Opening Prayer

Lord Jesus, as we embark on a new calendar year, help us, we pray, to develop an even stronger appreciation and love for your Blessed Mother. Send your Spirit into our hearts to foster and unleash a love for her as you have, a respect for her as you have, a devotion to her as you have, and an intimacy with her as you have. In your holy name, we pray. Amen.

First Reading: Numbers 6:22–27
Responsorial Psalm:
Psalm 67:2–3, 5, 6, 8
Second Reading: Galatians 4:4–7
Gospel: Luke 2:16–21

Challenge for the Week

The Hail Mary is such a standard Catholic prayer that we sometimes take it for granted. In an effort to honor our Blessed Mother this week, make the commitment to pray a Rosary each day, or at least a decade. Slow down when praying the Hail Marys and, entering into the words reverently and thoughtfully, ask the Blessed Virgin to hold you close to her Immaculate Heart as you move through it.

Journal

1. By virtue of your baptism, you are able to call upon God as your Father. Is that something you reflect on often? Is it difficult to fully wrap your head and heart around God as your Father? Explain.

2. What role has the Blessed Virgin Mary played in your faith life up until now? Has it been significant or subtle? Reflect and share about it.

3. What are a few ways you can better celebrate the family of God in your life? How can you change and deepen your relationship with your brothers and sisters in Christ?

Beyond Words

Family matters . . . always has, always will. As much as we love and respect our own families and extended families in the modern day, it likely pales in comparison to how revered families were in the Mediterranean world in the time of Jesus. Parents were held in high regard and deep respect. Children took their family obligations very seriously. The readings for this solemnity, which celebrates the motherhood of Mary, call upon family structures.

In the first reading, we hear about Moses’s brother Aaron (the priest) and his family. Aaron’s sons, also priests, are being instructed to bless the Israelites. We see not only the priestly blessing at work here but also God’s invocation of peace upon his people through the priests. The psalmist praises God’s graciousness and blessing and beseeches everyone to join in. We see echoes of these admonitions of praise directed to God still today in our priestly prayers and blessings at Holy Mass.

The second reading to the Galatians, too, maintains the familial theme: God sends his Son through a woman (mother) so that we would receive a spirit of adoption as children that we might call out, “Abba!” (father). God is using St. Paul to explain to the Galatians that it is through baptism, not circumcision or mere adherence to the Law, that we become children of God.

This same truth is on display in the gospel when we see the shepherds visiting the Holy Family, representing the (now) extended family of God through their newborn son, Jesus. We hear, too, about Jesus’s circumcision, which represents his full inclusion into God’s covenant people. As with Jesus’s baptism later, though the Son of God did not “need” to go through the ritual, he did so as an example of the family’s solidarity with and honor for the faith. St. Luke reminds us, too, of how the Blessed Virgin “kept all these things in her heart” as any good mother would, being present to every event as it unfolded. Therefore, we the extended family of God—give praise and thanks, this day, for our Blessed Mother, Mary.

Related Fact

St. Luke makes mention of the Holy Family placing the infant Jesus in the manger. For the last several weeks, homes and churches the world over have displayed the creche (nativity set) as a way of visually and prayerfully entering into the Nativity of our Lord, but St. Luke makes no mention of the ox or ass included in most displays. Nevertheless, St. Luke’s allusion to the manger is not only historical but also scriptural. It reminds the reader of a prophecy from Isaiah that says the manger will be flanked by ox and ass (Is 1:3), foreshadowing Bethlehem.

Behind the Scenes

Today’s gospel briefly mentions circumcision on the eighth day of Jesus’s life. Given the sensitivity of the procedure, it is not often discussed at length in conversations about the faith and (perhaps rightly) is glossed over in most homilies. Understanding the background and significance of circumcision, though, can be helpful. On the eighth day of life, Jewish boys were circumcised in adherence to God’s covenant with Abraham back in Genesis. It was an outward sign of belonging to God’s family. It represented obedience and fideli-
ty to God’s covenant law, and it was taken very seriously. After Christ rose and his message of mercy and salvation was opened to all people—not just Jews—certain communities (like the one in Galatia) understandably had questions. Must a Christian be circumcised to become part of God’s covenant family? The Jews who had been circumcised naturally thought yes, while those adults seeking to become part of God’s family were less than enthused. St. Paul explains that baptism in Christ would now accomplish what circumcision originally represented—full entrance, admittance, and acceptance into God’s covenant family. This apostolic decision demonstrated that Christ’s Church was something new. While it had its roots in Judaism, it was distinct from all of its original laws and precepts. Our baptism would signify the circumcision of heart we must all undergo, but the outward sign was no longer necessary.

