The Morning is here; the darkness and the shadows have disappeared; a new Day, a new life, a new hope!

Here in our spiritual home, we encounter the Child of Bethlehem, and remember that Christ dwells in our hearts burning to be set free.

To become a Christian means to be “brought in” to the Family of God; to be embraced by them and to be welcomed at their Table. This Table is prepared for us; this is our meal where all of God’s secrets are revealed. We know from experience that in the family there are no secrets.

We enter this Sanctuary; the home of the Three-personed God. It is here that we ‘converse’ openly, truthfully and in right relationship with one another. In the family, each person is who they are called to be. In each family, God is revealed and Truth is shared.

When we approach this Manger, we see that the birth has already taken place and that Mary and Joseph are at peace with each other and with their new son. They have accepted the gift of their child for the purpose only His True Father intended. See, the arms of the Child are stretched out, like the Crucified One He will soon become.

He reaches out to each of us with the possibility to we too can be new creations and have Mary and the Saints guiding us and caring for us in our daily living.

Just as we look upon the Child in the Manger, so God looks upon us and rushes to ‘make His dwelling’ in our families. God desires to make His dwelling place in individual hearts too, so that we, like Mary and Joseph, can accept what Providence has in store for us and our children.

“The faith in Christ we profess together on this holy day in the Creed of the baptized is a sanctification and refinement of everything that was ever said or hoped, in the history of religions, about God’s dwelling in the world” (BXVI).

Approach the Child Who stretches out His arms to embrace you and in this holy embrace, ask yourselves again the resurrectional question of your life with Jesus: “Were our hearts not burning?” If the answer is yes, then let us commit ourselves to strengthen His Presence in our family, let us accept the personal call to holiness and let us go to the Table of the Eucharist and share with Him Eternal Life.