Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God
The Octave Day of Christmas
January 1, 2024
Today’s Readings:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/010124.cfm
Happy New Year to all!!
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, in the Year of Our Lord 2024, our readings begin with abundant blessings:
The LORD bless you and keep you!
Numbers 6:24-27
The LORD let his face shine upon
you, and be gracious to you!
The LORD look upon you kindly and
give you peace!
So shall they invoke my name upon the Israelites,
and I will bless them.
Throughout our readings today, this blessing is woven with complementary themes assuring us, and inviting us, to live our identity as God’s child. In God and through Jesus Christ we are:
- blessed
- ransomed
- adopted
- amazed
- named
BLESSED
May God bless us in mercy.
Psalm 67:2
Our Responsorial Psalm reminds us that our greatest blessing is to live in the Mercy of God made flesh in Jesus.
RANSOMED
When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son,
Galatians 4:4-5
born of a woman, born under the law,
to ransom those under the law,
so that we might receive adoption as God’s own children.
Paul reminds us that, as God’s child, I no longer live by Law but by Love.
ADOPTED
As proof that you are God’s children,
Galatians 4:6
God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts,
crying out, “Abba, Father!”
Paul encourages us to listen to our hearts crying out to God, not as some distant Being but as our Father/Mother/Abba
AMAZED
The shepherds went in haste to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph,
Luke 2:16-18
and the infant lying in the manger.
When they saw this,
they made known the message
that had been told them about this child.
All who heard it were amazed
by what had been told them by the shepherds.
Luke reminds us that to be blessed with such grace is to live in holy amazement and thanksgiving!
NAMED
When eight days were completed for his circumcision,
Luke 2:21
he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel
before he was conceived in the womb.
Luke describes Christ’s naming in which we all share as “Christians” and which invites us to live in the pattern of Christ.
Poetry: Mornings at Blackwater – Mary Oliver
For years, every morning, I drank
from Blackwater Pond.
It was flavored with oak leaves and also, no doubt,
the feet of ducks.
And always it assuaged me
from the dry bowl of the very far past.
What I want to say is
that the past is the past,
and the present is what your life is,
and you are capable
of choosing what that will be,
darling citizen.
So come to the pond,
or the river of your imagination,
or the harbor of your longing,
and put your lips to the world.
And live
your life.
Music: Only Time – Enya