Have you encountered the Lord in a way that has changed your life?

Fourth Sunday in OT  C  2022

 

This past week on Tuesday, we celebrated the Feast of the Conversion of St Paul in which he encountered the Lord after being thrown to the ground.  The Lord said to Paul: “Saul, Saul why are you persecuting me?”  This was the beginning of his marvelous conversion, and he then went to Damascus and was aided by his soul friend Ananias.

 

This leads us to ask the question: “Have you encountered the Lord in a way that has changed your life?”  This question may take your breath away but without any doubt the Lord wishes to encounter each and every one of us.

So, as to an inventory of our human condition, are we reluctant disciples of the Lord Jesus who have trouble recognizing how the Lord wishes to encounter us?  On a scale of 1-10, how do you rate yourself witnessing to the love and the presence of God in your life?  What gets in the way of you witnessing to the love of God in all the relations of your life?  Is being in Church for one hour a week the beginning or the completion of your weekly discipleship of the Lord Jesus?

I guess we must all confess to some degree that we are reluctant disciples.  We still wrestle with self-centeredness and some demons that can get the best of us.  Too much stuff in the human condition gets in our way that keeps from recognizing the ways the Lord is present to us.

In our Scripture readings, we encounter reluctant disciples.

 

In today’s First Scripture reading, Jeremiah was a reluctant prophet.  He thought it was too young and too ill-equipped for this commitment.  He also feared rejection, that his voice would not be listened to.  So he wanted to head in the other direction when the Lord was calling him to be a prophet.

Can we identify with Jeremiah in our discipleship?  How much does a fear of failure, a fear of rejection keep us from standing up for what is right.  Many of us like to be liked and thus do not wish to take a courageous commitment in standing up for a Gospel way of living.

But today’s first Scripture reading gives a message of hope from God to Jeremiah.  God said: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.  Before you were born, I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations, I appointed you…For I am with you.”

 

Do you believe these words of God were also spoken to you?   Before I formed you, I knew you.  You are precious and glorious in my sight, and I am with you.  These words are spoken to us to assure that our future is full of hope.

We have nothing to fear.

In the sacrament of baptism in which James and Liam are about to receive, the grace of baptism is that we are God’s beloved sons and God’s beloved daughters.  James and Liam are about to receive the love and the life of Christ Jesus.  The incredible grace of baptism is that God has first loved us and his love for us will never come to an end.  As St Paul says in the second reading today, “Love never fails.”

This Liturgy initiates Catholic School’s week in our diocese.   We in our parish are blessed with St Joseph’s School.  We seek to develop in our students a faith-filled vision on the ways we encounter God in our lives.  We seek to cultivate a spiritual awareness of God’s presence in our life, how we can allow ourselves to be loved by God.

 

The people of Nazareth in today’s Gospel were not able to recognize Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  At St Joseph’s school, we seek to provide our students with spiritual eyeglasses to see how God’s love goes with us from moment to moment, from day to day.  Our students pray with an attitude of gratitude giving thanks to God for the many blessings of our lives.

 

 

 

Yes, like Jeremiah, the apostle Paul and Jesus himself, we will experience rejection at times.

·       When we are not accepted or understood by someone in our family of origin.

 

·       When we do not get the job that seems to be a right fit for us.

 

·       When we don’t feel we belong in a particular group?

 

·       When our vision for our Church is not accepted or embraced?

 

How we deal with rejection is an important part of the spiritual journey of each one of us.

 

In today’s Gospel, Jesus had to deal with rejection.  Last week when Jesus was invited to read and preach in the synagogue at Nazareth.  Jesus read from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah about the coming of the Messiah.  The spirit of the Lord is upon me.  For he has anointed me.  These people knew this reading referred to the Messiah who is to come.  Everyone praised Jesus for preaching about the coming of the Messiah.[FJS1] 

 

But everything suddenly changed:  When Jesus said today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing, Jesus was claiming to the Messiah.

 

The synagogue was stunned. He said what?  He has grown up in their midst. He was the carpenter’s son.  The one they used to seek weekly in this same synagogue.

 

Why in the world would a local man come up with such a bizarre story?  Of course, the people of Nazareth thought they were putting a local upstart in his place.  The sad irony is that they were rejecting God.

