Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish - Los Alamos, NM
Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish - Los Alamos, NM
The Holy Family Monthly Home Visit is to promote prayer (pray for families); formation (work to increase your faith); charity (give assistance to a family in need); to transform each Christian family into a “holy family and each home into a new Nazareth.
The Holy Family Monthly Home Visit offers a rewarding challenge to all families. This devotion encourages the practice of the virtues shared by Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Those gathered in prayer around the Holy Family Chapel are guided to a deepening appreciation of the mysteries made manifest in Nazareth with regard to Christian marriage and the family.
This devotion is open to everyone: families, single parents, single persons and non-Catholic families and individuals.
The Pilgrim Statue of Jesus, Mary and Joseph journeys in the form of a portable chapel (Capillita, small church) from one home to another on a given day each month.
Each month the Holy Family travels to the homes of "member families" that have been arranged as a "Coro." One family is selected from the Coro to be the leader family (“Celador-a”). The Celador-a ensures the Family Chapel is passed on in a timely manner.
Each family assumes the responsibility of welcoming into their home the Holy Family for one day per month. When the Holy Family Chapel is received the member family prays the welcome prayer and other prayers. The member family prays the farewell prayer before delivering the Holy Family Chapel to the next member family. During the time that the Holy Family spends in each home, the family members are urged to read, meditate, and pray around the Holy Family Chapel.
We would like to invite you to join the Holy Family Association. The Holy Family Association is a laity organization dedicated to the promotion of family values. It is an official gathering of Christian families, which proclaims the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph as the model of all Christian families. In other words "A NAZARETH IN EACH HOME."
All Coros and members celebrate in a special way the following feast days:
Feast of the Holy Family (the Sunday after Christmas)
Feast of the Immaculate Conception (8 December)
Feast of Saint Joseph (19 March)
Feast of Blessed Joseph Manyanet (16 December)
Consecration to the Holy Family is accomplished by reciting in public
the approved formula in the presence of the pastor or properly designated
priest. The names of the consecrated family members are then inscribed in the
Association’s record book. The National Council will issue a corresponding
certificate of membership. Consecration will be an annual event.
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Concha Collier, Ray and Marvine Garcia worked with Father Carney, Deacon Don Lucero and Father Julio Gonzales, Pastor of the Holy Family parish in Chimayo at that time, to establish the Devotion of the Holy Family Monthly Home Visit here in Los Alamos. Father Julio Gonzales explained the origin of the visitation program and how it was organized here in Northern New Mexico. This devotion was instituted by Pope Leo XIII in 1892 with the specific purpose “to promote the honor, imitation and devotion of the Holy Family in a way that all families might come to model themselves after the Family of Nazareth” through an approved form of consecration.
The founder of this devotion is Joseph Manyanet; dedicated blessed in 1984 by Pope John Paul II. The Process has nearly been finalized so that he may receive the honor of the saint with the Canonization.
Anyone interested in signing up for the Holy Family Monthly Home Visit should call the Parish Office 662-6193.