For 30 years Jesus lived a family life with Mary and Joseph in Nazareth: we must meditate on this astonishing reality and on its mere duration, for it represents the nine tenths of the life of the Son [...] the example of Jesus, we submit to Mary! With such a convincing and well-known example before us, can we be so foolish as to believe that there is a better and shorter way of giving God glory than by [...] De Montfort wrote : "Our good Master stooped to enclose himself in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, a captive but loving slave, and to make himself subject to her for thirty years. As I said earlier, the

life in Nazareth to the public life of Jesus, our contemplation brings us to those mysteries which may be called in a special way “mysteries of light.” Certainly the whole mystery of Christ is a mystery [...] Paschal Mystery. Each of these mysteries is a revelation of the Kingdom now present in the very person of Jesus The Baptism in the Jordan is first of all a mystery of light. Here, as Christ descends into [...] agony of the Passion, so as to come with Him to the joy of the Resurrection and a life transfigured by the Holy Spirit. A final mystery of light is the institution of the Eucharist, in which Christ offers

jurists; a few people near Jerusalem also spoke a lower form of Hebrew that had survived as a popular dialect. If Palestine had been annexed by the Hellenistic kingdoms, Greece would have left only a slight [...] he was until recently, when a newly discovered inscription confirmed his historicity. In the same period, while Judea was a Roman province, Galilee was under the authority of a tetrarch (one of “four” joint [...] birth of Jesus, the son of Mary and Joseph from Bethlehem of Judea, who had traveled from Nazareth to Judea to answer a census ordered by Rome. In the 1st century, Israel was under Roman rule In the first century

Jesus of Nazareth, has an opposite aspect, totally positive, a source of comfort and hope. And this reminds me of the fact that the Holy Shroud acts as a "photographic' document, with both a "positive" [...] "positive" and a "negative". And, in fact, this is really how it is: the darkest mystery of faith is at the same time the most luminous sign of a never-ending hope. Holy Saturday is a "no man's land" between the [...] the blood and water that flowed copiously from a great wound inflicted by the tip of a Roman spear. That blood and that water speak of life. It is like a spring that murmurs in the silence, and we can

believers. In a noisey world filled with messages of all kinds, her witness enables us to appreciate a spiritually rich silence and fosters a contemplative spirit. Mary witnesses to the value of a humble and [...] the advantages of a privileged position, she always tried to fulfil God's will, leading a life according to the Father's plan of salvation. To all those who often feel the burden of a seemingly insignificant [...] Redemptoris Mater, n. 13). Her journey as a believer began even earlier than her divine motherhood and developed more deeply throughout her earthly experience. Hers was a daring faith. At the Annunciation she

she needed from it. Nazareth, where she conceived, means ‘flower', and she chose this place above all others. The ‘flower which sprang from the root of Jesse' [cf. Is 11:1] loves a flowery homeland. The [...] saints. She lived from the one she nourished. The one she suckled gave her life. This good bee prepared a house: her mind by humility, and her flesh by virginity, in which the king of angels might dwell. And

XVI) With a hymn composed in the eighth or ninth century, thus for over a thousand years, the Church has greeted Mary, the Mother of God, as "Star of the Sea": Ave maris stella. Human life is a journey. [...] Towards what destination? How do we find the way? Life is like a voyage on the sea of history, often dark and stormy, a voyage in which we watch for the stars that indicate the route. The true stars of [...] Son of God dying like a failure, exposed to mockery, between criminals. Then you received the word of Jesus: "Woman, behold, your Son!" (Jn 19:26). From the Cross you received a new mission. From the Cross

couple had sinned; a new couple, the Son of God with the collaboration of the Mother, was to reestablish the human race in its original dignity. Mary, the new Eve, thus becomes a perfect icon of the Church [...] "cooperators in the work of Christ's Salvation," but applied to Mary though, the term of "cooperator" holds a particular meaning The collaboration of Christians to the Salvation is realized after the events of [...] each human being, the participation of the Savior's Mother in the Redemption of humanity represents a unique, unparalleled fact. In spite of the singularity of her condition, Mary too is the beneficiary

news of great joy, a joy to be shared by the whole people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. And here is a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling [...] Lk 2:1-20 - Christmas Now it happened that at this time Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be made of the whole inhabited world. This census -- the first -- took place while Quirinius [...] the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to a son, her first-born. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the living-space

have chosen Mary as a life role model throughout Christian history are enough to show the extent to which Marian devotion is united to the spiritual life of the Church. There has been a renewal of Marian [...] themselves. When we read the Gospels attentively, we notice the veiled presence of the Virgin of Nazareth all along, although she often stays in the background. However, Mary's role is reported very explicitly [...] Orthodox Christians are not alone in honoring the Mother of Jesus. All persons who recognize the Bible as a sacred and founding text turn to Mary with honor and respect. It is obvious that this respect for the