‘Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph’
“Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he said to them. He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man.
The feast of the Holy Family and it is from their love our families are nurtured. It has been since 2020 that the family spent Christmas together. Covid Pandemic restricted travel. Last year I had to forgo my trip to bury my 95-year old aunt on her birthday.
This year upon my husband's request, I went to Manila and was met by the twins who were so happy I flew in. By afternoon, the children arrived and the grandchildren were tall since the time I met them. We shared meals in gratitude to God. Then we attended Simbang Gabi virtually through Radio Katipunan. There were no live masses available.
It was my first time to be with the family and each took on the seat of small chairs for the little ones, sofa and lounge chair for the adults. We participated intently despite the limited volume because we had to use laptops and our phones. It was wonderful to join hands in the Lord's Prayer and later give the sign of peace. This is the new normal worship which I had to adopt from the past traditions we held. We taught them to also recall victims of typhoon Odette and was thankful Ate Tania, the eldest, contributed just like her fundraising with her barkadas at the start of Covid. We need to teach children to be thankful to God and pray for those in need.
After mass, came the sharing of gifts. Each child was happy and excited to open their presents. Since Tania was small, we held the baby Jesus as center and made sure we had a Belen. Prayers were said by Nikki and we all shouted Happy Birthday Jesus. Tania then invited me to make the cheese board which everyone enjoyed. We did our traditional toast and Lolo TP offered the cheers.
For me to be blessed to see the family is indeed a blessing, especially since I wanted to carry Nike who was only a baby since I last saw her. Jesus Mary and Joseph we offer our families to you to be one in obedience to God our Father with the Holy Spirit! Amen. (MBC)
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