The Holy Particular – Br. Keith Nelson

Br. Keith Nelson

Matthew 1:1-25

In my early twenties I had the opportunity to visit the Benedictine abbey and shrine of Our Lady of Montserrat, situated in the jagged mountains above Barcelona. I was not then a Christian, but was driven by curiosity to see this local holy place with its distinctive, black image of the Virgin and Child. I watched as an elderly man lifted a little boy, presumably his grandson, to kiss the wooden ball held in the tiny hand of the boy Jesus. I surrendered to a yearning felt in my body – to connect with the divine not just anywhere, but somewhere, in this physical place to which I had traveled many miles from home. Without needing to understand why, I too kissed that image of the earth held in the hands of a divine child, held in the lap of a human mother, on the top of a mountain in Spain. Read More

And God Waits – Br. James Koester

James Koester SSJEMatthew 1: (1-17) 18-25

Today is a perfect day for me! I love this feast for all sorts of different reasons.

I love it because it is slightly quirky. Nowhere in scripture is anything at all mentioned about the birth of Mary. All we can really say, unless we believe that Jesus arrived on earth via space ship, is that it happened.

I love it, because who after all could not love something whose source is a second century document entitled the Protoevangelium of James. Read More