In fact, the experience of dryness leads to acts of greater trust and willingness to learn the meaning of faith as constancy in the Lord, our rock and stronghold. Perseverance is the key. Not looking for success, not giving up, because it is that fidelity that will enable us to look back later to see how in fact we have grown in the awareness of God. Prayer is a struggle with oneself. And why not? In every sphere of life’s development, don’t we have to face challenges? Every area of life has its disappointments, apparent uselessness and periods of depression. So why not in the sphere of prayer, which embraces every dimension of our life? We are on to genuine prayer when we perform the routine tasks of our lives so as to perceive in them that our lives are not little, anonymous or trivial, but that what is timeless, eternal, is in the ordinariness of things.

            Perseverance must lead to the prayer of quiet and stillness in the Lord, like the psalmist who describes himself as a weaned child on his mother’s lap (Ps. 131, 2). The time passes quickly and one feels at one with God and with one’s fellow human beings and creation. One desires nothing more than being with the Lord. Consider these two seven-syllable mantras: “It’s good to be with you, Lord.” “May I be with you forever.” From now on, prayer is a window of wonder, light and joy; God is perceived as pure transparency and tenderness.

Not a movement towards a distant God but a sinking into a deeper awareness of one’s own life and to find God already there, more intimate than our most intimate self. Now all desires fade away, except the desire simply to be. To be present to the music of what happens, of seeing more and more profoundly, and of being amazed. What used to be a loving gaze on God is reciprocated by God’s gaze upon us, “amazed” as he is at the incarnate shape of love’s divine face that each one of us is.

“God wants us to sit for him, not that he may paint our portrait, but that he may paint his own – within us” (Daniel O’Leary, in The Tablet, 17 May 2008, pg. 15).

GIRL CHILD, INTERNATIONAL DAY OF

GIRL CHILD, International Day of

Introduction to the Eucharist

With affectionate concern and hopefulness we today would like to focus on the GIRL CHILD. Not only would we invoke God’s blessing on his girl children but, by his grace, we commit ourselves to protect them at every stage of their life, contribute our share to their educational, cultural and physical development. The scenario today is a dismal one. In circumstances of utter poverty, girl children are pushed into the flesh trade by heartless adults, pressed into bonded labour by creditors and landowners, even forced-trained to be girl soldiers by terrorist groups. How many girl children are marked out for dowry deaths and the horror of bride burning is a heart rending tale, oft repeated in our country. And the entertainment industry manoeuvres many little girls into certain roles that leave them devastated and bereft of their childhood. This was not the way the Creator wanted it. This was not the way our Saviour Jesus Christ, whose ministry was characterised by the affirmation of life, the imparting of health, and the gift of joy and harmony. And this is also what we want to happen in our time and will make happen. So with hopefulness for the future of the world’s girl children, we ask our Heavenly Father to allow us and our concerns into the mysteries of Jesus, that we are now about to celebrate as a church community with sincere contrition for our sins and failures.

“I confess.....”

SALVATION PRAYER

Prayer of Salvation

 Many people ask, “Is there a prayer I can pray that will guarantee my salvation?” It is important to remember that salvation is not received by reciting a prayer or uttering certain words. The Bible nowhere records a person’s receiving salvation by a prayer. Saying a prayer is not the biblical way of salvation.

The biblical method of salvation is faith in Jesus Christ. John 3:16 tells us, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Salvation is gained by faith (Ephesians 2:8), by receiving Jesus as Savior (John 1:12), and by fully trusting Jesus alone (John 14:6; Acts 4:12), not by reciting a prayer.

The biblical message of salvation is simple and clear and amazing at the same time. We have all committed sin against God (Romans 3:23). Other than Jesus Christ, there is no one who has lived an entire life without sinning (Ecclesiastes 7:20). Because of our sin, we have earned judgment from God (Romans 6:23), and that judgment is physical death followed by spiritual death. Because of our sin and its deserved punishment, there is nothing we can do on our own to make ourselves right with God. As a result of His love for us, God became a human being in the Person of Jesus Christ. Jesus lived a perfect life and always taught the truth. However, humanity rejected Jesus and put Him to death by crucifying Him. Through that horrible act, though, Jesus died in our place. Jesus took the burden and judgment of sin on Himself, and He died in our place (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus was then resurrected (1 Corinthians 15), proving that His payment for sin was sufficient and that He had overcome sin and death. As a result of Jesus’ sacrifice, God offers us salvation as a gift. God calls us all to change our minds about Jesus (Acts 17:30) and to receive Him as the full payment of our sins (1 John 2:2). Salvation is gained by receiving the gift God offers us, not by praying a prayer.

