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Numbers 6:22-27

Feast of Mary, Mother of God, Year C – 2022

31 décembre 2021
Nicole Gregoire
Aucun commentaire
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: adult, angel, blessing, God gracious, God-one-of-us, Numbers 6:22-27, Psalm 67:1-8

Since the beginning of the Christmas season, we have been looking at a child in a manger,
or, looking at this new-born held close to her heart by his mother.

Personally, this has led me to think at what God… did NOT do!
We usually contemplate what God has done, but what about seeing the reverse?…

God wanted to reach us, the people he has created, to share his life with us, but…
He did not try to reach us as an angel.
He did not show himself with power.
And, amazingly, he did not come to us as an adult!

Yet, being God, he had a vast choice of options!
He chose to be born from a human mother, small and needy.

A God who must rely on human beings… rather unusual, is it not?

He wanted to be known as a GRACIOUS God.
This is what we hear in the 1st reading (Numbers 6:22-27)
and the Psalm (Psalm 67:1-8) of today’s celebration.

“The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you.”

“May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make his face shine on us.”

In becoming one-of-us, God has ‘graced’ us,
he has blessed us in all kinds of ways –
ways that we have never finished to discover and to understand!

The whole of the new year opening up before us will not be sufficient for this discovery…
But we can start opening the gift now, and doing so day after day!

 

Note: Another reflection is available on a different theme in French at: https://image-i-nations.com/marie-mere-de-dieu-annee-c-2022/

 

Source: Image: lds365.com

Feast of Mary, Mother of God, Year B – 2021

1 janvier 2021
Nicole Gregoire
Aucun commentaire
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: benefits, blessing, happiness, health, Numbers 6:22-27, opportunities, success

During this festive season of Christmas and the New Year, we exchange good wishes, all kinds of them.
Phone calls, Christmas cards, emails, messages on Messenger or Twitter –
all the platforms are good If they serve our purpose:
that of sending to others our wishes for their health, happiness, success, and other good things in plenty.

But do we exchange blessings?
Some of you may be surprised at this question… Blessings?
But… what are they really?

Some would define them as gifts, opportunities, benefits, good luck perhaps…
Others would describe them as an intervention that will bring a sense of well-being, of contentment.
All this is true but…

If we pay attention to the 1st reading of today’s feast (Numbers 6:22-27),
we should admit that something is missing in the definitions above and that is… God’s touch!

Yes, a blessing is not only some pious wish, or words expressing the desire of good fortune for someone else.
A blessing is a call on God himself to intervene in favor of someone,
in other words: to give as only God can give!
 
A blessing is a gift from God himself.
The text says that God will be ‘gracious’ to the person blessed in his name,
and the ‘grace’ that God gives is… himself!

This is what he has done in Jesus, the new-born we see in Mary’s arms.

What else could we desire, or ask for, that would satisfy us truly?
This blessing enfolds all others!
And, the amazing thing is that God wants so much to give it to us that… he wants us to ask for it!

God BLESS YOU!

Note: Another reflection is available on a different theme in French at: https://image-i-nations.com/fete-de-marie-mere-de-dieu-annee-b-2020/

Source: Image: ibelieve.com   deseret.com

Feast of Mary, Mother of God, C

28 décembre 2015
Nicole Gregoire
Aucun commentaire
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: blessings, chance, good luck, Happy New Year, Mary Mother of God, Moses, Numbers 6:22-27, opportunity, Psalm 66-67, synchronicity

Moses, uncyclopedia.wiki« I will bless them… »

Our reflection for yesterday – the last day of the year – was inviting us to ‘Count our blessings’.
And our celebration today, on the first day of the New Year is all about BLESSINGS.
The word comes back in different texts of the liturgy.

In the 1st reading (Numbers 6:22-27), we see Moses calling on God’s blessing for his people: “May the Lord bless you…”
And we hear God’s own promise: “And I will bless them.”
The Psalm (66 (67) echoes the same words: “May God be gracious to us and bless us… May God still give us his blessing.”

Nativity Michael Gleghorn.com

As we celebrate today the Feast of Mary, Mother of God, we recall the prayer that we, Christians, address her so many times.
We repeat again and again: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.”

In our daily conversation, we do not often mention the word ‘blessing’. We hear people talk about chance, opportunity, good luck. A recent addition to this list is that of ‘synchronicity’ an expression that underlines the fact that something good happened just at the right time. Strangely, the word ‘blessing’ seems absent.

Is it that we do not recognise it under its disguises? Would it be that we no longer discern God’s visitation to us and the many gifts (another word for ‘blessings’) that his coming brings to us? Is it that… we look without seeing, that… we hear without perceiving?

In the text of Luke’s gospel today (2:16-21), we are told: “Mary stored up all these things in her heart.”
Perhaps that was the secret why she was happy (another word for ‘blessed’).
During this festive season, we exchange good wishes of all kinds and we often repeat to all those we meet: ‘HAPPY New Year!’ Yes, we want this new year to be happy in all manner of things.
We want it to be… ‘blessed’, filled with the Lord’s precious gifts as the weeks and months go by.

It will be so, if only we keep in our hearts the memory of God’s repeated blessings reaching us from day to day!

Pics: Moses uncyclopedia.wikia.com      Nativity Michael Gleghorn.com