Dear friend:

The Advent-Christmas cycle is an occasion to contemplate the life of Jesus through Virgin Mary’s eyes.

. "The Annunciation" and / or "The Incarnation of the Son of God" (read more).

. "The Visitation of the Virgin to her cousin Elizabeth" (read more).

***

The "The Birth of Our Lord" in Bethlehem is the "epicenter" of the Mysteries of Gozo and, surely, of the rest of the mysteries of the Rosary: ​​one could say that everything is derived from there...

1st) "While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son" (Lk 2,6-7). The most crucial moment in the world is solved in 2 versicles. How much austerity! How much simplicity! This is how God is, that is how Mary is (read more). This is also how the Kingdom of God is and that is the way the Church has to be... The mustard seed parable (Mt 13,31-58) is for real: back then, now and always! (read more).

2nd) "She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger" (Lk 2,7). The "epicenter" of our history focuses on "diapers" and a "manger". Those are emblems for his identification (read more). Big mystery, mystery of sweetness! The nascent Christianity experienced - not without suffering - an extraordinary diffusion in a short time: it is a sweet religion (read more). If sometimes - or often - the Church is rejected by men is greatly because their faithful - clerics and lay - have done things in the name of Christ that do not correspond to her sweetness (things that He would never have done and for which we have to proclaim a "mea culpa").

3rd) "A multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying: ‘Glory to God in the highestf and on earth peace (...)’" (Lk 2,13-14). Angels and shepherds enter the scene; Celestial beings and human beings: all enjoy peace for the birth of Jesus. And joy, for the proximity of God! (read more). What a paradox !: All of them are there in the grotto of Bethlehem, they have nothing (not even a roof), but they do not miss anything either, because “Whoever has God lacks nothing” (St. Teresa of Jesus).

4th) "An ox knows its owner, and an donkey, its master’s manger; But Israel does not know" (Is 1,3). Here is an old denuciation of Isaiah. Not all rejoice at the birth of the Messiah; not all go to the grotto. There are neither the princes of the priests, nor the scribes, nor Herod ... All of them are distracted in their homes and in their own things. Israel does not understand! (read more), but the ox and the donkey yes ... Those nice guests - in their simplicity - have never been missing at the manger. In the stable are the simple hearts that trust in God: Mary, Joseph, the angels, the shepherds, the wise men of the East ... (read more). They are "like" the ox and the donkey: they are not afraid of Jesus!

5th) "They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks" (Is 2,4). Isaiah announced peace and prosperity with the coming of the Messiah: the instruments of war would be replaced by work tools (read more). For now, only the workers came to Bethlehem: the shepherds and the wise men of the East ... The rest did not move a finger! Since then a lot has been done, but there is still a lot left to do (read more). The work is the transmission belt of the Redemption!

The evangeli.net Team wishes you a Holy Christmas and a happy New Year of Our Lord Jesus Christ.