From Season to Season

Jesus went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man.   —Luke 2:51-52 Christmas is a time for family. Whether we are spending the holidays with our biological families, religious communities and parish families, or “chosen” families of friends, Christmas is a season when we come together with those whom we love to celebrate love, especially God’s love enfleshed in the gift of his Son. This truth of Christmas was brought into sharp focus this year, as the realities of the coronavirus pandemic kept us from being with our families and those we love.  Contemporary icon of the Holy Family  by Marko Ivan Rupnik, SJ (2012) The Feast of the Holy Family, celebrated on the Sunday within the Octave of Christmas, is an invitation to reflect on the lives and relationships of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, and on how God’s grace is at wo...

Since many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning and ministers of the word have handed them down to us, I too have decided, after investigating everything accurately anew, to write it down in an orderly sequence for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may realize the certainty of the teachings you have received. —Luke 1:1-4   “There are three stages of spiritual development: the carnal, the spiritual, and the divine,” an old monk once explained to a novice. “What is the carnal stage?” the novice asked. “That’s the stage,” the old monk said, “when trees are seen as trees and mountains are seen as mountains.” “And the spiritual?” the novice asked eagerly. “That’s when we look more deeply into things. Then trees are no longer trees and mountains are no longer mountains,” the old monk answered. “And the divine?” the novice asked breathlessly. “Ah,” the old monk sa...

During his 1964 pilgrimage to Nazareth, the city that was the home of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, Blessed Pope Paul VI offered these words: Here we can learn to realize who Christ really is. And here we can sense and take account of the conditions and circumstances that surrounded and affected his life on earth: the places, the tenor of the times, the culture, the language, religious customs, in brief, everything which Jesus used to make himself known to the world. Here everything speaks to us, everything has meaning. Here we can learn the importance of spiritual discipline for all who wish to follow Christ and to live by the teachings of his Gospel. Blessed Pope Paul VI celebrates Mass in the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth on January 5, 1964 How I would like to return to my childhood and attend the simple yet profound school that is Nazareth! How wonderful to be close to Mary, learning again the lesson of the true meaning of life, learning again...