Our Lady of Loreto (Dec. 10th)

By Fr. Conor Donnelly

(Proofread)

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins and grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

The Holy House of Nazareth, where Our Lady was born, is still preserved in Loreto. In this sandstone and brick home that has been the site of many pilgrimages throughout the ages, Our Lady received from the Angel the message concerning her divine maternity. The image of Our Lady currently on display there replaces one from the 16th century that was destroyed during a fire in 1921.

Devotion to Our Lady under the invocation “Our Lady of Loreto” is linked to the house of the Holy Family in Nazareth. Our Lady lived there after her betrothal to St. Joseph.

The holy Patriarch carefully prepared this home in order to provide the best possible place for Our Lady and for the Child who was to come. From the beginning, though, this house was Mary's home.

“Every home worthy of the name is above all a sanctuary created by the mother.” Pope St. John Paul II says, “She is the one to set it up in accordance with her particular personality.” God desires that “all children of the human family are born into the world within the protective warmth of a family” (John Paul II, Homily, September 8, 1979).

Pope St. John Paul II likes to say the family is “the sanctuary of life” (John Paul II, Encyclicals, Evangelium vitae, Points 6, 11, 59, 88, 92, 94, March 25, 1995 and Centesimus annus, May 1, 1991), “the school of deeper humanity” (John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation, Familiaris consortio, Point 21, November 22, 1981, and Vatican II, Gaudium et spes, Point 52, December 7, 1965).

The school of love. The school of the home. The school of the soul. These days of Advent are a particularly interesting time to make this school function in a special way.

“All children need to have a roof over their heads. All the ancestors of Christ that are mentioned in the lineage that we read in the Gospel these days came into the world with that privilege.

“We know that the home in Nazareth was not the birthplace of the Son of Mary, the Son of God. Jesus was born far from home, in a stable at Bethlehem. He couldn't even go back to his own place in Nazareth on account of King Herod's edict that all infants in Bethlehem had to be slaughtered (Matt. 2:16-18).

“St. Joseph was obliged to flee with the Holy Family to Egypt. Only after Herod was dead did the Holy Patriarch dare to take Mary and the Child back to Nazareth.

“From the time of their return from exile, the Holy Family would have shared their daily life in this house, hidden for the most part from the world's view. Their home was the first Church to be illuminated by the affection of Mary's maternity”—the first domestic Church.

“In the midst of the ordinary work these most beloved creatures of God carried out, she most certainly must have lit up their home with a radiant cheerfulness that had its roots in the great mystery of the Incarnation, the mystery of her divine Son” (John Paul II, Homily, September 8, 1979).

Mutual care and respect permeated the life of the Holy Family. Their home must surely have been a model for all Christian homes because it must have been clean and pleasant, complete with the kind of modest adornments that would have contributed towards the elevated human tone of sensibility and good taste.

I heard a very talented architect once say that it's the little things in the home, the little material things, that can create that sense of good taste and culture.

Each person in that home would have served the other members of the family gladly. The tranquil order of their family life would have created an atmosphere in which Jesus and Joseph would find rest after a full day's work.

A regular meal timetable, get-togethers, family time—we take good care that our own homes are decorous and orderly, preferably without ostentation or extravagance.

Family life can thrive in a climate of mutual trust and affection. In such an atmosphere it's easy to carry out our daily affairs in the presence of God.

By staying close to Our Lady's side, we will continue to discover ways of practicing charity with those we live with, and in this way, turn the most mundane material concerns into occasions of expressing our love for God with deeds.

The “light of the world” (John 8:12) dwelt in the house of the Holy Family in Nazareth. This reality must have suffused every deed carried out there and have been the background in all the human interaction of those three.

The perfect naturalness of their dealings with each other would have made their home a byword in the neighborhood for its wholesome cleanliness and neat condition.

Everyone would contribute in some way towards the material maintenance of the home, with Our Lady preparing the meals, mending clothes, and eager to keep the house attractive through attention to so many details. We can imagine the affection with which she must have served Jesus and St. Joseph since her love for God would bring her to have their needs constantly in mind.

She would be aware of the hour that they were stopping for a break and of the time at the end of the day when they would bring their work to completion.

The Son of God grew in an environment of intimate family warmth, where each person served the others, until the time foreordained for Him to begin preaching throughout the towns and villages of Galilee. He would always treasure the memory of that simple and pleasant home in Nazareth, that modestly cultivated, far from affluent, but humanly attractive place in which He grew up.

The Mother of Jesus preserved in her heart those small, ordinary events in the life of her Son which were the joy of her soul. She “pondered all these things carefully in her heart” (cf. Luke 2:19, 51).

