Most parents today would be daunted at the task of parenting Jesus. Besides the fact that He is perfect in his obedience, attitude, and actions, He is also God’s only son. The role of parenting the Savior of the world is pretty important and would seem a high task even for the best parents. However,
God still chose to give his Son a human family to raise Him and be with Him throughout His life. Family is a gift given to us by God to help us cultivate
and grow our relationship with Him through the help of loved ones. It is an earthly support system. The Holy Family models for us the importance of
obedience. In Matthew 2, God instructs Joseph to follow his instructions in order to protect His family. Joseph must have felt scared, unprepared to travel that far, and nervous about hiding from such powerful people who wanted to hurt him and his family. In spite of these hurdles, Joseph follows God’s will and the positive consequences from his obedience result in safety for Mary and baby Jesus.

As humans, we often do not know the most beneficial actions to take and attitudes to have when dealing with difficult situations in life. For families in
particular, there will always be threats to the spiritual safety of the home, and this can feel like a heavy burden to carry, maybe even a scary one, especially as the head of a household. Joseph’s example, however, shows us that the best decisions are made by trusting God as the true father and leader of the family. God shows us an example of how an earthly family’s actions should reflect and honor Him by placing Jesus in a family that did just that. By fully trusting God to be in control of your family’s life in struggles, celebrations, and everything in between, you can be sure that he is leading and protecting you just as He did for his own Son. After all, like Jesus, you too are his child!

Dear Lord, 

We come to you in gratitude, and we thank you for giving us the perfect and wholesome example of your Holy Family. We pray that we may be able to live in accordance with the virtues of love, faithfulness, and humble obedience that Joseph, Mary, and Jesus showed in their own family life here on earth. We pray in hopes that by imitating these qualities in our own homes, that our families will be united by the strength of Your love and allow us to live a life that honors You. We pray that by building strong and faithful relationships within our families we may in turn have stronger relationships with You. Amen.

This day of celebration is really all about appreciating the fact that God blessed us with family and remembering how important it is to Him to maintain and strengthen these relationships. Having a support system on earth of people who can help us through struggles and point us back to God is extremely beneficial, as is recognizing and celebrating that Jesus is the reason for the feast. A way to celebrate this feast day is to spend quality time with family. By doing activities that build relationships and bonds, God is honored and makes relationships with Him stronger. Having a prayer time where everyone expresses gratitudes and hopes to God as a group can reveal vulnerability and show family members how they can support and lead others in the right direction. On the actual day of the feast, a fun tradition to start could be to get extended or even just immediate family together and have a prayer time that lasts a little longer and goes a little deeper than regular grace at supper. After this, having a meal as a family and then doing a fun activity altogether such as watching a movie, going to see lights, roasting marshmallows, etc. can make for a fun night that not only makes memories, but strengthens relationships.