Dear Lord, bless our family. Be so kind as to give us the unity, peace, and mutual love that You found in Your own family in the little town of Nazareth.

Saint Joseph, bless the head of our family. Obtain for him the strength, the wisdom, and the prudence he needs to support and direct those under his care.

Mother Mary, bless the mother of our family. Help her to be pure and kind, gentle and self-sacrificing. For the more she resembles you, the better will our family be.

Lord Jesus, bless the children of our family. Help them to be obedient and devoted to their parents. Make them more and more like You. Let them grow, as You did, in wisdom and age and grace before God and man.

Holy Family of Nazareth, make our family and home more and more like Yours, until we are all one family, happy and at peace in our true home with You. Amen.

“Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means “God is with us.”

Matthew 1:23

Matthew 11:10-11

In those days John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea (and) saying, “Repent,  for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”  It was of him that the prophet Isaiah had spoken when he said:  “A voice of one crying out in the desert, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.”

- Matthew 1:1-3 

Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into. So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.

Matthew 25 : 42-44

Prayer

O Emmanuel, Jesus Christ,  desire of every nation, Savior of all peoples, come and dwell among us.

Jesus, You are the King of kings - You are sovereign in all situations. You conquer earthly kings and kingdoms and spiritual rulers of darkness; You have made us seated with You in the heavenly places. Jesus, You are the King of creation. Jesus, You are King of the universe.   Glory to You, Lord Jesus, You are Christ the King and You must reign till You have put all enemies under Your feet; till every evil force, every sickness and every sin is conquered.

- Praises to the Lord Jesus Christ

From Today’s Gospel :

Then he said,
“Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
He replied to him,
“Amen, I say to you,
today you will be with me in Paradise.”

- Luke 23: 42-43

Jesus said to them, “The children of this age marry and remarry; but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. They can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise. That the dead will rise even Moses made known in the passage about the bush, when he called ‘Lord’ the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob;  and he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”

- Luke 20:34-38

And Jesus said to him,
“Today salvation has come to this house
because this man too is a descendant of Abraham.
For the Son of Man has come to seek
and to save what was lost.”

- Luke 19: 9-11

He then addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else. “Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, ‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity–greedy, dishonest, adulterous–or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.’ But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’ I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

- Luke 18: 9-14

” Be persistent in your prayers “

The Lord said, “Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says.  Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them?  I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

Luke 18: 6-8