IV Sunday in Advent (year A)  [21 December 2025]

May God bless us and the Virgin protect us! As we approach Christmas, the Word of God reminds us of the Lord's faithfulness even when the unfaithfulness of his people might weary him (first reading). The Gospel introduces us to Saint Joseph, the man who silently accepts and fulfils his mission as father of the Son of God. 

*First Reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah (7:10-14)

It is around 735 BC. The kingdom of David has been divided into two states for two centuries: Samaria in the north and Jerusalem in the south, where Ahaz, a young king of twenty, reigns. The political situation is dramatic: the Assyrian empire, with its capital at Nineveh, dominates the region; the kings of Damascus and Samaria, already defeated by the Assyrians, now rebel and besiege Jerusalem to replace Ahaz with an allied ruler. The king panics: 'the heart of the king and the heart of the people were agitated like the trees of the forest by the wind' (Isaiah 7:2). The prophet Isaiah invites him to calm down and have faith: God has promised to keep David's dynasty alive; stability depends on trust in the Lord: if you do not believe, you will not remain steadfast. But Ahaz does not listen: he turns to idols and goes so far as to commit an atrocious act forbidden by the prophets, sacrificing his only son by passing him through the fire (cf. 2 Kings 16:3). He then decides to ask Assyria for help, a choice that entails the loss of political and religious independence. Isaiah strongly opposes this: it is a betrayal of the Covenant and of the liberation that began with Moses. In this context, Isaiah offers a sign: "Ask for a sign from the Lord your God." Ahaz responds hypocritically, pretending humility by not asking for it so as not to tempt the Lord, while he has already decided to entrust himself to Assyria. Isaiah replies rather harshly, saying not to weary 'my God', as if to indicate that Ahaz has now placed himself outside the Covenant. Despite the king's unfaithfulness, God remains faithful and, says Isaiah, 'the Lord himself will give you a sign': the young woman (the queen) is pregnant and the child will be called Immanuel, 'God with us'. This message from Isaiah is one of the classic texts of biblical messianism. Neither the enemies nor the king's sin can nullify the promise made by God to David. The child – probably the future king Hezekiah – will know how to choose good thanks to the Spirit of the Lord, and even before he grows up, the threat from Samaria and Damascus will disappear. In fact, shortly afterwards, the two kingdoms are destroyed by the Assyrians. Human freedom remains intact, and even Hezekiah will make mistakes; but Isaiah's prophecy affirms that nothing can prevent God's faithfulness to David's descendants. For this reason, throughout the centuries, Israel will wait for a king who will fully realise the name of Immanuel. The birth of the child is more than good news: it is an announcement of forgiveness. By sacrificing his son to the god Moloch, Ahaz compromised the promise made to David; but God does not withdraw his commitment. The birth of the new heir shows that God's faithfulness surpasses the unfaithfulness of men. The 'sign' thus takes on another encouraging messianic dimension, which we see more clearly in this Sunday's Gospel. 

Important elements to remember: +Historical context: 735 BC, divided kingdom, threats from Syria, Samaria and Assyria. +Ahaz's panic and Isaiah's invitation to faith. +Serious unfaithfulness of the king: idolatry and sacrifice of his son. +Wrong political choice: alliance with Assyria. +Isaiah's sign: birth of the child called Immanuel. +Immediate fulfilment: destruction of Syria and Samaria by Assyria. +Central theme: the unfaithfulness of men does not nullify God's faithfulness. +Birth as an announcement of forgiveness and continuity of the Davidic promise.

Responsorial Psalm (23/24, 1-2, 3-4, 5-6)

The psalm takes us to the temple in Jerusalem: a great procession arrives at the gates and two choirs dialogue, asking: 'Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place?' The image recalls Isaiah, who describes the thrice-holy God as a consuming fire before which no one could 'stand' without his help. The people of Israel have discovered that this totally 'Other' God also becomes the totally 'near' God, allowing man to remain in his presence. The psalm's answer is: 'Those who have clean hands and a pure heart, who do not turn to idols'. This is not primarily a matter of moralism, because the people know that they are admitted before God by grace, not by their own merit. Here, 'pure heart' means an undivided heart, turned solely to the one God; 'innocent hands' are hands that have not offered sacrifices to idols. The expression 'does not turn/literally does not lift up his soul' indicates not turning to empty deities: 'lifting up one's eyes' in the Bible means invoking, praying, recognising someone as God. This verse recalls the prophets' great struggle against idolatry. Isaiah had already opposed Ahaz in the eighth century; and even during the Exile in Babylon, the people - immersed in a polytheistic culture - were tempted to return to idols. The psalm, sung after the Exile, reminds us that the first condition of the Covenant is to remain faithful to the one God. Seeking the face of God is an image taken from the language of the court: only those who are faithful to the King can be admitted into his presence. Idols are defined as 'empty gods': Psalm 115 masterfully describes their nullity – they have eyes, mouths, hands, but they do not see, speak or act. Unlike these statues, God is alive and truly works. Fidelity to the one God is therefore the condition for receiving the blessing promised to the fathers and for entering into his plan of salvation. This is why Jesus will say: 'No one can serve two masters' (Matthew 6:24).

