Rosaries

In those days Caesar Augustus published a decree ordering a census of the whole world. This first census took place with Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to register, each in his own town. So Joseph, too, went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, for he was of the house and lineage of David, to register with Mary, his espoused wife, who was pregnant. It happened while they were there that the days of her pregnancy were completed. She gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

There were shepherds in the same area, living in the fields and keeping watch over their flock. An angel of the Lord came suddenly upon them and the glory of the Holy One shone round them: “You have nothing to fear! I bring you good news, of great joy to be shared by the whole people. For this day in David’s city a savior has been born to you, who is Christ the Lord. Let this be the sign to you: you will find an infant wrapped in a swaddling clothes in a manger.

And suddenly, there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying: “Glory to God in high heaven and on earth peace to those on whom God’s favor rests.”

Luke 2: 1-14

God sneaks quietly into the world, welcomed by the obscure, the forgotten. A child, wrapped in ragged, poor cloths, laid in a manger, in a temporary shelter from the elements. There is a mixture of the stark reality of his birth: no room even in the place of travelers. His bed is manger; he is the bread of peace and food for justice, is born far away from home and surrounded not by family but by animals and shepherds, the lowly and shunned of society. The angels sing glory as God erupts into history and yet, it is the insignificant and meek who are first to hear the Good News, and their joy is the greatest. Our God comes to us poor, homeless, a refugee on the roads of occupied countries, in a nation humiliated, deemed without dignity by an arrogant ruler, anonymously with only a handful of shepherds and his poor parents, who look at him with awe and ponder who this child will grow up to be among his people. God’s sanctuary is within every human being now. This is the time now, for Mary to deliver her child, wrapping him in swaddling clothes, laying him in a manger, bringing God’s Word of peace into history.