“Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true man. Blessed be the great Mother of God, Mary most holy. Blessed be Saint Joseph, her most chaste spouse. Blessed be God in His angels and in His Saints.”  I love my family. And thanks be to God and to the Holy Family for showing me how to love my family and all of God’s family better. For teaching me how to love family from the bottom of my heart; the most profound place where God dwells, where God gives, where God heals, where God forgives. It is a holy desire of mine to live with and through the Holy Family so I can experience immense joy and profound love always to help me get through difficult and challenging times. I must confess that I couldn’t always say that I loved family from the bottom of my heart. At times, loving them was a bit of a struggle. It was difficult to love them because of the terrible things they said, the poor choices they made, their lack of faith, their hatred for the Church, their disrespect of God, their offenses towards me. Perhaps like some of you, I often wondered if I was switched at birth or perhaps I was sent to the wrong family or perhaps I was adopted. That would help explain why we are so different. But then I think and ponder the true and most relevant questions in discerning family love; who am I really and why am I really here?  Then my heart is moved with pity and I realize how selfish I’ve been – God helps me to see the error of my ways. I am a beloved child of God. Family is a gift from God. He has asked me to love him with all my heart and to love our families as God has loved me – which is with great mercy, understanding and compassion.  I think about all the things that made expressing my love for my family and God’s so challenging.  I now understand they could probably accuse me of the same things. In fact, God would be just in saying the same things about me. But thanks be to God for his love – his love is so forgiving, patient and kind. And now nothing can separate us from God’s love… except maybe our inability to love our own family and God’s family as God has loved us.  Jesus, Mary and Joseph our beloved and blessed Holy Family, please pray for us and for our families.