This fidelity, however, does not remain abstract: it concretely transforms life. The pure heart becomes a heart of flesh capable of eliminating hatred and violence; innocent hands become hands incapable of doing evil. The psalm says: "He will obtain blessing from the Lord, justice from God his salvation": this means both conforming to God's plan and living in right relationship with others. Here we already glimpse the light of the Beatitudes: Blessed are the pure of heart, for they will see God... blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice. The expression 'lift up your eyes', expressed here as 'those who do not turn to idols' (v. 4), returns in Zechariah and in the Gospel of John: 'They will look on the one they have pierced' (Jn 19:37), a sign of a new encounter with God.

Important elements to remember: +Scene in the temple with the dialogue of the choirs. +God is thrice holy and at the same time close: he allows man to 'stand' before him. +'Pure heart' and 'innocent hands' as fidelity to the one God, not idolatry and the prophets' constant struggle against idolatry (Ahaz, Exile). +Idols as 'empty gods'; criticism of Psalm 115. +Fidelity to the one God as the first condition of the Covenant, which has as its ethical consequences a righteous life, a renewed heart, and non-violent hands. 

Second Reading from the Letter of St Paul to the Romans (1:1-7)

St Paul opens his letter to the Romans by summarising the whole Christian faith: the promises contained in the Scriptures, the mystery of Christ, his birth and resurrection, the free election of the holy people and the mission of the Apostles to the pagan nations. Writing to a community he has not yet met, Paul introduces himself with two titles: 'servant of Jesus Christ and apostle by calling', that is, sent, one who acts by mandate. He immediately attributes to Jesus the title of Christ, which means Messiah: to say 'Jesus Christ' is to profess that Jesus of Nazareth is the expected Messiah. Paul claims to have been 'chosen to proclaim the Gospel of God', the Good News: proclaiming the Gospel means proclaiming that God's plan is totally benevolent and that this plan is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. This Good News, says Paul, had already been promised in the prophets. Without the Old Testament, one cannot understand the New Testament because God's plan is unique, revealed progressively throughout history. The Resurrection of Christ is the centre of history, the heart of the divine plan from the beginning, as Paul also recalls in his letter to the Ephesians, where he speaks of God's will to recapitulate all things in Christ (Eph 1:9-10). 'According to the flesh': Jesus is a descendant of David, therefore a true man and Messiah. "According to the Spirit": Jesus is constituted Son of God "with power" through his Resurrection, and in the Resurrection God enthrones him as King of the new humanity. For Paul, this is the event that changes history because "if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is futile" (cf. 1 Cor 15:14). For this reason, he proclaims the Resurrection everywhere, so that "the name of Jesus Christ may be recognised", as he also writes in his letter to the Philippians (2:9-11), God has given him the Name above every other name, that of "Lord". Paul feels that his apostolic mission is "to bring about the obedience of faith in all peoples". "Obedience" is not servility, but trusting listening: it is the attitude of the child who trusts in the Father's love and welcomes his Word. Paul concludes with his typical greeting: 'Grace to you and peace from God', which is expressed in the priestly blessing in the Book of Numbers: grace and peace always come from God, but it is up to man to accept them freely.

Most important elements to remember: +Summary of the Christian faith: the promises are fulfilled in Christ, in the Resurrection, election and mission. +Paul's titles are servant and apostle, while the title 'Christ' is 'Messiah', which is a profession of faith. +The Gospel is God's merciful plan fulfilled in Christ. +Unity between the Old and New Testaments and Christ in his identity 'according to the flesh' and 'according to the Spirit': he is at the centre of God's plan from the beginning. +The Resurrection is the decisive event, and 'obedience of faith' is trusting listening. +Final blessing: grace and peace, in human freedom.

