Maybe you'll remember this painting titled Sacred Night by Fritz von Uhde who painted it in 1888-9. We talked about the image last Lent when the work of Von Uhde was our theme. Recently a friend wrote about her devout and elderly mother needing to spend some weeks in a physical rehab. I sent these little rosary mediations (as an audio message) to help her along the way, figuring the Christmas mystery would surely be familiar to her. I think the Incarnation is the central mystery-theme of the Christian life and that we might meditate on it often and not just in December. I've made a few adjustments to the one line meditations for our purposes.
Our Father
Jesus was born in little and insignificant Bethlehem. Every place is important to God — whether it's Bethlehem or the little room where I live and pray.
Hail Mary
Mary was very young and poor. God notices everything and everyone. God notices me.
Hail Mary
The first guests of the Infant Jesus at Bethlehem were poor, marginalized shepherds. God rejects no one. We do, but God doesn't.
Hail Mary
There was a bright star over the little house of Bethlehem where Mary gave birth to Jesus. The birth of Jesus makes glad the whole world and beyond the beyond!
Hail Mary
The cow and the donkey were in the stable of Bethlehem. Even the animals know who this little child is.
Hail Mary
In Jesus, God now has a human face. God sees us and loves us through the human eyes of Jesus. I'm not invisible to God.
Hail Mary
Perhaps it is naïve, but the artist has filled the night scene with singing angels. They are entering through the holes in the roof and singing their hearts out while sitting on the rafters. What has happened at Christmas is wonderful. God has jumped the distance between the eternity of heaven and earth time. It is amazing! Why are we so silent about it all?
Hail Mary
When the angel asked Mary to be the Mother of Jesus she said yes. Today I will say yes to what God asks of me. I will say yes to the Christ-presence I encounter today.
Hail Mary
The physical birth of Jesus is in the past — a historical moment. But the love born that night is forever — it is true for me and each human person on this planet.
Hail Mary
God came to be with us at Christmas in a new way. I don't have to be afraid — God is with us tenderly all the way in Jesus and Mary.
Hail Mary
Glory be to the Father
