 |
| Madonna and Child with Two Angels Titian ~ 15th-16th c |
Our Father...
Mary's Divine Child comes into the world in humility and simplicity, yet with an angel escort. We need some escorting these days - to Christ - and away from the entertainment news people who want us listening to them and their advertisers. We're so devoted to them.
Hail Mary...
One author states the shepherds of Bethlehem were not likely men, who were needed for laborious jobs elsewhere, but women and children. While their time is of little value, they are welcomed as the Holy Child's first guests. Their dignity is recognized. We have a lot to learn.
Hail Mary...
"Because there was no room for them in the inn." It is a famous line. A Central American mother showed up at the southern border with the other asylum seekers. She had witnessed her husband's murder and her young son had already been threatened with stabbing if he didn't join the gang. She was told she "didn't need to be here; go home." How is it that so often people don't make these religion-reality connections?
Hail Mary...
"All is calm; all is bright..." It makes for a most lovely carol, but it's not true for much of the world - unless we're financially secure and white, with some power. In my prayer, I might wish happiness and freedom from suffering for those for whom life is not calm and bright. I might do some practical thing for one or two of them as well.
Hail Mary...
The bright, traveling star stopped over the house where the Holy Child lived. I bring to the front of my mind that every child is a holy child. And that their suffering is not acceptable: their not being in school, their unlawful detention, that so many of them live in poverty - even in my own country!
Hail Mary...
Herod was a crazed monster. And so Joseph and Mary get the threatened baby out of the country. There are some Christians who trip over themselves to convince us that Jesus, Mary and Joseph were not asylum seekers in Egypt. They say that has nothing to do with religion. Of course, if we recognize their asylum status, that might mean we'd have to change our attitude about those who suffer that plight today. Some people hate having their excuses taken away.
Hail Mary...
So many people are displaced in the world because of civil wars or the disruption of armed gangs and murderous militias. Raising children and caring for elders is no longer possible. Who is supplying these killers with all these weapons? Who is manufacturing and selling them? A lot of people make a lot of money off the deaths of other people.
Hail Mary...
Titian's painting is splendid, of course, but not realistic. It is white and tidy. Pope Francis references priests who are like that. He calls them aseptic: clergy who want everything in a kind of neat box, rule bound and in perfect order - maybe especially in how they relate to people in the confessional. God picked Bethlehem for the holy birth. Bethlehem means House of Bread: God understands the messy struggle, the untidy, crushing grind of human life.
Hail Mary...
At Nativity-meditation and Hail Mary number nine, I might be thinking: "These meditations aren't very Christmas-y, and I don't like it." But is this what we want the priest for, just keep the swinging incense pot smoking? Or am I open to something more? O Holy Incarnation - challenge every thing I think!
Hail Mary...
Pope Francis is asking for our rosary prayer this October because the devil is causing lots of turbulence in the Church (and I'd add, Nation). Incarnation means: God became one of us; God has a human face in Christ. Might I look for a human face today - someone really up against the odds, and make a deep human connection. Love, that scares the hell out of the devil!
Hail Mary...
Glory be to the Father...