From the Gospel according to Matthew (1:18-24) 

Matthew opens his Gospel with the expression: "Genealogy of Jesus Christ", that is, the book of the genesis of Jesus Christ, and presents a long genealogy that demonstrates Joseph's Davidic descent. Following the formula "A begot B", Matthew arrives at Joseph, but breaks with the pattern: he cannot say "Joseph begot Jesus"; instead, the evangelist writes: "Jacob begot Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ" (Mt 1:16). This formula shows that the genealogy undergoes a change: for Jesus to be included in the line of David, his birth is not enough; Joseph must adopt him. The Son of God, in a certain sense, entrusts himself to the freedom of a man: the divine plan depends on Joseph's 'yes'. We are familiar with the Annunciation to Mary in Luke's Gospel, which is widely represented in art. Much less represented, however, is the Annunciation to Joseph, even though it is decisive: the human story of Jesus begins thanks to the free acceptance of a righteous man. The angel calls Joseph 'son of David' and reveals to him the mystery of Jesus' sonship: conceived by the Holy Spirit, yet recognised as his son. 'Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife' means that Jesus will enter Joseph's house, and it will be he who will give him his name. Matthew also explains the meaning of the name Jesus: it means 'The Lord saves'. His mission is not only to free Israel from human power, but to save his people from sin. In Jewish tradition, the expectation of the Messiah included a total renewal: new creation, justice and peace. Matthew sees all this encapsulated in the name of Jesus. The text specifies: 'the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit'. There are two accounts of the virgin birth: this one by Matthew (Annunciation to Joseph) and the one by Luke (Annunciation to Mary). The Church professes this truth as an article of faith: Jesus is both true man, born of a woman, included in the lineage of David thanks to Joseph's free choice; and true Son of God, conceived by the Holy Spirit. Matthew links all this to Isaiah's prophecy: "The virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means 'God-with-us'". The Greek translation of Isaiah (Septuagint), which Matthew quotes, uses the term 'virgin' (parthenos), while the Hebrew text uses almah, which means 'young woman' who is not yet married: even the ancient translation reflected the belief that the Messiah would be born of a virgin. Matthew insists: the child will be called Jesus (the Lord saves), but the prophet calls him Emmanuel (God-with-us). This is not a contradiction: at the end of Matthew's Gospel, Jesus will say, 'I am with you always, even unto the end of the world' (Mt 28:20). His name and his mission coincide: to save means to be with man, to accompany him, never to abandon him. Joseph believed and welcomed the presence of God. As Elizabeth said to Mary, 'Blessed is she who believed' (Lk 1:45), so we can say, 'Blessed is Joseph who believed: thanks to him, God was able to fulfil his plan of salvation'. Matthew uses the word "genesis" twice (Mt 1:1, 18), as in the book of Genesis when speaking of the descendants of Adam. This suggests that the entire history of humanity is recapitulated in Jesus: he is the New Adam, as St Paul will say.

Most important elements to remember: Break in the genealogy: Jesus is not "begotten" by Joseph but through adoption fulfils the plan of salvation. Joseph's freedom is fundamental in the fulfilment of God's plan. Title "son of David" and Joseph's legal role. Name of Jesus = "The Lord saves" mission of salvation from sins. +Virgin conception: mystery of faith, true man and true Son of God. +Quotation from Isaiah 7:14 according to the Greek translation ("virgin"). +Jesus and Emmanuel: salvation as the constant presence of God. +Parallel with Elizabeth's beatitude: Joseph's faith. +Jesus as the "New Adam" according to the reference to "Genesis".

Commentary by St Augustine, Sermon 51, on the Incarnation

"Joseph was greater in silence than many in speech: he believed the angel, accepted the mystery, protected what he did not fully understand. In him we see how faith does not consist in understanding everything, but in trusting God who works in secret." Augustine thus emphasises Joseph's unique role: his faith is trusting obedience; he welcomes Christ without possessing him; he becomes the guardian of the mystery that saves the world.

+Giovanni D'Ercole

(Mt 1:18-24)

«Even through Joseph’s fears, God’s will, his history and his plan were at work. Joseph, then, teaches us that faith in God includes believing that he can work even through our fears, our frailties and our weaknesses. He also teaches us that amid the tempests of life, we must never be afraid to let the Lord steer our course. At times, we want to be in complete control, yet God always sees the bigger picture» [Patris Corde n.2].

Incarnation: the Father places himself alongside his sons and daughters. Not only He isn’t afraid of becoming impure in contact with things that concern human dynamics: in their Condition even recognizes Himself.

For this reason, the culmination of the entire Salvation Story springs from Joseph's embarrassment.

Sources attest that he was not at all a character with a lily in his hand, but perhaps this may interest us up to a certain point.

The narration of Mt is striking, because the distinction and the possibility of the irruption (of the summit itself) of God's plan on humanity seem to arise not from a certainty, but from a Doubt.