Now, that does not mean prayer cannot be involved in receiving salvation. If you understand the gospel, believe it to be true, and have accepted Jesus as your salvation, it is good and appropriate to express that faith to God in prayer. Communicating with God through prayer can be a way to progress from accepting facts about Jesus to fully trusting in Him as Savior. Prayer can be connected to the act of placing your faith in Jesus alone for salvation.

Again, though, it is crucially important that you do not base your salvation on having said a prayer. Reciting a prayer cannot save you! If you want to receive the salvation that is available through Jesus, place your faith in Him. Fully trust His death as the sufficient sacrifice for your sins. Completely rely on Him alone as your Savior. That is the biblical method of salvation. If you have received Jesus as your Savior, by all means, say a prayer to God. Tell God how thankful you are for Jesus. Offer praise to God for His love and sacrifice. Thank Jesus for dying for your sins and providing salvation for you. That is the biblical connection between salvation and prayer.

CHRISTMAS STORY

A CHRISTMAS STORY

Pa never had much compassion for the lazy or those who squandered their means and then never had enough for the necessities.  But for those who were genuinely in need, his heart was as big as all outdoors.  It was from him that I learned the greatest joy in life comes from giving, not from receiving.                                           It was Christmas Eve 1881.  I was fifteen years old and feeling like the world had caved in on me because there just hadn't been enough money to buy me the rifle that I'd wanted for Christmas.  We did the chores early that night for some reason.  I just figured Pa wanted a little extra time so we could read the Bible.                                          After supper was over I took my boots off and stretched out in front of the fireplace and waited for Pa to get down the old Bible.  I was still feeling sorry for myself and, to be honest, I wasn't in much of a mood to read Scriptures. But Pa didn't get the Bible; instead he bundled up again and went outside. I couldn't figure it out because we had already done all the chores. I didn't worry about it long though. I was too busy wallowing in self-pity.  Soon Pa came back in.  It was a cold clear night out and there was ice in his beard. "Come on, Matt," he said.  "Bundle up good, it's cold out tonight." I was really upset then. Not only wasn't I getting the rifle for Christmas, now Pa was dragging me out in the cold, and for no earthly reason that I could see.  We'd already done all the chores, and I couldn't think of anything else that needed doing, especially not on a night like this.  But I knew Pa was not very patient at one dragging one’s feet when he'd told them to do something, so I got up and put my boots back on and got my cap, coat, and mittens.  Ma gave me a mysterious smile as I opened the door to leave the house.  Something was up, but I didn't know what.                                                              Outside, I became even more dismayed. There in front of the house was the work team, already hitched to the big sled.  Whatever it was we were going to do wasn't going to be a short, quick, little job.   I could tell. We never hitched up this sled unless we were going to haul a big load.  Pa was already up on the seat, reins in hand.  I reluctantly climbed up beside him.  The cold was already biting at me.  I wasn't happy.  When I was on, Pa pulled the sled around the house and stopped in front of the woodshed.  He got off and I followed. "I think we'll put on the high sideboards," he said.  Here, help me."  The high sideboards!  It had been a bigger job than I wanted to do with just the low sideboards on, but whatever it was we were going to do would be a lot bigger with the high sideboards on.                                                           After we had exchanged the sideboards, Pa went into the woodshed and came out with an armload of wood - the wood I'd spent all summer hauling down from the mountain, and then all Fall sawing into blocks and splitting. What was he doing?  Finally I said something.  "Pa," I asked, "what are you doing?"  “You been by the Widow Jensen's lately?" he asked. The Widow Jensen lived about two miles down the road.  Her husband had died a year or so before and left her with three children, the oldest being eight.  Sure, I'd been by, but so what?                                                         Yeah," I said, "Why?"                                                     "I rode by just today," Pa said. "Little Jakey was out digging around in the woodpile trying to find a few chips. They're out of wood, Matt."  That was all he said and then he turned and went back into the woodshed for another armload of wood. I followed him.  We loaded the sled so high that I began to wonder if the horses would be able to pull it.  Finally, Pa called a halt to our loading, then we went to the smoke house and Pa took down a big ham and a side of bacon. He handed them to me and told me to put them in the sled and wait.  When he returned he was carrying a sack of flour over his right shoulder and a smaller sack of something in his left hand. "What's in the little sack?" I asked.  “Shoes, they're out of shoes.  Little Jakey just had gunnysacks wrapped around his feet when he was out in the woodpile this morning.  I got the children a little candy too.  It just wouldn't be Christmas without a little candy."                                                           We rode the two miles to Widow Jensen's pretty much in silence.  I tried to think through what Pa was doing.  We didn't have much by worldly standards.  