 

For Jesus, this awareness was growing in him since his baptism by John the Baptist.  At his baptism, he heard the voice of the God the Father: “You are my beloved son and in your I am well pleased.”

He then fled into the desert to pray and was tempted by the devil.  But the Spirit of God was with Jesus in the midst of these temptations.

As Jesus came back from to Nazareth, he was claiming his identity as equality with God when he spoke in the synagogue at Nazareth.

 

But we can legitimately ask:   how could the people of Nazareth supposed to have an understanding of this man they knew so well to be the Messiah?

 

He was just one of us.  That’s the mystery of it all.  There was nothing exceptional about Jesus.

 

We sometimes find ourselves in that same quandary.  We just go day to day in our lives from one thing to another, fulfilling our daily responsibilities.  But are we not caught speechless if we are asked:  Have we encountered in a way that has changed our lives?  There is too much routine in our lives to say we have had any dramatic conversion moments.

 

As was true for the hometown folks of Nazareth, we too need to change our mindset on how we are to encounter the Lord.  It is where we least expect; it is in the ordinary moments of life; it is in the relationships that are a part of your life right now that God is present.

 

In fact, the astounding truth that God is present to us 24 hours a day, seven a week. 

 

We ask for the faith-filled awareness of how the Spirit of God is within us and how the Spirit is present to us in every life challenge and how the Lord is present in each relationship of your life.  We need that kind of trust that comes from our faith to believe nothing is too ordinary for God to encounter us.

 

Remember that the Lord of the universe revealed himself to us as a helpless infant in the Bethlehem stable.  This same Jesus wishes to encounter us in the simplicity of our daily lives.

 

So, to the question:  Have you encountered the Lord in a way that has changed your life?  Pay attention to the specific circumstances of your life.  They do not happen by accident.  Rather, your challenges and routine of this day is the privileged way the Lord wishes to encounter you today.  May you look at life with faith-filled eyes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

 [FJS1]

In the synagogue of Nazareth, the hometown folks Jesus knew had trouble embracing the mission given to them, will we?

 

My grand niece Taylor who is 4 yo is one of my spiritual directors.  Some time ago, when she was just three, she took up to her bedroom to show me her barbie dolls.  However, my focus was on the statue of Mary that was on her dresser.  I asked Taylor: “Who is that?”  Without missing a beat, Taylor told me she was a friend of my mom’s.  Wow!  What a profound statement of faith.  Emily, her mom, was a fried of Mary.

That story with my grand niece Taylor leads me to today’s Gospel taken from the very beginning of Luke’s Gospel.  Luke writes:  I too have decided 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.”  Theophilus is Greek for God’s friend.    May all of us have the nickname of Theophilus which is to say we are God’s friend.  Just as Taylor’s mother Emily is Mary’s friend; please God may it be said of us that we are Theophilus --  God’s friend.

 

We have all now heard his State of the Union address.  He outlined for us what his priorities and emphases will be for the year.  He told us where he intends to focus his energies and efforts.   He challenged us to join him in achieving these goals.  The State of the Union address of which I speak is not that of the President of the United States.

It is the inaugural message of Jesus Christ as presented in this day's Scripture.  The message proclaimed by Jesus  in the Gospel of Luke is, however, every bit as much a State of the Union as were the words spoken by President Joe Biden.

 

Luke presents us with Jesus' first public speech at his hometown synagogue in Nazareth.  Luke presents a summary - here at the very beginning of his account - of what Jesus and his ministry will be about: his vision, his priorities, his goals.

Like presidential State of the Union addresses that include quotations from the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution, the inaugural address of Jesus harkens back to founding principles.  He quotes two different places from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah:

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.

The Lord has sent me to proclaim liberty to captive,
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To let the oppressed go free,
And to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord."

The first half of this reference to Isaiah reflects the personal insight Jesus had come to about himself and his own life.  The Spirit of the Lord is on me - not on someone else, not somebody with different talents and abilities, not the other guy.  The Lord has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor.  The Lord anointed me to proclaim liberty to captives and sight to the blind.  Jesus had come to realize that if God's work was going to be done, he would have to get busy and start doing it.  Jesus accepted the call of God as deeply personal: he himself was the one.

