October - the month of The Rosary; Joyful Mystery 3: The Nativity
"While they were there, the time came for her to have her child,
and she gave birth to her firstborn son.
She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger,
because there was no room for them in the inn". (Luke 2)
REFLECTION Mary gave birth to Jesus not only without modern-day comforts,
but without even the limited comforts of her own day.
She gave birth outside in a barn.
She laid her new-born in straw.
Any new parents in their shoes
would have been worried about sanitation
and keeping their baby warm—
not to mention their own need for a place to rest.
They had their baby in a manger because,
like many refugees in the Middle East today,
they were on the road and had to make do with what they could find.
From Pope Francis in this Year of Saint Joseph:
As we read the infancy narratives, we may often wonder why God did not act in a more direct and clear way. Yet God acts through events and people. Joseph was the man chosen by God to guide the beginnings of the history of redemption. He was the true “miracle” by which God saves the child and his mother. God acted by trusting in Joseph’s creative courage. Arriving in Bethlehem and finding no lodging where Mary could give birth, Joseph took a stable and, as best he could, turned it into a welcoming home for the Son of God come into the world…. God always finds a way to save us, provided we show the same creative courage as the carpenter of Nazareth, who was able to turn a problem into a possibility by trusting always in divine providence. (Patris Corde)
PRAY:We ask the intercession of the Holy Family as we pray for all refugees
who are raising their families on the road without basic needs
and the comforts they once had.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. O God come to our aid; O Lord, make haste to help us. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.