In Christ Is Passing By, St. Josemaría says: “We can't forget that Mary spent nearly every day of her life just like millions of other women who look after their families, bringing up their children and taking care of the house. Mary sanctifies the ordinary, everyday things—what some people wrongly regard as unimportant: everyday work, looking after those closest to you, visits to friends and relatives. What a blessed ordinariness, that can be so full of love of God!” (Josemaría Escrivá, Christ Is Passing By, Point 148).

God desires that all children be born and raised in a home that to a degree is similar to the home of the Holy Family, where Our Lady as the Mother was the heart of the home.

Although women are called to carry out other important functions for the good of society, their dedication to the children and to the immediate concerns of the home are of fundamental importance.

Here, above all, through a thousand and one details, mothers can effectively nurture their children. This task is the most significant commission each of them receives from the Lord.

Christian couples should never forget, St. Josemaría said, “that the secret of married happiness lies in everyday things, not in daydreams. It lies in finding the hidden joy of coming home in the evening; in affectionate relations with their children, in everyday work in which the whole family cooperates; in good humor in the face of difficulties that should be met with a cheerful spirit; in making the best use of all the advances that civilization offers to help us bring up children, to make the house pleasant and life more simple” (J. Escrivá, Conversations, Point 91).

The Holy Family provides us with a model of family life that we can strive to imitate. St. Paul VI says: “Reflection on their life in Nazareth is the school where we begin to learn more about the life of Jesus. Through growing in our understanding of how things must have been in Our Lord's modest home, we can truly begin to understand the Gospel. Here we learn to meditate on and gradually penetrate the mysterious depths of the simple and charming life of the Son of God-made man. Little by little we learn how to imitate Our Lord's hidden life” (Paul VI, Address, January 5, 1964).

Often in our mental prayer, we can imagine ourselves as one more person working alongside Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. We can pause to consider the many details of affection they must have shared in the course of their daily family life.

We can ask ourselves today whether our homes reflect in some way the cheerful and friendly atmosphere of the Holy Family in Nazareth.

Do we keep up a spirit of service through attention to detail?

Do we strive to go out of our way to make life pleasant for other members of our family?

Are we making an effort to keep Our Lord at the center of our minds and hearts?

Do we tolerate the friction of little quarrels, or get too engrossed in what pertains strictly to our well-being?

Do we practice with true piety the Christian customs which help us to be more aware of God's presence in our lives, including Mass on Sundays and special feast days, blessings at meals, and other prayers said in common?

Pope Leo XIII said: “What a wonderful model of daily living the Holy Family offers us! These three provide us with the perfect example of a Christian home. Each person lives with tremendous simplicity in carrying out daily responsibilities while pursuing common goals with genuine mutual affection. There is no time for disordered or selfish pursuits. Each one carries out his or her particular responsibilities with such human and supernatural affection that others are edified to behold it” (Leo XIII, Encyclical,Laetitiae sanctae, Point 3).

We can look to the model of the Holy Family so that we continually learn how to imitate the example of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph in our own family life.

Affection in the family largely depends on the heart of the mother, whose role is hard to replace. Pope St. John Paul II liked to say that children fundamentally learn love from their mothers. The father has a role to play, but the mother is much more key.

It also depends on the personal gift of self of each member of the family. Every one of us is called continually to be aware of the needs of others and to safeguard the particular customs and traditions that we treasure at home.

It's important that we carry out our tasks in such a way that we always have some element of sacrifice in them that we can offer up for others when we are finished.

Our homes in this way will take on the flavor of family life found in the Holy Family at Nazareth. Seldom are there ever any extraordinary events there, since everything happens with complete naturalness. God awaits us also in the everyday services we are capable of rendering one another.

Our Lord is not asking us for spectacular sacrifices, but He does expect us to show our dedication to Him through the thousand and one details of service that we render to others in our family life—greeting with a smile the one who is most tired, carrying out punctually the many small duties living together entails, refraining from overreacting to issues that are not very important, controlling our moods, and so in general promoting a cheerful family atmosphere.

We can also strive to remember the birthdays and special anniversaries of the members in our own family so that we can quietly mark and celebrate those special days together.

Pope St. John Paul II prayed at the Sanctuary of Loreto. He said: “Accept, O Blessed Mother of the House of Loreto, my pilgrimage and that of all of us, as a common prayer for the family life of all the men and women of our age. We pray for the well-being of these homes, that they may prepare the sons and daughters of all to enter into the heavenly dwelling place of Our common Father in heaven (John Paul II, Address, September 8, 1979).

We can also remember today that special pilgrimage that St. Josemaría made to the House of Loreto in 1951 at a very important moment in the whole history of Opus Dei when he consecrated the whole of Opus Dei to the sweet Heart of Mary.

With the exception of Our Lady, St. Joseph is the most powerful intercessor in heaven, by reason of his personal holiness in taking care of the Holy Family. St. Joseph's intercession has a universal character which applies to every problem, be it material or spiritual, and to every person without distinction.