The question mark involves. Discomfort sows a new Germ inside. It tears and cuts down all the alike seedlings of the grass infesting the full Life - which was the chiseled Law on appearances.

The "problem" leads to dreaming of other horizons to open, and in the first person. Hesitation leads out of the mental cages that mortify relationships, previously reduced to casuistry.

The perplexity makes common opinion overlook, because conformity attenuates and extinguishes the Novelty of God.

Hesitation seeks existential fissures: it wants to introduce us into territories of life - where others can also draw on different experiences, varied perceptions, and moments in which to have decisive insights as a gift.

Its wise Energy finds gaps and small passages; it acts to make us evolve as children of Eternity - also arousing inconvenience, which flood existence of creative suspensions and new passion.

Its lucid Action is introduced through Dreams that shake off the usual projects, or states of mind that put them in the balance; and bottlenecks of marginalized thinking that makes us rediscover the reason we were born, discover our part in the world.

Every swing, every pain, every danger, every move, can become a ‘birth’ towards Originality - without identifications first.

Uniqueness doesn’t make us lose the Source that ‘watches’ in us. Woe to shirk: we would lose our destination.

The Spirit that slips into the crevices of standard mindsets finds an intimate spot that allows us to flourish differently now, able to bring out the essence of who we authentically are, and stop copying clichés.

Then we won't keep asking: Whose fault is it? How should we buffer the situation? Who should we lean on?. But rather: What is the new ‘life’ I have to explore? What is yet to be discovered?.

In fact, the bite of doubts does not make one become believer-garbage, as hypothesized in disciplined, legalistic religions - in puritan philosophies with artificial wisdom - vice versa friends, adopted sons [ie chosen] and heirs.

Thanks to the Relation of Faith, we are no longer lost in the desert - because the many things and the hazards become dialogue of specific weight: we are at Home, respecting our mysterious character and Call.

We begin like Joseph to be present to ourselves. And by changing gaze, we will enjoy the Beauty of the New.

«Saint Joseph reminds us that those who appear hidden or in the shadows can play an incomparable role in the history of salvation. A word of recognition and of gratitude is due to them all» [Patris Corde intr.].

To internalize and live the message:

On what occasion did ‘doubt’ open horizons to astound you? In the beautiful and colorful moments of life, did you start from your certainty?

 [4th Advent Sunday (year A), December 21, 2025]

Mt 1:18-24 (1-24)

Contact with the earth: deviations and Ascent

Unassuming Incarnation, in subtlety and density

(Mt 1:1-17)

In the ancient East, genealogies referred only to men, and it is surprising that Matthew mentions the names of five women - considered only servile, unreliable creatures, impure by nature.

But in the story of Mary's four companions, there is something quite abnormal [also in terms of their chosen way of life], which is nevertheless worthwhile.

Here, then, we are challenged by the Gospel to consider the weight to be given to the rigidity of rules, which in the history of spirituality have often devoured the spontaneous being of those called by the Father (simply to express themselves).

Even cultures inspired by the Wisdom of Nature attest to their weight.

The Tao Tê Ching (LVII) writes: 'When the world is governed by correction, weapons are used with falsehood [...] For this reason, the saint says: I do not act, and the people transform themselves [...] I do not desire, and the people become simple'.

To reach the human fullness of the Son, God did not claim to overcome concrete events, but rather assumed and valued them.

The path that leads to Christ is not a matter of climbing, nor of results or performances to be calibrated ever better in a linear crescendo that is therefore moralising and dirigiste (which does not impose changes that matter, nor solve real problems).

Commenting on the Tao (i), Master Ho-shang Kung writes: 'Mystery is Heaven. It says that both the man who has desires and the man who has none receive equally from Heaven. Within Heaven there is another Heaven; in Heaven there is density and tenuity'.

In history, the Eternal One manages to give wings not so much to strength and genius, but to all poor origins, to the pettiness of our nature, which suddenly turns into totally unpredictable wealth. 

And if we continually tear the thread, the Lord re-knots it - not to fix it, patch it up and resume as before, but to weave an entirely new fabric. Starting precisely from the falls.

It is those moments of down-to-earth discrimination that force humanity to change direction symbolically and not repeat itself, stagnating in the circuit of the usual cerebral and purist perimeters - habitual, and where everything is normal.

Following inner crashes and rethinking, how many people have realised their destiny, deviating from the quiet, protected and comfortable path that had been laid out for them (Cottolengo, Mother Teresa, and so on)!

From the mud of the swamp sprout beautiful, clean flowers, which do not even resemble those that we had ever imagined we would be able to contemplate in the various stages of life.

