DECEMBER 30, 2018
7:30 AM, 9:00 AM ORDINARY FORM (ENGLISH) MASSES
Completed in the year 1086 at the direction of William the Conquerer, the Domesday Book recorded how many hundreds of family estates were in each shire within the several counties of England and Wales; as well as what taxes were owed to the king.
After the wholesale redistribution of land following the Norman Conquest in 1066, the principle purpose of the survey was to determine what taxes were owed to William’s father – Edward the Confessor.
Not until the Victorian era Return of Owners of Land survey in 1873 – nearly 800 years later – was any survey of such extent and scope attempted in England.
In the 11th century, William’s purpose was to assess the financial resources of his kingdom; yet from an historical perspective, it can be shown which family held what lands as well as the land valuation of each estate … nearly one millennium ago.
The original manuscript from 1086 is held at the British Nation Archives at Kew (a district in the borough of Richmond on Thames) in London.
Today is the Feast of the Holy Family which is normally the Sunday within the Octave of Christmas.
An Octave is an eight-day extension of a particular feast. At one time, the Church held as many as 20 octaves associated with various feasts. In the simplification of ecclesiastical calendar in 1969, the Solemnities of Christmas and Easter are the only two feasts retaining Octaves.
Veneration of the Holy Family was formally instituted by the first bishop of Quebec in the last quarter of the 17th century.
It was instituted as a liturgical feast by Pope Leo XIII in 1893 as the Sunday within the Octave of the Epiphany (that is one week later than now). In the Extraordinary Form (the liturgical usage of 1962) it falls on the Octave day of the Epiphany – or January 13.
In instituting the Feast at the end of the the 19th century, Pope Leo XIII indicated that among the fruits of devotion to the Holy Family in the home:
charity is likely to be maintained in the family … a good influence is thus exerted over conduct … the practice of virtue is thus incited … and thus the hardships … are both mitigated and made easier to bear.He further indicated that:
Joseph [gives fathers a] model of … vigilance and care. [Mary gives] mothers … an excellent example of love, modesty … [and] faith. And in Jesus … children … have a divine pattern of obedience …
In our own time, Pope Francis calls on all families to “find precious guidance for the style and choices of life, and … [to] draw strength and wisdom for each day’s journey” from the example of the Holy Family.
As we approach this altar to receive the Sacred Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ … let us each from within our own family … seek to model our lives on the virtues and example of the Holy Family of Nazareth. May we always look to Jesus, Mary, and Joseph for guidance, strength, example, and perseverance.
