Today we celebrate the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph and the unconditional love they share with each other. The following prayer of blessing of families is from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
We bless your name, O Lord, for sending your own incarnate Son,
to become part of a family, so that, as he lived its life,
he would experience its worries and its joys.
We ask you, Lord, to protect and watch over this family,
so that in the strength of your grace its members may enjoy prosperity,
possess the priceless gift of your peace, and, as the Church alive in the home,
bear witness in this world to your glory.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
We thank our friends at Kevin Lyons & The Marvil Family Funeral Home and at White/Luttrell Funeral Homes for providing our beautiful 2025 parish calendars. The following is a prayer for the New Year from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Let us praise the Lord of days, seasons, and years, saying:
Glory to God in the highest! R/. And peace to his people on earth.
Our lives are made of days and nights, of seasons and years,
for we are part of a universe of suns, moons, and planets.
We mark ends and we make beginnings, and, in all, we
praise God for the grace and mercy that fill our days.
A reading from the Book of Genesis:
God said: “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky, to separate day from night. Let them mark the fixed times, the days and the years, and serve as luminaries in the dome of the sky, to shed light upon the earth.” And so it happened: God made the two great lights, the greater one to govern the day, and the lesser one to govern the night; and he made the stars. God set them in the dome of the sky, to shed light upon the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. God saw how good it was. Evening came, and morning followed—the fourth day. Reader: The Word of the Lord. R/. Thanks be to God.
After a time of silence, members of the household offer prayers of thanksgiving for the past year, and of intercession for the year to come. Let us now pray for God’s blessing in the new year.
Remember us, O God;
from age to age be our comforter.
You have given us the wonder of time,
blessings in days and nights, seasons, and years.
Bless your children at the turning of the year
and fill the months ahead with the bright hope
that is ours in the coming of Christ.
You are our God, living and reigning, forever and ever.
R/. Amen.