"Believing means..."

[MariaChristi]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I’d like to share some words from Pope Benedict’s book, The Infancy Narratives. Commenting on the scene in Luke’s Gospel, in which the young Jesus stays behind in the Temple, and finding Him, Mary and Joseph do not understand his reply:

…Again and again Jesus’ words exceed our rational powers…Believing means submitting to this loftiness and slowly growing into it…

Mary appears not only as the great believer, but as the image of the Church which keeps God’s Word in her heart and passes it on to others…This is what the 12 year old’s answer makes clear, he sees everything and everyone in the light of the Father.

May we all, by God’s Grace, with Mary, keep His Word in our hearts, pondering so as to remain in Him, living His Life as she did on this earth. May our 2013 continue to be truly a “Year of Faith”.

 

[baptismal]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I’d like to share some words from Pope Benedict’s book, The Infancy Narratives. Commenting on the scene in Luke’s Gospel, in which the young Jesus stays behind in the Temple, and finding Him, Mary and Joseph do not understand his reply:

May we all, by God’s Grace, with Mary, keep His Word in our hearts, pondering so as to remain in Him, living His Life as she did on this earth. May our 2013 continue to be truly a “Year of Faith”.

…for this let us pray.

 

[Glacies]

The way the youthful Christ amazed the learned Doctors in the Second Temple (584 BC - AD 70) reminds of another youthful luminary by the name Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, who dying only twenty-four years old is counted among the thirty-five Doctors of the Church. As the Psalm says: “Super senes intellexi: quia mandata tua quæsivi.” (Ps. 118:100) Such is the power of Faith.

 

[MariaChristi]

The way the youthful Christ amazed the learned Doctors in the Second Temple (584 BC - AD 70) reminds of another youthful luminary by the name Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, who dying only twenty-four years old is counted among the thirty-five Doctors of the Church. As the Psalm says: “Super senes intellexi: quia mandata tua quæsivi.” (Ps. 118:100) Such is the power of Faith.

Dear Glacies and baptismal,

Thank you both for your responses. Glacies, the Psalm verse ( in my Bible it is 119:100) “I understand more than the aged, for I keep thy precepts” is a good reference for both the Young Jesus and the young St. Therese. Faith is such an important theological virtue for all of us, and we need to continue growing as Jesus, Therese and Mary and all the saints grew in wisdom, age and grace. Jesus, of course had no need for faith since he possessed the Beatific Vision and was always seeing His Father. But for all of us who have only our human nature, we need to see with eyes of Faith.

Mary is the “great believer” as Pope Benedict wrote, and she is Mother and Model for all of us who seek to grow in faith by keeping His Word.

Yes, baptismal “…for this let us pray”!