Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Joseph and Mary/B
Massimo Palombella
Today’s feast day has been celebrated locally since the 17th century. In 1895 Pope Leo XIII fixed the date on the third Sunday after Epiphany. In 1921, Pope Benedict XV extended the feast to the whole Church and set it on the Sunday in the octave of the Epiphany. Pope John XXIII moved it to the first Sunday after Epiphany. The Liturgical Reform of the Second Vatican Council placed this feast on the first Sunday after Christmas (if Christmas falls on a Sunday, it is celebrated on Friday, 30 December).
God made man wanted to be born, to grow up, to mature in a family, a reality that represents an indispensable point for each of us. In fact, no one can live “alone”, without maturing into fatherhood, motherhood, which is the essence of the family, the point of synthesis of our sexuality, which alone ensures that our life has that inner quality that makes it truly worth living.
In the Ambrosian Rite, the Feast of the Holy Family is placed on the last Sunday of January (3rd or 4th Sunday after Epiphany), remaining faithful to the oldest collocation. The entrance antiphon of today’s celebration in the Ambrosian Rite is taken from the book of Proverbs (Pro 23, 24) with the following text:
“Exsultet gaudio pater iusti gaudeat Pater tuus
et Mater tua et exsultet quae genuit in te.”
(Let the father of the just man exult with joy,
let the mother who begot him rejoice).
The attached music, in Ambrosian Chant, is taken from the Antiphonale Missarum Iuxta Ritum Sanctæ Ecclesiæ Mediolanensis, published in Rome in 1935, which, to date, is the only “official” book of Ambrosian Chant for the Eucharistic Celebration. The live performance is by the Musical Chapel of the Duomo of Milan at the Chapter Celebration on 29 January 2023.
A blessed Sunday and heartfelt greetings.
