Day 6: The Holy Family

The sixth day of the Infant of Prague Novena turns to a dimension of the Catholic Christ Child devotion that is sometimes underemphasized: the Christ Child in the home of Joseph and Mary at Nazareth. The Catholic devotion to the Infant of Prague includes implicitly the contemplation of the Holy Family of Nazareth, the household in which the Christ Child grew up, and the Catholic family is invited to model itself on this household.

Today's invocation

O Most gracious Infant Jesus, I have recourse to You... (the full opening prayer)

Today's meditation

The Gospel of Saint Luke records the years of the Lord Jesus' growth at Nazareth in two brief passages: "And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him" (Luke 2:40) and "And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man" (Luke 2:52). The Catholic tradition has read these brief verses as a window into the hidden years of the Lord at Nazareth: the years from the Finding in the Temple at age twelve to the beginning of the public ministry at about age thirty, lived in obscurity in the carpenter's home of Joseph and Mary.

The Catholic devotion to the Holy Family was established as a universal Catholic feast by Pope Leo XIII in his apostolic letter Neminem Fugit of 1892 and was placed in the universal Roman Calendar with its current date (the Sunday after Christmas) by Pope Benedict XV. The feast celebrates the household of Joseph, Mary, and the Christ Child as the Catholic model of family life. The Catholic family is invited to imitate the Holy Family of Nazareth in the daily disciplines of the home: the family prayer, the family meals, the family work, the family rest, the gathering for Sunday Mass, the keeping of the liturgical year together.

The Infant of Prague devotion connects naturally to the Holy Family devotion. The Christ Child of the Prague statue is the same Christ Child who grew up in the home of Joseph and Mary. The royal vestments of the statue, with their changing liturgical colors, are themselves a Catholic invitation to honor the Christ Child throughout the year as the Holy Family honored Him in their daily lives at Nazareth.

Today's intention

Today, in addition to your principal intention, place your own family under the patronage of the Holy Family. Divine Infant Jesus, who grew up in the home of Joseph and Mary at Nazareth, bless my own home. Make it a home in which You are welcomed. Bless my spouse, my children, my parents, my siblings. Make us a Catholic family on the model of the Holy Family.

If you have not yet enthroned an image of the Holy Family or of the Infant of Prague in your home, today is a fitting day to consider doing so. The traditional Catholic practice is to place an image of the Christ Child or the Holy Family in a place of honor in the family room or kitchen, with a small candle or flower offering in front of it. The Catholic practice is part of the broader Catholic discipline of enthronement (the formal Catholic act of placing the home under the patronage of the Lord, the Holy Family, the Sacred Heart, or another Catholic devotion).

Reflection

The Catholic spiritual tradition has long observed that the Catholic family is the principal Catholic mission field of the laity. The Catholic faithful are sometimes inclined to think that the real apostolate is the public preaching, the missionary work, the public Catholic charity. The Catholic Church teaches consistently that the Catholic family itself, lived faithfully under the protection of the Holy Family, is the principal apostolate of the Catholic laity. The children formed in a Catholic home are the future of the Catholic Church.

The Infant of Prague Novena, with its sixth day's emphasis on the Holy Family, is a Catholic invitation to recognize and to renew this family apostolate. The novena is fruitful not principally when it produces dramatic answers to crisis prayers (though it does that) but when it gradually forms the Catholic family in the daily disciplines of life under the patronage of the Christ Child.

Closing prayers

Conclude with the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Glory Be.

Divine Infant Jesus, who grew up in the home of Joseph and Mary, bless our families. Make us holy households on the model of the Holy Family of Nazareth.