Secondly, Jesus clearly spells out where this new ministry he was beginning would be directed:  He would proclaim good news to the poor who - in his time or ours - only seem to hear bad news.  He would be about the business of freeing captives and giving sight to the blind and helping the oppressed break free of all that held them bound.  He would show people what an acceptable time to the Lord looked like.

In his State of the Union, Jesus clearly announces that his Gospel
…will be social,
…it will be focused outward on others,
…it will seek to build the Lord's justice.

"Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing."  These words were spoken not just to those gathered in the synagogue of Nazareth:  they are spoken to us, we who have also just heard Jesus' State of the Union address.  Now we must respond: will we join him in the work he outlined?  Will we too accept the call of God as radically personally and specific?  Will we, like him, direct our efforts outward to the poor who are still hearing bad news, to the blind who still cannot see, to those still held captive in oppression?

 

If Good News is not proclaimed, it is not the Word of God that we are hearing.  How is the Good News being preached to those who are poor: how are the blind able to see?

This inaugural address of Jesus was given at the beginning of Luke’s Gospel.  Now I call your attention to the last words Jesus spoke in the Gospel just before his Ascension into heaven.  “Go out, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

The last thing Jesus said to us 2000 years ago was "Go out!"  It seems to me that we make a mistake if our entire focus  is telling people to come in.  I think we've missed the boat.  We come in only so we can go out again.  We come in to be refreshed and re-energized by God's Word so we can go out and faithfully live it each day.  We come in to be encouraged and supported by the presence of other believers and their faith; we go out to bring God's peace and justice to our little corner of the world.  We come in to be fed the Bread of Life and to drink the Cup of Blessing.  We go out to feed a hungry world with that Bread of Life.  We go out to revive a drooping humanity with that Cup of Blessing.  We go out as Disciples of Jesus, our Christ!

Our mission is the mission to rebuild hearts, to return them to God who is their real home.  In his inaugural address given in the synagogue in Nazareth, will his hometown folks accept the mission Jesus is giving them?

Will we?

Have a Blessed Day.

 

 

 

 

They have no wine.

 

Second Sunday in OT  C  2022

Today we begin the ordinary season of the year. Today’s readings tell us about the true identity of Jesus, who he is, and what his mission is. We need to know who Jesus is and understand his mission if we want to be his true disciples. We respond to God’s love through lives that encourage forgiveness and reconciliation. The readings of today reveal to us that the Lord God rejoices in the Church. God is generous to his children and he rejoices in them.

The Scripture message today is very clear: Jesus brings joy, and he shares in the joys of others.  Our discipleship of the Lord Jesus is meant to be a joy-filled experience. The German philosopher Nietzsche once said: “If Christians want me to believe in their religion, they will have to look as if they are saved.”  Today’s Gospel account at the wedding feast of Cana is indeed a great revelation of God’s presence and activity in our midst.  We see God revealing himself again in what Jesus does in this wedding scene. 

This first miracle of Jesus at the wedding feast of Cana is a very human story and tells about the relationship of Jesus and his mother.    Mary does not even need to ask.  She knows her son and even if she does not know fully how everything will play out she knows who he is and why he has come. “They have no wine,” is all that she needs to say. Then she simply tells the stewards:  “Do whatever He tells you.”

Wow!  There is no uncertainty in Mary’s trust that Jesus will respond will take care of this need so that the celebration will continue.  What about our relationship with Jesus and our trust that Jesus will accompany us in our hour of need?  Mary indeed is our guide and our mother who leads to trust more fully in Jesus.

 

 

In the Gospel, this lavish response to a simple human need is a vision for us of the abundance of God's kingdom. It challenges us to respond generously when confronted with human need today. We respond as best we can, fully confident that God can transform our efforts, bringing the Kingdom of God to fulfillment among us.

This message of joy can be seen in all the Scripture readings today.

