Memorial of Saints (December 31)

St. Sylvester was ordained and succeeded Pope Miltiades on January 31, 314 A.D. He sent representatives to the Council of Arles and at the first General Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. Arles condemned Donatism while Nicaea condemned Arianism. Tradition says that Sylvester received great grants of territory from Constantine after he cured the Emperor from leprosy. During his pontificate, many churches were built, including the basilica of St. Peter and St. John Lateran (died ca. 335 A.D.).

St. Columba of Sens is mentioned in Tradition as a Spaniard who left her parents when she was sixteen. She went to Gaul, was privately baptized at Vienne, and settled at Sens with a group of other Spaniards. She and her companions were executed for their faith by being beheaded near Meaux during the reign of Emperor Aurelian (died ca. 273 A.D.).

St. Melania the Younger was married against her will by her father. Her husband agreed however to respect her desire to devote her life to God. When her father passed away, she turned her family estate into a religious center. She became a religious philantrophist - helping churches and monasteries in Europe. In 406 A.D., because of the invading Goths, she, her husband and her mother and her followers, were led to Tagaste in Numidia, were they settled. Melania founded a monastery for men, and another for women. When her husband and her mother passed away, Melania built a cell near their tombs. As she started to attract others by her holiness, she built a convent for them (died ca. 439 A.D.).

Feast of the Holy Family (B)

(Edited) Sunday reflections

"...They returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth."

1st Reading: Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 128
2nd Reading: Colossians 3:12-21
Gospel: Luke 2:22-40

Like all good Jewish families, Joseph and Mary brought Jesus to the Temple of Jerusalem, to be presented to God. For, according to their religious law, "Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord...and to offer the sacrifice of a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons". As they went in the Temple, they met Simeon and the prophetess, Anna. Upon seeing the Jesus, Simeon made a prophesy saying that the child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and that Mary herself a "sword will pierce". Anna, on her part, also came forward and gave thanks to God for the child, who she knew was to be the Redeemer of Jerusalem.

The baby Jesus was not only God incarnated in human flesh, but He was also born to a human family. Joseph, His foster father, is from the royal line of King David. And Mary, His mother, was a simple Jewish maiden, whom God favored and bestowed with the fullness of His graces (she being immaculately conceived and without sin). If God blessed mankind by incarnating Jesus His Son in human flesh, He also blessed the human family through St. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin Mary. Therefore, God does not call only individuals to holiness; He also calls the human family to holiness - through the example of the Holy Family (Jesus, Mary, and Joseph).

The pursuit of sanctity as a family is difficult at first but possible even in these modern times. It becomes workable and manageable if every member of the family always look to God's strength and His divine help. The Holy Family is one source of grace from whom all families can look up to. The pattern for virtuous living can be seen clearly in: the virtues that Joseph, Mary, and Jesus exemplified individually, and as a family in their life at Nazareth. The simplicity and truth of their life and work, and their prayer together, (inferred from their Jewish faith) present well the Christian ideals of fatherhood (Joseph), motherhood (Mary), and childhood (Jesus). All the Catholic faithful are called to be grateful to God for the gift not only of His Son, but of incarnating His Son in the Holy Family at Nazareth.