So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
On Christmas Day, Pope Francis posted a picture of one of his gifts on Instagram. The caption explained that it’s “a depiction of a special Nativity scene. It’s called ‘Let’s let Mom rest.’” In the scene, Mary is curled in the fetal position, asleep on a bed of straw, while Joseph sits at her feet, cradling the baby Jesus in his arms. Today, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. We celebrate the precious human relationship of mother and child – a tender, merciful, unconditionally loving, yet simultaneously exhausting, relationship. Just as Jesus began his earthly life through his mother, today, we begin a new year, wrapped in the tender, merciful, and loving mantle of Mary, the Mother of God.
—Jackie Schulte is the Dean of Faculty Formation and a history teacher at Creighton Preparatory School in Omaha, NE.
Mary Immaculate,
Merely a woman, yet
Whose presence, power is
Great as no goddess’s
Was deemèd, dreamèd; who
This one work has to do—
Let all God’s glory through,
God’s glory which would go
Through her and from her flow
Off, and no way but so.
—Excerpt from The Blessed Virgin compared to the Air we Breathe by Gerard Manley Hopkins, SJ
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