The first reading gives us the celebration of Joy over the restoration of the relationship between God and his people. Years of exile had made Israelites realize their foolishness and now they consider it a privilege to serve the Lord God. God comes to them as a special gift.  God had remained silent for a long period of time because of the sins. Now God’s people will be obedient and trustful to God who is their Savior.  The reading begins with God breaking the long silence measured by years of exile following the collapse of the kingdom. During that time pride and arrogance lost their hold on the people. Now they are ready to accept God’s plan for them.  Israel is now given royal status and the nation shines like the glorious crown, a royal diadem in God’s hands. God honors Israel with the new name, my beloved, my espoused one. They are now God’s people.  This wonderful transformation is not for the benefit of Israel alone. All the other nations shall benefit from it.

In the joyful hymn of Isaiah, we see how God prepares for His remnant people, the ones who had remained faithful to him, good gifts, and more particularly his own presence. God and his people will be joined together in the New Covenant. 

Paul in the second reading tells us that all gifts come from God but with a purpose so that we may proclaim his glory in his kingdom.  These gifts may be diverse but they all proclaim God’s own glory.

 

 

 

 Paul enumerates the gifts the Christian Community has received. These gifts are a gratuitous present that has come to each from the almighty.  The people of Corinth believed that whatever gift they had, including the spiritual, was due to their own merits.  Paul says that diverse though these gifts are, they all come from the one God. All of us have distinct abilities. We are called upon to use them to complement one another, for the good of the whole community, for building up God’s Kingdom on earth. Paul lists nine gifts, but the charisms are not limited to nine. Christians receive whatever gifts necessary to fulfill their mission in life.

The Gospel presents to us the first miracle performed by Jesus at a wedding.  A wedding is a time of abundance and celebration. From the food and wine that are served to the music and dancing that follow, weddings overflow with the goodness of life.  At a deeper level, weddings speak about love, compassion, and unity.  Wedding feast Cana is a sign of God’s love and compassion. Here Jesus takes care of the family who is about to be pushed into a state of embarrassment. At the same time, he accepts the word of Mary to do a good act and present the family things in abundance.

The story of the marriage feast at Cana we heard in today’s Gospel is narrated by St John only. The event had made a deep impression on him as it happened only a few days after he and four disciples had decided to follow Christ. At this wedding, he witnessed the first miracle worked by the Lord which must have impressed him a great deal.

Today’s Gospel passage reveals to us one of the events that came to pass to manifest to us that the promise of God the Father was being fulfilled in the fullness of time. In the Gospel, we see Jesus, his mother, and his disciples at a wedding. And it is not a religious ceremony but a social celebration of the wedding. Jewish weddings

 

 

 

of those days could last a week. This was a time of grand celebration and Jesus and Mary along with the disciples were part of it

The action of Jesus turning water into wine is the first of the seven signs that Jesus performed and recorded in the Gospel of John.  On the surface, signs appear to be miracles but John presents them with a particular purpose.   These miracles have a strong symbolic significance that tells us about Jesus and also his messianic work.  

We are at a wedding feast in Cana, Galilee. The wine has run out. We witness that Jesus is able to transform water into the very best wine, just as the Father can change a forsaken people into ones that are his delight.

As at the wedding feast, they have no wine symbolizes those situations for us when we have no hope that come from the anxieties and setbacks that we all experience.  At one time or another, we are in the circumstance of having no wine when we are without hope.

In these discouraging moments in life, may we too be mindful of the words of Mary:  “Do whatever he tells you.”  It is always God’s desire that we experience life in abundance.  May we have the trust of Mary that Jesus is for us Lord and Savior. When we can trust in Jesus, of course, water will become wine.

 

Have a Blessed Day.

 

 

 

In celebrating the Epiphany, the story of the magi can be found in the spiritual story of our journey of faith.

 

EPIPHANY 2021

“When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, behold magi from the East arrived in Jerusalem, saying, ‘Where is the newborn king of the Jews saying, ‘we saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage.’”

In celebrating the Feast of the Epiphany, may the story of the Epiphany be our story as well.  We are today’s magi who come to discover and encounter the Christ child.

The magi symbolize what is restless in the human spirt seeking for a greater depth of meaning and purpose in life.  They left behind what was comfortable and safe and took considerable risk in traveling to another country in search of the Lord.  The magi speak to our restless human spirit seeking to discover the spiritual meaning and longing for that which ultimately satisfies us.