Word Play

The psalmist proclaims that “the ends of the earth may revere him.” The term revere (from which we get the derivative, reverence) is from the Latin revereri (re denoting “great force” and vereri, “to fear”). When we revere God or show reverence, it is born out of deep respect and a healthy fear of the Lord.

This excerpt from One Sunday at a Time: Preparing Your Heart for Weekly Mass (Cycle B) is reprinted with permission of Ave Maria Press.

In the Name of the Lord

Opening Prayer

Lord, you designed all perfectly. You designed our love to reflect yours, yet we fail to love as you do. Please bless us with the grace to live lives of holiness, especially within our families. Teach me how to be the best person you have called me to be within my family and to never take for granted the love and support I have from those closest to me. Today, please bless those who struggle to find peace within their homes. Amen.

First Reading: Sirach 3:2–7, 12–14
Responsorial Psalm:
Psalm 128:1–2, 3, 4–5
Second Reading: Colossians 3:12–21
Gospel: Luke 2:22–40

Challenge for the Week

Take some time to pray for one member of your family whom you have had a hard time forgiving or seeking forgiveness from. Write a letter of love and gratitude and, if you feel called, find a way to give that letter to your family member this week.

Journal

1. Go back and reread the second reading from today. Did you read it differently now than before? If so, what changed?

2. What does your relationship look like with your immediate family? Extended family?

3. What might need to change in order to get along better? Or what is going well that is necessary to protect for the sake of a healthy family?

Beyond Words

Why did God ordain that Mary marry Joseph? It wasn’t for protection. God could have assigned Mary and Jesus as many guardian angels as he desired. It wasn’t to put food on the table. God fed the Israelites manna and quail. We see that in God’s intentional and perfect design, a family is made up of a mother and a father. While single-parent homes demonstrate a heroic virtue on the part of one parent doing the job of two, the best scenario is one in which both sexes work in self-sacrificial complementarity to one another. Both mother and father offer an indispensable witness to a child, as we hear in the first reading from Sirach. God the Father designs unique roles for both mother and father and empowers them with his authority and with a mission: to raise up children who will know and love him.

Raising a holy family requires that the souls doing the raising know the Lord and seek him daily, which St. Paul stresses to the Colossians in the second reading. Practically speaking, a virtuous life looks like a home in which the parents (and kids) know they are loved by God and offer compassion, forgiveness, gentleness, and patience. It will be a home ruled by peace-filled hearts in which the Word of God dwells. A holy family will fill the air with wisdom, gratitude, and joyful music all “in the name of the Lord.”

Even in times of sorrow and (impending) suffering, as found in the gospel, a holy family keeps their eyes fixed on God. Unwavering in love, faithful through trials, and confident in God’s mercy, a holy family is one that “fears the Lord and walks in his ways.”.

Related Fact

The book of Sirach appears in Catholic Bibles but was removed from the Protestant canon of scripture during the Protestant Reformation. As a result, Sirach (along with 1 and 2 Maccabees, Judith, Tobit, Baruch, Wisdom, and additions to the books of Esther and Daniel) is not found in Protestant Bibles unless included in an “extra” section called the Apocrypha. When you are holding a Catholic Bible, you are holding the director’s cut, not a version reformatted to fit your screen or edited for television.

Behind the Scenes

The gospel notes “the days . . . completed for their purification” as a period of waiting between Jesus’s birth and his Presentation in the Temple. In Jewish culture, an Israelite woman was not allowed to approach the Temple for forty days after childbirth to ensure that she was fully healed and free of any blood or other condition following labor. This was not a punishment for any sin, failure, or immoral act. The purification time was prescribed during the time of Moses to ensure there was no physical impurity (i.e., blood) brought into the Temple area or brought into contact with sacred objects.

Word Play

The word subordinate in the second reading from St. Paul is problematic to many modern listeners. Part of the problem is the translation. The actual Greek uses not “be subordinate” (which carries a very negative connotation) but rather “be subject” or “be submissive.”

While at first view this seems to imply that wives are degraded, it was exactly the opposite in St. Paul’s viewpoint. The ancient world often viewed wives as literal property of a husband, and most cultures leaned into that condescending viewpoint. St. Paul is offering a new vision in Christ, one in which both husband and wife live lives of mutual sacrifice, respect, and self-gift rooted in dignity. The wife humbly allows the husband to lead the family as part of his unique mission. His mission, in turn, is to sacrifice all—to die—for the family. So, to “be submissive” means that the wife places herself (sub-missio) “under the mission of ” the husband; she allows the husband to protect and serve her and, ultimately, to die for her in big and little ways. The couple’s mutual self-sacrifice serves as an example of self-giving love, which mirrors the Trinity.

This excerpt from One Sunday at a Time: Preparing Your Heart for Weekly Mass (Cycle B) is reprinted with permission of Ave Maria Press.

