I have been told of situations where parents, arriving home, realize that they have unknowingly left one of the children at church, or school, or a sporting event.
          One such experience is told by my cousin, Bruce McCarty, who is also a priest.  He is one of 15 children. He tells the story that every Christmas Eve his entire family traveled to their grandparents’ house to eat and to exchange gifts. One Christmas, as they were driving home, the kids loaded in the station wagon realized that one of them was not in the car. One child had been left behind, but no one wanted to tell their mom and dad. They wanted to get home and see what Santa had left under the tree. Imagine their surprise when they got home, and their parents made all of them go back to pick up the lost child.
            Traveling back from Jerusalem after the feast of the Passover, Joseph and Mary realize that their child, Jesus, is not with them. They thought he was walking with some of the other relatives. Upon learning that he is missing, they return to Jerusalem, and after three days of searching, they find him in the temple. Worried sick and filled with anxiety, his mother says to him, “Son, why have you done this to us?” And he responds by saying, “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”
            We all know the feeling of worry and anxiety that Joseph and Mary felt as they desperately searched for Jesus. In our own and varied ways, we have experienced the grief of loss. We’ve experienced the anxiety of someone doing something to us that we couldn’t imagine that they would do. Whatever our family may look like -- traditional, separated, divorced, widowed, a single parent or a foster child, fractured or united -- we know the joys, the sorrows and the hardships of being part of families. We, too, have searched for Jesus when we have lost him, and when finally we have found him, we also found compassion and even a challenge, but certainly forgiveness and unconditional love.
            As we find Jesus here in this temple, I would like to pray with you a prayer for families. As part of a family myself, I understand what we experience in relationship to family and the need for prayer.

God, we are sons and daughters, and we seek your strength for anything that we have failed to do with our parents, living or deceased. Remind us that there is no advanced training on how to be a parent; they all start as amateurs. Help us to forgive our parents and, if we can, tell and show them our love; aid them, dear God, in receiving this love. 

Holy God, if we are widowed, you know that we were not through loving our spouse. We ask you to help us in our grief and loneliness.  Bring our deceased loved one to mind now, God, and help us smile at the memories of this love and the good we shared together. 

God, some of us are single by choice; some are not.  Come and be with us who are single. Help us use our freedom to work for the love of others in our world and in our Church.  Bless us in the times that we’re alone -- and in our times of companionship. 

Today, loving God, as members of this Church family, we seek your love in the depths of our hearts. Help us find forgiveness for anything that we have done or failed to do. Bring us closer as a family by helping us let go of past grudges, resentments and past sins. 

God, you have given some of us a spouse to love. They are our main love. In marriage we said that we would be Christ for each other and show your kingdom on earth. Help us do that; each day, help us love our spouse -- to tell them-- to show them -- to wink at them -- to forgive them -- to say “I love you” every day. 

God, if we are divorced or separated, shower your grace upon us. Be our spouse and love, dear God. Help us grow in acceptance and strength. Help us move from the past and know that you are with us and that you love us. 

God, you have called priests and religious to service in our world and in our Church.  In recent years, we have come to know of the hurt that some of these have caused. May the institutional church never cause us to stay away from you. May you assist us in lives of faith and help us to help them by creating this family we call Church. 

Lord God, help us put on love, which pulls us together into your one family.  

We thank you and we praise you for the gift of the human family, and, as the Body of Christ on this our family Feast, we close our prayer by praying together -- Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

sdrose@bellsouth.net
1-8-2007