May each of us be in touch with our restless human spirit that is looking for something more in our spiritual journey.  How is the Lord calling us to move beyond our comfort zone and follow a star that will lead us to that deeper relationship with Jesus that we seek?  The grace of Epiphany invites to come to know Jesus in a deeper relationship.

My hunch is that the Lord is placing a star in our life on this Epiphany day that we are to follow.  That star may not be in the sky but possibly be the star that is in the heart of someone you are called to love and to help and to serve.  That star may be in the hearts of the poor who we are called to reach out to.

As a parish community, that star may be in the ways the Lord is calling to collaborate with St Joseph’s so that each parish community can help each other discover the Lord more fully in our lives.

We are also left wondering why we as a Church have failed to be the star that brings more people into our pews.  We all know many former Catholics even family members who no longer belong to the Church.

 

And so, we ask for the grace of seeing the star that the Lord places in our lives that will lead us to a deeper relationship with Him.  Again, this star may not be found in the sky but in the people or the circumstances that are part of your life in the here and the now.

Please note the sharp contrast between the Magi and King Herod in the Epiphany Gospel.   Herod sees the promised child as a threat. He's afraid the coming baby will crimp his style, will challenge his power and lower his status.

The Magi see the promised child as wonderful gift. They've humbled themselves to travel a great distance to a strange culture that speaks a different language, in order to embrace this baby who fulfills God's love.

Herod’s selfishness fueled by his fears leads to his downfall. The Magi's worship of the Christ child leads to the salvation of all the nations. Today more than 2 billion people call themselves Christians, in some way the result of the humility and the seeking spirit of the Magi.

We see the hostility of King Herod to the notion that he would have a rival to his kingship.  Moved by jealousy, he hatched a murderous plot that was foiled by the non-cooperation of the magi.

Before we simply reject the treachery of Herod, we need to acknowledge that there is a Herod within each of us that keeps from following Christ more fully.  What are the demons within us that make more self-centered than Christ-centered?  How radically do I share with those in need?  What keeps me from listening more fully to another’s point of view?  Do I make time for God in the way that I live?

Yes, we all need to confess that we are sinners, and there is a bit of King Herod in all of us.  But thanks be to God, the Bethlehem infant has come to be our Savior and Lord.  We seek the grace of allowing ourselves to be loved by the Christ child.

In our discipleship of the Lord Jesus, we are the magi – seeking to encounter the Lord Jesus more fully in our lives.  In one perspective we are the magi seeking to discover the Lord.  From another perspective we ask who the magi are we are meant to encounter.  Who are the magi?  They may the strangers whom we meet this coming year who have followed a star in search of the Christ child that is within each of us.  May we welcome that strangers with the hospitality that the magi received at the Bethlehem crib.

In celebrating the Feast of the epiphany, we celebrate the Good News of the birth of Jesus breaking out beyond the boundaries of Israel and being made known to all the peoples of the world – to every tribe, and tongue and people and nation.  So, we celebrate the Savior who comes to the Gentiles.  This is symbolized by the three wise men, who came from the East to welcome and worship Him.

It’s revealed that there no outsiders at the Bethlehem crib.  There was no racism.  All were welcome.  Jesus welcomed everyone – the ox and the ass, the shepherds and magi, poor and rich, the Jews and Gentiles.  He came for us all.  He would reject no one, as he would accept the unique gifts of each.

The magi did not come to the Bethlehem empty handed.  The Gospel tells us:  they opened their treasures.  Like the magi, each of us has a treasure to offer the Christ.  The prayerful question we should ask ourselves this Sunday is:  What is it?  What do we have to give?

The magi presented gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the Christ child.  What gifts do we offer the Christ child?  In our spirit of stewardship, we offer our gifts of time, talent, and treasure.

Notice well, the magi were warned in a dream not to return to Herod, and they departed for their country by another way.  Of course, they would return by another route.  Their lives have been changed by their encounter with Jesus.  May we too with God’s grace have our lives changed by our encounter with Jesus.  We cannot go back to our old way of living -- with our fears, our anxieties, our addictions, our grudges, our pettiness.  We are to put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

A final thought: in the Christmas mystery it is not just the magi who are seekers.  God is a seeker.  We are sought by a God who has become one of us and who hunts us down with His love.  In the Epiphany mystery, we need to allow ourselves to be found by the love of the Christ child.