Of course, we did have a big woodpile, though most of what was left now was still in the form of logs that I would have to saw into blocks and split before we could use it.  We also had meat and flour, so we could spare that, but I knew we didn't have any money, so why was Pa buying them shoes and candy?  Really, why was he doing any of this?  Widow Jensen had closer neighbours than us; it shouldn't have been our concern.  We came in from the blind side of the Jensen house and unloaded the wood as quietly as possible then, we took the meat and flour and shoes to the door.  We knocked.  The door opened a crack and a timid voice said, "Who is it?"  "Lucas Miles, Ma'am, and my son, Matt, could we come in for a bit?"        Widow Jensen opened the door and let us in.  She had a blanket wrapped around her shoulders.  The children were wrapped in another and were sitting in front of the fireplace by a very small fire that hardly gave off any heat at all.  Widow Jensen fumbled with a match and finally lit the lamp.                                                                   "We brought you a few things, Ma'am," Pa said and set down the sac k of flour.  I put the meat on the table.  Then Pa handed her the sack that had the shoes in it.  She opened it hesitantly and took the shoes out one pair at a time.  There was a pair for her and one for each of the children - sturdy shoes, the best, shoes that would last.  I watched her carefully.  She bit her lower lip to keep it from trembling and then tears filled her eyes and started running down her cheeks.  She looked up at Pa like she wanted to say something, but it wouldn't come out.                                "We brought a load of wood too, Ma'am," Pa said.  He turned to me and said, "Matt, go bring in enough to last awhile.  Let's get that fire up to size and heat this place up."  I wasn't the same person when I went back out to bring in the wood. I had a big lump in my throat and as much as I hate to admit it, there were tears in my eyes too.  In my mind I kept seeing those three kids huddled around the fireplace and their mother standing there with tears running down her cheeks with so much gratitude in her heart that she couldn't speak.  My heart swelled within me and a joy that I'd never known before filled my soul.  I had given at Christmas many times before, but never when it had made so much difference.  I could see we were literally saving the lives of these people.   I soon had the fire blazing and everyone's spirits soared.  The kids started giggling when Pa handed them each a piece of candy and Widow Jensen looked on with a smile that probably hadn't crossed her face for a long time.  She finally turned to us. "God bless you," she said.  "I know the Lord has sent you.  The children and I have been praying that he would send one of his angels to spare us."                                    In spite of myself, the lump returned to my throat and the tears welled up in my eyes again.  I'd never thought of Pa in those exact terms before, but after Widow Jensen mentioned it I could see that it was probably true.  I was sure that a better man than Pa had never walked the earth.  I started remembering all the times he had gone out of his way for Ma and me, and many others.  The list seemed endless as I thought on it.          Pa insisted that everyone try on the shoes before we left.  I was amazed when they all fit and I wondered how he had known what sizes to get.  Then I guessed that if he was on an errand for the Lord that the Lord would make sure he got the right sizes.   Tears were running down Widow Jensen's face again when we stood up to leave.  Pa took each of the kids in his big arms and gave them a hug.  They clung to him and didn't want us to go.  I could see that they missed their Pa, and I was glad that I still had mine. At the door Pa turned to Widow Jensen and said, "The Mrs. wanted me to invite you and the children over for Christmas dinner tomorrow.  The turkey will be more than the three of us can eat, and a man can get cantankerous if he has to eat turkey for too many meals.  We'll be by to get you about eleven.  It'll be nice to have some little ones around again.  Matt, here, hasn't been little for quite a spell."  I was the youngest.  My two brothers and two sisters had all married and had moved away. Widow Jensen nodded and said, "Thank you, Brother Miles.  I don't have to say, May the Lord bless you, I know for certain that He will."   Out on the sled I felt a warmth that came from deep within and I didn't even notice the cold.  When we had gone a ways, Pa turned to me and said, "Matt, I want you to know something.  Your ma and me have been tucking a little money away here and there all year so we could buy that rifle for you, but we didn't have quite enough. Then yesterday a man who owed me a little money from years back came by to make things square.  Your ma and me were real excited, thinking that now we could get you that rifle, and I started into town this morning to do just that, but on the way I saw little Jakey out scratching in the woodpile with his feet wrapped in those gunny sacks and I knew what I had to do.  Son, I spent the money for shoes and a little candy for those children. I hope you understand."                                                          I understood, and my eyes became wet with tears again.  I understood very well, and I was so glad Pa had done it. Now the rifle seemed very low on my list of priorities.  Pa had given me a lot more.  He had given me the look on Widow Jensen's face and the radiant smiles of her three children.  For the rest of my life, whenever I saw any of the Jensens, or split a block of wood, I remembered, and remembering brought back that same joy I felt riding home beside Pa that night. Pa had given me much more than a rifle that night; he had given me the best Christmas of my life.           "Grateful for every day!"

