Holy Family Church

At the start of Advent, Holy Family will host 40 Hours with Mary waiting for Jesus. This 40-Hours Devotion from Friday, December 3 through Sunday, December 5 will invite us to pause, reflect, and patiently pray with Mary for the coming joys of Christ’s birth. The Forty Hours Devotion is a special forty-hour period of continuous prayer made before the Blessed Sacrament in solemn exposition. It is an older custom in the Church for parishes to have periodic 40-hours devotions.

 

The number forty has always signified a sacred period of time: the rains during the time of Noah lasted 40 days and nights; the Jews wandered through the desert for 40 years, our Lord fasted and prayed for 40 days before beginning His public ministry. The 40 Hours Devotion remembers that traditional “forty-hour period” from our Lord’s burial until the resurrection. The number 40 plays another important part as we look to Advent – 40 weeks of a standard pregnancy. The conclusion of which in Advent is the wondrous Feast of Christmas. The ProLife – ProChild – ProWoman – ProFamily movement have hosted 40 Days for Life events. Our particular 40-hours devotion and prayer will center upon the ProLife event of Jesus’ birth. The greatest of all lives and gifts, born from the most wonderful of all women, Mary.