Pray what Jesus said and another 4 virtues of the sacred family applicable in a Christian home

The priest Manuel VargasEpiscopal Vicar for the Los Angeles hill in the Diocese of Getafe (Madrid), has published this month of January, his fourth book, Silences that speakwith word editions. The priest already detailed to religion in freedom that his book, developed under the subtitle Spiritual Exercises of San Ignacio and based on them, intends to offer and expand “A method that helps make decisions from truth And in friendship with Jesus Christ, in a world where so many people act reactively, following fashions or external pressures. ”

In a disoriented world, the priest intends to propose to the reader a way of living with which “reinforce identity, give answers to many questions and provide a clear orientation. ” Although full of meditations, the book also offers the reader a multitude of practical resources to apply In its day to day, as is the chapter dedicated to the Sagrada Familia.

Here, Vargas invites us to compare the religious families themselves with the humanity and familiarity of Jesus, José and Mary, collecting the virtues and features of the Holy Family that can be replicated In all homes. Doing it, says the priest, will contribute to “the Lord is more present and there is more peace and joy.”

1st affection and cordiality

The priest details that living the first feature of the sacred family, affection and cordiality is today a whole example of “counterculture”.

The priest speaks of households in which he is not lacking and in which, however, they transmit the impression that There is no heat from home, honey of one another or where an individualism such that It seems more a hotel than a home familiar.

What shows the Holy Family, he explains, “is exactly the opposite: they do not have comfort, they have no appliance and yet They are enormously happy because they have what is essentialhave whoever loves and who loves you. ”

The important thing, he adds, “is to have a place where one rests the heart, not because he has a very modern mattress, but because there is to taste, because one feels respected and loved. What builds a family is communication, affection, affection, the one that they leave themselvesof his own selfishness, to be at the service of others. And so it happens in the Holy Family of San José. ”

How could that move to today? For the priest “a deeply Christian family is a family in which Loads are distributed of the home, in which there is no person who carries everything while the others live as a hotel guests, in which Each one contributes what he can, what he knows, what is in his handand in this way a delicious environment is built. ”

2nd that the Lord is present

The second feature that allows imitating the hidden life of the Lord as a family is to sketch in practice the trust in God and prayer that could occur in the Holy Family. According to this, the family would seek to keep in mind God and that their home is one in which it is prayed.

When the Lord is allowed to enter the home and the family, he explains, “You can fill the environment with your grace and make it more cheerful and peaceful. When We pray togethercome on to Mass togetherwhen there is a time to get the rosary and entrust us to the Virgin, when children are teach sentences since childhood… all that contributes to the Lord being present and there is more peace and joy. ”

As a climax, the priest proposes to imitate the sacred family Praying even the same thing Jesus, José and María. “The psalms prayed, like all pious families. Praying the liturgy of the hours is to unite to God, using the same words that taught the child as a child: Jesus grew up knowing prayersthe prayers that his parents had taught him, which he repeated until his death. ”

3º A virtuous life

There are many examples with which the Holy Family can be imitated living a virtuous life, for the priest a life “in which each one puts on their part the best to contribute to a harmonious environment for others” and that, to put them In practice, “they are The secret to having a happy family” Among all virtues, some domestic stands out as they are:

–Helpful: “Make ourselves available to others to take a hand, take out the garbage, put the table, scrub the dishes …”

–Punctuality: “Do not wait for others, but try to get on time”

–Order: “Have each thing in its place and that we dedicate the necessary time to each thing. It helps to be predictable people since everything works better. It is a sign that a person is virtuous, that he has a well -built heart, with inner maturity ”

–Happiness: “Do not walk by the cat three feet, but look at the positive aspect of all things, bury the complaint, be pleasant with others, try to infect hope, illusion …”

–Obedience: “It is about the children learn that at home there are two people who are the ones who make the most important decisions and that, because of the experience they have and the responsibility that God has given them, it is to them to those who have to pay attention always. A son who is aware that he is disobedient since childhood will be a capricious and a tyrant and that, in the long run, will end up making him an unhappy guy who will harm others. ”

–Industriousness: “Joseph was not an idle man, who did not live from the income, who did not spend the day resting, but to take the bread to the table of his wife and the child he would have to work. I would have to get up early to fulfill the deadlines and make the orders well. We must not consent to be lazy, vague or negligent. ”

4th Austerity and modesty

As another of the virtues always present in the sacred family from beginning to end, Vargas refers to Austerity as a “deeply Christian value”; consisting of “having what is necessary to live without sticking to things, that we are happy with what we have already achieved, that we do not greedily ambitions, that we do not live with permanent dissatisfaction for what has already been achieved”

Thus, he details how the Holy Family not only lives with continuous austerity-“they have what they need to live, without ambition or greed, without whims, without accumulating superfluous and unnecessary things”-but also, but also They also live with modesty, “without showingwithout presuming, they do not try to show off what they have achieved. It is a discreet life, a simple family that does not seek popularity … The sacred family spent 30 years of anonymous, common life, inadvertent, to the point that their neighbors did not know that they were “the sacred family.”

5th Being in the world without being from the world

Finally, the Episcopal Vicar for the Los Angeles Hill remarks that Jesus, José and María “They are in the world without being mundane”

The Holy Family “does not live isolated” explains, but “lives insert in the world” and yet “discard everything that smells like worldnessto sin, to superficiality, to frivolity, everything that does not please God. They have the courage to be different. They have the value of daring to be different. Also today, a family that wants to be deeply Christian has to live with this style. ” For Vargas, this does not mean isoking or getting into a bubble, but “being really Christian families” means “Live inserts in society, but with deeply Christian criteria”