Venite Prandete

  THE WEDDING AT CANA THE SECOND SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY Epiphany, or “manifestation” celebrates three revelations; the visit to Christ’s crèche by the Magi – representative of the revelation of the Saviour to the gentiles; The baptism of the Lord in the River Jordan, where John the Baptist revealed the Lamb of God – the Sacrifice; And the Wedding Feast at Cana – where Christ reveals Himself as the Bridegroom. The Gospel is John 2.7,8,9,10-11, the Communion passage providing as follows: "The Lord saith: Fill the water-pots with water and carry to the chief steward. When the chief steward had tasted the water, he saith to the bridegroom: Thou hast kept the good wine until now. This first miracle did Jesus in the presence of His disciples." To understand the role of Jesus as the bridegroom, one must fully comprehend the relationship between God and the people of Israel in the ancient Jewish tradition, a covenant which was far more than a contract – explained by Brandt Pitre as fo...

FEAST OF THE HOLY FAMILY;  10th JANUARY The most efficacious method of embracing the depth of God’s love for us, in order to convey this love to others, is by meditating upon the face of Jesus, or upon the face of His Blessed Mother. Similarly, the most efficacious way to understand the potential of our particular family is by meditating on the Holy Family. This feast day is one in which we can reflect on the Holy Family as a model for our family lives. The Holy Family was a family like no other. However, a meditation on the relationships which governed this family unit is not a dry and academic exercise: This was a family which operated in simple love and obedience to God’s will and to each other. It was a family that was not powerful or wealthy, but which, nevertheless, had an effect upon the world and humanity for the subsequent history of mankind. This was a family that changed the course of history and touched all of us. Each family has dimensions that are both legal and mater...

ST JOACHIM –FEAST DAY 16 AUGUST - FATHER OF OUR LADY A GUIDE TO SPOUSAL LOVE AND CATHOLIC MASCULINITY St Joachim, the father of Our Lady, must stand as a model for spousal love and fatherhood. Granted, he was gifted with advantages over and above the normal parent, being blessed with a daughter completely free of original sin and who lived her whole life free from sin. Granted too, we know little about him, aside from the fact that he was married to St Anne. This being so, his feast day is one which can serve as a mechanism to ponder the nature of Catholic fatherhood, Catholic marriage and the love of a husband for his wife, together with a consideration of Catholic masculinity – a big subject. The Catechism of the Catholic Church provides that “[t]he entire Christian life bears the mark of the spousal love of Christ and the Church.” (1617). Kevin Wells, in his book, “The Priests we need to Save the Church”, (Sophia Press, at p. 125), spoke of his uncle, a priest, in exhorting newly we...

  "And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root." Isaiah 11:1 Christ was born into a family – God Himself chose to embrace our physical nature in the most definitive way possible – by being conceived in the womb of a mortal woman and by developing into an adult in the same manner as all of us, in the context of a family. The family is a school of beauty as well as love and virtue: “The way of beauty … is also the precursor for the way of goodness and the way of truth. Beauty is sweet order and harmony, even when it is depicting ugliness. All the senses can delight in the perception of something good and beautiful – smell, a flower, incense, touch, sight sound music. The child’s environment can be an education in beauty for him.” (David Clayton and Leila Marie Lawler, "The Little Oratory, a Beginner's Guide to Praying in the Home," at p.17) The blessing of flowers on this feast day derives from the legend ...