Hymn
Lord, who to share creative life
Created mankind man and wife,
To be with You creators of
The objects of Your endless love;
As Jesus loves the Church His bride,
Let our love be intensified,
Let love of one another be
Our pledge of love eternally.
Through Jesus Christ let this be done,
Who lives and reigns, our Lord, Your Son,
Whom with the Spirit we adore,
One God with You forevermore.
Antiphon
P. Happy they who dwell in your house! / Continually they praise you.
(Psalm 127)
All: Happy are you who fear the Lord, who walk in his ways!
For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork; / happy shall you be, and favored.
Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine / in the recesses of your home.
Your children like olive plants / around your table.
Behold, thus is the man blessed / who fears the Lord.
The Lord bless you from Zion; / may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life;
May you see your children’s children. / Peace be upon Israel!
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, / and to the Holy Spirit,
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be / world without end. Amen.
Antiphon
All: Happy they who dwell in your house! / Continually they praise you.
P. (Chapter–Psalm 26:4-5) One thing I ask of the Lord: this I seek: to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may gaze on the loveliness of the Lord and contemplate his temple. For he will hide me in his abode in the day of trouble; he will conceal me in the shelter of his tent; he will set me high upon a rock.
R. Thanks be to God.
V. I will make all your children to be taught of the Lord.
R. And an abundance of peace to your children.
V. The Lord be with you.
R. And with your spirit.
Let us pray.
V. We offer You the sacrifice of praise, O Lord, and humbly pray that through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, Mother of God, and of Saint Joseph, You may establish our families in peace and grace, through the same Christ our Lord.
R. Amen.
V. St. Isidore.
R. Pray for us.
Prayer in Honor of Saint Isidore
All: O God, who taught Adam the simple art of tilling the soil, / and who through Jesus Christ, the true vine, / revealed Yourself the husbandman of our souls, / deign, we pray, through the merits of blessed Isidore, / to instill into our hearts a horror of sin and a love of prayer, / so that, working the soil in the sweat of our brow, / we may enjoy eternal happiness in heaven, through the same Christ our Lord.
R. Amen.
V. The Lord be with you.
R. And with your spirit.
V. Let us bless the Lord
R. Thanks be to God.
V. May the souls of the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace. R. Amen.
REFLECTION
Christian marriage is a union in Christ between man and woman. It is a vocation of mutual love and fidelity in which each partner helps the other to draw closer to God, and the grace received by the husband and wife in the sacrament of matrimony strengthens them toward the achievement of this end. Since the rural family is the very foundation of the vocation of farming, it is providential that God should have raised up a holy family, St. Isidore and his wife, S. Maria de la Cabeza, to be the patrons of rural people. He wanted to teach us that the combination of the work of farming with the cares and obligations of family life can be a sure road to sanctity.
St. Isidore and S. Maria de la Cabeza exemplified the Christian ideal of land-home-family-work-worship in every aspect of their daily lives.
Moreover, the Church has traditionally regarded a home on the land as the ideal place in which to develop genuine Christian family life. Pius XII gave expression to this belief in his address to farmers (November 15, 1946): “Your lives are rooted in the family–universally, deeply, and completely; consequently, they conform very closely to nature. In this fact lies your economic strength and your ability to withstand adversity in critical times. Your being so strongly rooted in the family constitutes the importance of your contribution to the correct development of the private and public order of society.”
Farming is a family enterprise which tends to weld the family together. Mother and father are usually within calling distance of each other and see each other several times a day. The children can be at their parents’ side to watch them and learn to work with them. There are many little tasks, which children can perform that contribute to the family welfare and allow them to acquire experience and habits of responsibility. It is not without reason that the rural home has been called the “natural dwelling place for the Christian family.”
Recite the Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be (etc.), three times, followed by the prayer of your choice for special needs.
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