The Holy Family of Jesus Mary and Joseph

Detail of the apse mosaic in the St Joseph's chapel of Westminster Cathedral. It was installed in 2003, and the designer is Christopher Hobbs who worked with mosaic artist, Tessa Hunkin.

"When they had done everything the Law of the Lord required, they went back to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. Meanwhile the child grew to maturity, and he was filled with wisdom; and God’s favour was with him." - Luke 2:40.

Today, as the church celebrates this great feast of the Holy Family, we are reminded that the family, my family and your family is the fundamental project and pursuit of the human person. It is the place in which human life begins, is nurtured, and is cherished. In the family, the human person learns to love by being loved, and learns that each person has an incalculable dignity that must be respected and affirmed in small or great ways each day.

In the family, man and woman, husband and wife, mother and father, live a gift of self to each other, and, as an expression of this gift, welcome new life that is entrusted to them. When we were children, we were supposed to experience from our mother and father, the full range of complimentary human experiences and emotions, learning naturally that the human person is a being that comes from love, that must live in and longs for an experience of love, and for which the pursuit of an eternal, transcendent love is the ultimate desire.

In this experience of the human person as male and female, and as coming from and going to love, the family finds its role as the cradle and school of humanity.

Through the eyes of faith, the family mirrors the great mystery of the of love which is the Trinity. God is an eternal communion of love, a communion of three divine persons. The family is a unique institution, Civic and Religious life rely on the family  to develop future citizens and saints. These citizens and saints, nurtured within the family, are in turn, called upon to assist and defend the family in its great task, which is the generation and formation of LIFE!