Tag: Family

The “brothers” of Jesus

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A friend recently sent me a Facebook message asking about a passage from the Bible she had heard at Mass:

“Can you shed light on the “brothers” of Jesus in the gospel today for me? James, Joseph, Simon and Judas…” 

The passage referred to was from Matthew’s Gospel:

They were astonished [at Jesus] and said, “Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds? Is he not the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother named Mary and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? Are not his sisters all with us? …”  – Matthew 13:54-58

So what do we make of these guys, these “brothers” of Jesus?

Mary, Mary, quite contrary…

The Catholic Church teaches that Mary was not only a virgin at the time of Jesus’ birth, but also that she remained a virgin for the rest of her life. However, doesn’t the above passage mention the “brothers…[and]…sisters” of Jesus? Doesn’t that prove that Mary had other children after Christ?

As you can imagine this issue is often raised in Catholic-Protestant dialogue, since the doctrine of the Perpetual Virginity of Mary found in Sacred Tradition seems to many Protestants to obviously contradict Sacred Scripture.

There’s a lot which could be said on this subject, but in this post I would like to offer a brief response and explain how Catholics understand the mention of Jesus’ “brothers”.

Mary

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I now have a Goddaughter-in-law!

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A while ago I wrote a short post about my friend Mike. He was Baptized at the Easter Vigil this year and I had the honour of being his Godfather. Well, the ol’ boy just chalked up another Sacrament! A couple of weeks ago he married my former neighbor, Mara.

For Better For Worse

Back when I began Restless Pilgrim I wrote a post entitled Early Church Fathers, Love & Romance and I was going to end this current post with my favourite quotation from St. John Chrysostom, but I thought instead that I’d end with a Scripture as Mike and Mara really did a superb job of choosing the Readings for the wedding. The Second Reading they chose was the same one I read for my sister at her wedding…

…I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. – Ephesians 3:14-19

I’d appreciate it if you’d say a prayer for them tonight 🙂

Wise Words on Wednesday: Dysfunctional Families

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Dysfunctional Family

Sure, there are problems in the Church, but what family doesn’t have problems? Noah had problems, Moses had problems, David had problems, and so did Saul. But this is why we need as much of Christ as we can get. There simply is no greater source of grace in the world than the Eucharist. Humble yourself before the King of Kings and allow Him to satisfy your soul. He died to feed you. – Jeff Cavins, “I’m not being fed!”