Pope St. Paul VI said: “A house lamp gives off a familiar and tranquil glow which is also intimate and confidential. It gives comfort in times of worry and separation. … So does the light of St. Joseph diffuse its rays in the House of God which is the Church. He fills the house with the wonderful memories of the days when God became man for our sake. God lived under the protection of a simple craftsman from Nazareth. St. Joseph is an incomparable example for us. He is the most blessed of saints because of his communion with Christ and Mary in service and love (Paul VI, Homily, March 19, 1966).

By the example of their life in Nazareth, Jesus and Mary invite us to seek Joseph's assistance. They frequently went to Joseph for help in all kinds of needs. Their attitude and behavior is a wonderful model for us to imitate.

Isidoro says: “When we go to Joseph for help, we should have no fear at all. We ought to have steadfast faith that what we are doing is most pleasing to God Almighty and the Queen of Angels” (Isidoro de Isolano, The Gifts of St. Joseph).

With the exception of God Himself, Our Lady loved no one more than she loved St. Joseph, her husband. Who can imagine the strength of Joseph's petition before Our Lady, Mediatrix of all graces?

Spiritual authors have seen fit often to make this comparison: “Christ is the one mediator before the Father, and the way to reach Christ is through Mary, his Mother. Similarly, the best way to reach Mary is through St. Joseph. The ascending order is from Joseph to Mary, from Mary to Christ, from Christ to the Father,” says one spiritual author (Boniface Llamera, Theology of St. Joseph).

The Church asks from St. Joseph the same support and protection that he gave to the Holy Family in Nazareth. The fatherly intercession of St. Joseph extends to the universal Church, especially to those souls who seek sanctity in their ordinary work, to Christian families, and also to those who are near death.

In Christ Is Passing By, St. Josemaría says: “I am sure Joseph knew how to lend a hand in many difficulties. ... His skilled work was in the service of others, to brighten the lives of others in the town; and with a friendly word. a passing quip, he would restore confidence and happiness to those in danger of losing them” (J. Escrivá, Christ Is Passing By, Point 51).

In the Gospels, St. Joseph is repeatedly referred to as father (Luke 2:27,33,41,48). Surely that's how Jesus must have called the Holy Patriarch in the intimacy of their home in Nazareth. Jesus was known in the community as “the son of Joseph” (cf. Luke 3:23).

Joseph would have fulfilled the duties corresponding to those of a father in the Holy Family. In these days of Advent, we can look to that role and mission of a father, of all that it entails, and of our growth in that pilgrimage of faith that we see in St. Joseph.

Joseph gave Jesus His name. He led the Holy Family into Egypt. He decided where they would live on their return to Palestine. Jesus obeyed Joseph as if he were his natural father. “And he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them” (Luke 2:51).

Jesus was conceived miraculously by the action of the Holy Spirit. He was born from the virginal womb of Mary according to the divine will. God wanted Jesus to be born within a family, to be raised by a father and mother. Just as God chose Mary to be His Mother, God chose Joseph from among all men to be His father.

St. Joseph behaved and felt like a father to Jesus. He had an ardent love for the Son of God and the Mother of God. This love was even greater than the natural love a natural father may have for his natural son. This is because Joseph cared for Jesus as a son, and at the same time worshipped Him as his God.

He was greatly moved at the sight of a God who would give Himself so generously for the good of mankind. This amazing spectacle caused Joseph to love Jesus in an ever-increasing way.

Joseph loved Jesus almost as if he had really begotten Him. He looked upon Jesus as a wondrous gift God had bestowed on him in his ordinary human life. Joseph consecrated his energies, his time, his greatest concern, his care to this gift. He sought no compensation other than the opportunity to give more of himself.

His love was strong and sweet, tranquil and fervent, emotional and tender. We can think of Joseph with Jesus in his arms, teaching the child songs, watching over his sleep, making his little toys, and treating the child with the affection shown by any parent.

Joseph must have often been humbled at the awesome thought that the Son of God also wanted to be his Son. So we can ask St. Joseph to teach us how to love and cherish the Child Jesus as he did.

We can entrust our home to St. Joseph, and also to Our Lady of Loreto, that she may help us to take care of it as though it was the house of God Himself.

May each person be able to grow in the practice of the human and supernatural virtues in our home. May we be able to find a place of refuge in which to regain our strength, so that we can return to our work and apostolate with renewed vigor.

We pray that the place where each of our family stays may be, as Pope St. John Paul II said in Familiaris Consortio, “a home resplendent with loving mutual concern so that each day every member of it can be moved with the warmth and affection of the others.”

May our family life be a foretaste of heaven, an anticipation of eternal life.

Our Lady of Loreto, pray for us.

I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations that you have communicated to me during this meditation. I ask your help to put them into practice. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

MVF