From Season to Season

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...

Through the law I died to the law, that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ, yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me. – Galatians 2:19-20 When Saint Paul wrote his letter to the Galatians, he was reaching out to a community of Christians that he had known personally, and he offers an impassioned appeal for them to live according to the message he had preached to them. At some point, new teachers had come to their community and they had attacked Paul’s character and teachings. In no uncertain terms, Paul defends his authority as an apostle and teacher and he reminds the Galatians that Christians live only by faith in Christ, who is the centerpiece of our faith. When Paul speaks of Christ, he is rejoicing in the love that he has received from Christ. In Saint Paul and the New Evangelization , Ronald Witherup notes, “This is the kind of expe...