Feast of the Holy Family
April 2, 2025 Column Father De Celles
Merry Christmas! As the Octave and Season of Christmas continues, I want to wish all of you a Blessed and Holy and Merry Christmas. I hope that your Christmas Day was wonderful and filled with holiness and good cheer, and that you were all able to spend time with your family and friends. Most of all, I hope it was a day of recognizing and experiencing the love of the Omnipotent God the Son, born in human nature and flesh, the Baby Jesus.
Thanks. I’d like to say “thanks” to all who worked so hard to make Advent and Christmas so special this year. In particular, the choir, cantors, musicians (especially organist Joseph Mernagh) and Elisabeth Turco for all the beautiful music. The American Heritage Girls and Trail Life boys for running the Senior Lunch; the Knights of Columbus for all they did in so many ways, including selling Christmas cards and Christmas trees and sponsoring Breakfast with Saint Nicholas. The Brennan family, and all the other sacristans, for all their work in preparing the sanctuary. The Mullen Family and the rest of the flower committee, for decorating the church so beautifully. To all those who contributed so much in time and treasure to the Giving Tree, especially Sheri Burns. To all those who assisted in special ways at the Mass, especially the altar boys, lectors (led by Phil Bettwy), extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion (led by Barbara Aldridge and Christine Spengler) and the ushers (led by Patrick O’Brien). Also thanks to our custodial workers Luis Tapia and Dania Ochoa, for keeping the church so clean and neat. A special thanks to our dedicated parish staff, Mike Thompson, Mary Butler, Virginia Osella, Mary Hansen, Elisabeth Frazee, Dominique Murray and Jeanne Sause, who all work very hard during Advent. And finally, to my brother priests, Fr. Joseph Bergida, Fr. Edward Horkan and Msgr. Robert Rippy, for their dedicated service to the parish. I know I’ve left out lots of groups and names; my apologies. Thank you all, and God bless you all.
New Year’s. I look forward seeing all of you on New Year’s Eve or Day, to celebrate the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God (a holy day of obligation). Maybe I’ll see some of you at Midnight Mass: we keep things simple at this Mass, but it’s the perfect way to bring in the New Year. May the Christ Child bless you in the New Year, and may His Blessed Mother will keep you in her care. Blessed and Merry Christmas, and Holy and Happy New Year!
Volunteer Dinner. This coming Saturday, January 4, is our annual dinner in appreciation for all those who volunteer their time to support the activities of the parish. If that should include you, and you haven’t rsvp’d yet, please contact the parish office or your committee chairman asap.
Solemnity of St. Raymond. Our patron saint’s feast is normally celebrated on January 7, but canon law allows the pastor, with the permission of the Bishop, to move the patronal feast (“title of the church”) to the following Sunday. So, with Bishop Burbidge’s permission (thanks Bishop!), I am transferring the liturgical observation of St. Raymond’s to Sunday, January 12th. Note that this is the last Sunday of the Christmas Season, and so falls on the same Sunday we would normally celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. But since St. Raymond’s feast (a “solemnity” to us) “outranks the “Feast” of the Baptism, the celebration of the “Baptism of the Lord” be transferred to the following Monday, January 13. Please note that the originally scheduled 7pm Mass on January 7th is now cancelled.
In conjunction with the celebration of our patronal Solemnity on Jan. 12, the Knights of Columbus will be sponsoring a free pancake breakfast after the Sunday morning Masses. All are welcome!
Year End Donations. Every year at this time we all get inundated with requests for donations. Unfortunately, many so-called “charities” are not doing work consistent with God’s will, and others may have good intentions, but are inefficient or ineffective in using their resources. So, we don’t have to give to every group who asks for help, and I recommend you give mainly to those groups you know and have confidence in.
The groups I give to and would recommend for your consideration include: the Little Sisters of the Poor, Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Arlington, House of Mercy, Project Rachel, Gabriel Project, Mary’s Shelter (Fredericksburg), the Poor Clares, Angelus Academy and St. Dominic Monastery in Linden, VA.
A new charity you might consider giving to is the newly forming Christ the King Chesterton Academy, which I wrote about last week (contact me if you’re interested).
And of course my favorite charities are St. Raymond’s parish and the Our Lady of Ransom Scholarship Fund.
The Holy Family. Pope Benedict XVI Angelus, December 31, 2006 (excerpt):
“…In the Gospel we do not find discourses on the family but an event which is worth more than any words: God wanted to be born and to grow up in a human family. In this way he consecrated the family as the first and ordinary means of his encounter with humanity.
“In his life spent at Nazareth, Jesus honored the Virgin Mary and the righteous Joseph, remaining under their authority throughout the period of his childhood and his adolescence (cf. Lk 2: 41-52). In this way he shed light on the primary value of the family in the education of the person.
“Jesus was introduced by Mary and Joseph into the religious community and frequented the synagogue of Nazareth. With them, he learned to make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, as the Gospel passage offered for our meditation by today’s liturgy tells us.
“When he was 12 years old, he stayed behind in the Temple and it took his parents all of three days to find him. With this act he made them understand that he ‘had to see to his Father’s affairs,’ in other words, to the mission that God had entrusted to him (cf. Lk 2: 41-52).
“This Gospel episode reveals the most authentic and profound vocation of the family: that is, to accompany each of its members on the path of the discovery of God and of the plan that he has prepared for him or her.
“Mary and Joseph taught Jesus primarily by their example: in his parents he came to know the full beauty of faith, of love for God and for his Law, as well as the demands of justice, which is totally fulfilled in love (cf. Rom 13: 10).
“From them he learned that it is necessary first of all to do God’s will, and that the spiritual bond is worth more than the bond of kinship.
“The Holy Family of Nazareth is truly the ‘prototype’ of every Christian family which, united in the Sacrament of Marriage and nourished by the Word and the Eucharist, is called to carry out the wonderful vocation and mission of being the living cell not only of society but also of the Church, a sign and instrument of unity for the entire human race…”
Oremus pro invicem, Fr. De Celles