Have a Blessed Epiphany Day.

 

 

What is God's plan for us in 2022?

 

New Year’s Day  2022

Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God

The life of Jesus begins with Mary at the Bethlehem crib.  Therefore, it is most appropriate we begin the New Year with a Feast of Mary – Mary the Mother of God.

 

As a people of faith, we gather on this New Year’s Day to honor Mary, the great woman of faith.  We are told, once again, how she used time -- to treasure and reflect in her heart all that God had done for her and how God was giving direction to her life.  Her example should speak to us for we also need to take the time to treasure and reflect within our own hearts what God is doing and what God is calling us to do.

As we begin 2022, we ask for the grace to use the gift of time that is given in this new year.  As we name our resolutions for the New Year, we get sense of how we wish to use the gift and what are our priorities for the year.

 

For myself, I hope to part with a few more pounds this year, to spend more time with family an friends, to live more fully with an attitude of gratitude, and to spend more time with the Lord in quiet prayer.

 

These are noble goals, are they not. 

Our resolutions are filled with our dreams and hopes and goals for the coming year.  But the question that the Scriptures today invite us to reflect on is:  What are God’s plan for us this year?  Instead of focusing on our resolutions for the New Year, may we be open to God’s resolutions for us this year.

This is such a fundamental spiritual conversion the Scriptures call us to.  How do we become more aware of God’s plan for us in 2022?  Instead of naming my resolutions for the coming year, I seek to listen to God’s resolutions for me this coming year.

 

 

 

There is no better model for us than Mary in opening ourselves to God’s plan for our lives.  We know at the Annunciation when the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she was to be the mother of our Savior and Lord, Mary worked through her fear and confusion and said YES to God’s plan for her.  With such an inspiring faith, Mary spoke these powerful words:  “I am the handmaid of the Lord.  Be it done to me according to thy Word.”

Can we with Mary speak these words at the beginning of 2022:  “I am the servant of the Lord.  Be it done to me according to your word.”

In contrast to the usual frenzy of our celebrations on New Years’ Eve, Mary pondered in silence and stillness in the Bethlehem crib.  “Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.”  Her heart becomes the place of discovering Jesus, and who He truly is.

May we too ponder in our hearts who that child now born to us really is.  As Mary spent her life pondering the visible Word of God that was and is her Son, we too must ponder that Word in scripture, that Word in each other, that Word in the created world around us.  We too are asked to incarnate Jesus in our lives.

If we want to celebrate Christmas Season as Mary did, we need to ponder this sign:  the frail simplicity of a tiny newborn child, the meekness with which he is placed in a manger, the tender affection with which he is wrapped in his swaddling clothes.  This is where God is.

What Mary pondered reveals a Gospel paradox.  The Gospel speaks of the emperor, the governor, the high and mighty of those times, yet God does not make himself present there.  He appears not in the splendor of a royal palace, but in the poverty of a stable; not in pomp and show, but in simplicity of life; not in power, but astonishing smallness.  In order to meet him, we need to go where he is.  We need to bow down, to humble ourselves, to make ourselves small.  The newborn Child challenges us.  We need to discover in the simplicity of the divine Child the peace, joy and the luminous meaning of life.

 

 

 

Jesus enters our life to give us His life; He comes into our world to give us His love.  In 2022, through the intercession of Mary, may we be challenged and called by Jesus.  Let us draw close to God who draws close to us.  Let us pause to gaze upon the crib and relive in our imagination the birth of Jesus: light and peace, dire poverty and rejection.  With the shepherds, let us enter into the real Christmas, bringing to Jesus all that we are, our alienation, our unhealed wounds, our sins.  Then, in Jesus, we will enjoy the taste of the true spirit of Christmas:  the beauty of being loved by God.  With Mary and Joseph, let us pause before the manger, before Jesus who is born as bread for my life.

 

May the blessing that the Lord said to Moses be the blessing the Lord speaks to each of us:

 

The Lord bless and keep you.

The Lord let his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.

The Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace.

 

Have a blessed day and a blessed New Year.