It’s a Boy!

Opening Prayer

Thank you, Father, for the gift of your Son. Thank you for sending heaven to earth to bring earth back to heaven. Thank you for loving us enough to save us and for emptying yourself and entering into time and space through the Incarnation. Help us, by your grace, to prepare the mangers of our hearts to receive you fully this season. Amen.

(Mass during the Day)
First Reading: Isaiah 52:7–10
Responsorial Psalm:
Psalm 98:1, 2–3, 3–4, 5–6
Second Reading: Hebrews 1:1–6
Gospel: John 1:1–18

Challenge for the Week

Imagine how Mary and Joseph must have beheld Jesus’s glory radiating from the manger. Picture them gazing upon him for hours, completely present to God’s divine presence. This week, enter more deeply into the Christmas mystery by beholding the glory of those around you more purposefully. Put away the cell phone. Avoid screens as much as possible and really be present to those the Lord places before you. This Christmas, give people the gift of yourself and your undivided attention.

Journal

1. Who has been a John the Baptist type in your life, pointing you to Jesus? Take a moment and offer a prayer of thanksgiving for that person.

2.  What is one thing you can do today or this week to help othersbetter realize or appreciate the true meaning of Christmas?

3. Meditate on a creche or nativity set for at least twenty minutes. Write out and journal words, sentences, or insights that the Holy Spirit illuminates within you while you gaze upon it.

Beyond Words

Most Christians know the Christmas story—and most know it a little too well. The mystery of the Incarnation and what transpired two thousand years ago can become almost white noise by the time we have heard our six thousandth Christmas song between Labor Day and Christmas Eve. This is where the readings are of central importance. The excerpt from St. John’s gospel invites us to lean in and see not only the beautiful depth of this passage but also how it correlates to the other three readings of the day.

Isaiah and the psalmist proclaim the “good news” that God is King, telling us to “sing a new song” and that God’s “victory has been made known.” Hebrews goes on to speak of God’s fidelity and fulfillment of all the promises he uttered through the prophets. We hear of God’s goodness and the glory seen in and through the Son, the one whom even the angels worship! Through these readings, God’s people had waited—and longed for—the promised Messiah, and now, finally, he has arrived.

In the gospel we hear again about the beautiful mystery of the Incarnation when God took flesh “and made his dwelling among us.” It’s easy to lose sight of the glory of Christmas and all God did amid the noise and celebrations that rightly accompany this day and season. In taking the time to look back, though, to how God’s plans unfolded in the person of Christ, we are reminded that we have a God who was and is constantly working for our salvation, even when we are not. What a wonderful and glorious gift Jesus is and will always be; in every culture and language, we unite today to celebrate and rejoice, for God became human to lead humanity back to God.

Related Fact

The prologue to the gospel of John might sound familiar at first hearing. Perhaps you’ve heard it proclaimed before or have read it yourself, or maybe you’re familiar with that introductory phrase “in the beginning,” which we also hear at the beginning of Genesis (which is Hebrew for “beginning,” not coincidentally). St. John is intentionally mirroring the language and poetic style of the Yahwist writers of Genesis here, reminding us that Jesus is the “new Adam” coming to redeem God’s fallen children.

Behind the Scenes

This week’s gospel passage comes from the beautifully written prologue to St. John’s gospel account. John emphasized the fact that Jesus was not just another guy. Christ was both God and man. God became man so that human beings could live with him in heaven. God created the world in Genesis, and now Jesus is working a new “spiritual creation” in the lives of his followers. John’s entire gospel is highly symbolic, rooted in the old covenant  all the while pointing toward the new. Only when we comprehend the dual nature of Christ (human and divine) can we understand the purpose of his mission and the glory of the Church he instituted on earth.

Several of these themes are on prominent display in the gospel we hear today. The allusion to the Genesis creation story, the juxtaposition and battle between light and darkness, the role of the forerunner John the Baptist heralding Christ’s greatness rather than his own, the rejection of the world, our spiritual rebirth, and the mystery of the Incarnation are all deep theological themes highlighted in these opening eighteen verses.

John’s gospel is a constant invitation to advance from simple reading and plunge into the sacramental waters. For John, everything points us back to the Church and the sacraments. John weaves together the symbolic and historical into an unprecedented and gorgeous tapestry of faith.

Word Play

We hear in the gospel that St. John the Baptist comes to give “testimony” and to “testify.” From the Latin testimonium, the word literally means “to bear or offer witness.” Just as witnesses in a courtroom are called to share what they observed personally, when we offer our spiritual testimony, we are sharing what we have witnessed about the glory and fidelity of God.

This excerpt from One Sunday at a Time: Preparing Your Heart for Weekly Mass (Cycle B) is reprinted with permission of Ave Maria Press.