FAMILY FROM NO-GOOD NAZARETH

That Family from no-good Nazareth 

Luke 2, 41…”The parents of Jesus went to Jerusalem for the feast, taking the Child Jesus with them. And the Child was missing.”

This incident allows us to understand that the Holy Family had to face pressures similar

to what families face today. The Holy Family of Nazareth was not a piece of poetry or a lovely painting. The first Christmas stable was crawling with dangerous vermin and choking with the reek of animal dung. No hot running water. Imagine the cold drafts cutting into the baby Jesus. Soon after his birth, the family was under sentence of death and had to flee as refugees.

It is a given fact today that family life is a most difficult project. Apart from economics and housing, one thinks immediately of divorce and broken homes, the scourge of alcohol and narcotics, the breakdown of discipline, and the rest of the unhappy lot.

Yet God comes within the chaos, within the discord, the failures, and he sits with us in all the lumpy, wrinkly, pimply, sweaty bodies that we feast and fight with.

To strive for a better world, for a better family where every child finds welcome and shelter  -  that is our gift to the world. Christian families should and can become shining beacons of real humanity, places where children are taught faith and values and receive real warmth and support. In a fast-food society dominated by the social control of TV, mobile phones and the internet (call it Facebook or Twitter), it is becoming increasingly difficult to bring parents and children together in a community of shared values and, to be practical, common meals. Through grace at table, other family prayers and prayers by the beside parents effectively pass on faith and values to their children. Little boys and girls are deeply touched when they notice how their parents have a relationship with Jesus, talk with him and do not merely go through a formal ritual. Children not only naturally believe what their parents and teachers tell them; they are born believers, and need little to grow into a life of faith if there is no gap between what they are told and what is lived. Children, until adults corrupt them, sense that men and women cannot be defined by what they have. Like everyone else, children and the young need to be and to grow as human beings.

 St. Luke makes a very insightful statement that Jesus grew to maturity and was filled with wisdom. As “true man” Jesus shares in the human process of “growing up” to maturity. He is not pre-programmed as the Son of God, nor a puppet dangling on the strings of the divine puppeteer. But like anyone of us he had to grow up into maturity and to seek wisdom. For this his mother and foster-father could not hold him back in their warm embrace, but had to give him the freedom to be himself and to become all that he was meant to be, even to break away from the family in order to be busy with his heavenly Father’s affairs.

For the family really to be a school of life, this hard lesson has to be taken aboard. It is understandable that Christian parents are afraid of the perils and temptations that surround their young. And in all honesty these perils are real enough. But holding their children back from the rough and tumble of life will reduce them to some infantile state, unable to face the competitive world. So there has to be a healthy tension of framework and flexibility. As we look to the Holy Family we have to learn from Mary and Joseph that love means so firm a trust in God and one another as to maintain the balance between discipline and freedom.

People, especially children, do not become good by being told to; they must be charmed into goodness, which, like love is not taught but caught. The environment in which we have been raised and in which we raise our children is essential to our formation and development. A family is a very human environment; in fact, the first a child is introduced to: the joy, the pain, the drama and the ordinary events of our lives are lived within its confines. God chose to mould and form his Son within the environment and culture of a family. He hasn’t broken the mould since, and thrown it away, because in his mind the family continues to be the place of holiness, love and emotional sustenance. 

The Holy Family of Nazareth tells us that in God the family is not extinct.

The obvious truth is that parents cannot but influence their children. It is preposterous and contrary to common sense to affirm that they cannot. It is from one’s parents that one learns the difference between right and wrong, why we should treat other people with respect and what life is or is not all about. I (Clifford Longley) acquired my taste for music from my father, my interest in social justice, my sense of duty, and my views on religion. It was only when I tested them in my heart and against experience, after leaving home, that I decided  “to choose for myself” and became a Catholic. I think that my father felt that he had failed, although I kept hold of the rest of the package as best I could.

But the idea that one could raise a child to be genuinely neutral on the question of religion, simply waiting to make up their own mind once they grow up, is palpably absurd. There is no such thing as value-free parenting.

Faith, as Pope Benedict has said, has to allow itself to be continuously interrogated by reason. Atheists’ minds are closed. It is as if they cannot bear the thought of their reason being interrogated by faith. As mine was, and faith broke through. Is this the possibility that really scares them?