The tumbles of the protagonists of the history of salvation did not come about because of weakness. They were signs of a bad or partial use of resources; stimuli to change our perspective, re-evaluate our point of view and many hopes.

Those collapses presented new challenges: they were interpreted as strong provocations to shift energies and change course.

The recoveries that followed the downturns turned into new opportunities, completely unexpected, completely at odds with the ready-made solutions that stifle character.

Even our crisis only becomes serious when failures do not lead to new insights and different paths that we had not thought of (perhaps in any of our good intentions).

This link between our depths and the heights of the Spirit is strange: it is the Incarnation, not a theory - it is all reality.

There is no Gift that resembles us at the divine level and that comes to us without passing through and involving the dimension of finitude.

The holes in the water convey the entirely human nature of what we are - behind the illusions or appearances that we do not want to give up, in order to convince ourselves that we are instead identified 'characters'.

But the ambivalences and flaws continue to want to shift our gaze and destiny elsewhere, away from common expectations [today even the paroxysm of the point in the polls].

Behind the mask and beyond the beliefs acquired from the environment, from manners or procedures... there is the great Secret of the Father about us.

It is precisely the descents that spiritualise, through a work of the soul that is spurred on by events, so that it turns to acquire new awareness, internalises different evaluations, sees and embraces other varied horizons, including missionary ones.

The crack that brings us down can be more substantial than any progress; not because it initiates an asceticism: it becomes contact with the 'earth' - where we find the lifeblood that truly corresponds to us, to regenerate.

The decline or even the ruin of a reassuring status has a propulsive, regenerative, transmutative function in every event; normal, after all, and in which the history of God is totally recognised.

To internalise and live the message:

What were your turning points?

What detour has fulfilled you?

Not only through men, but with them

With today's Liturgy, we enter the last stretch of the Advent journey, which urges us to intensify our preparation to celebrate the Lord's Christmas with faith and joy, welcoming with intimate wonder God who draws near to man, to each one of us.

The first reading presents us with the elderly Jacob gathering his sons for a blessing: it is an event of great intensity and emotion. This blessing is like a seal of fidelity to the covenant with God, but it is also a prophetic vision that looks ahead and points to a mission. Jacob is the father who, through the not always straightforward paths of his own history, comes to the joy of gathering his sons around him and tracing the future of each one and their descendants. In particular, today we heard the reference to the tribe of Judah, whose royal strength is exalted, represented by the lion, as well as to the monarchy of David, represented by the sceptre, the staff of command, which alludes to the coming of the Messiah. Thus, in this double image, we see the future mystery of the lion who becomes a lamb, of the king whose staff of command is the Cross, the sign of true kingship. Jacob gradually became aware of God's primacy, understood that his journey was guided and sustained by the Lord's faithfulness, and could only respond with full adherence to God's covenant and plan of salvation, becoming in turn, together with his descendants, a link in the divine plan.

The passage from Matthew's Gospel presents us with the "genealogy of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham" (Mt 1:1), further emphasising and explaining God's faithfulness to his promise, which he fulfils not only through men, but with them and, as with Jacob, sometimes through tortuous and unexpected ways. The expected Messiah, the object of the promise, is true God, but also true man; Son of God, but also Son born of the Virgin, Mary of Nazareth, holy flesh of Abraham, in whose seed all the peoples of the earth will be blessed (cf. Gen 22:18). In this genealogy, in addition to Mary, four women are mentioned. They are not Sarah, Rebecca, Leah, Rachel, that is, the great figures of the history of Israel. Paradoxically, instead, they are four pagan women: Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, Tamar, who apparently "disturb" the purity of a genealogy. But in these pagan women, who appear at decisive moments in the history of salvation, the mystery of the church of the pagans, the universality of salvation, shines through. They are pagan women in whom the future, the universality of salvation, appears. They are also sinful women, and so the mystery of grace also appears in them: it is not our works that redeem the world, but it is the Lord who gives us true life. They are sinful women, yes, in whom the greatness of the grace we all need appears. However, these women reveal an exemplary response to God's faithfulness, showing faith in the God of Israel. And so we see the church of the pagans, the mystery of grace, faith as a gift and as a path to communion with God. Matthew's genealogy, therefore, is not simply a list of generations: it is history made primarily by God, but with the response of humanity. It is a genealogy of grace and faith: it is precisely on God's absolute faithfulness and on the solid faith of these women that the continuation of the promise made to Israel rests.

[Pope Benedict, homily at the Aletti Centre, 17 December 2009]

Man, God's surname

Man is God's surname: the Lord takes the name of each one of us — whether we are saints or sinners — and makes it his own surname. Because by becoming incarnate, the Lord made history with humanity: his joy was to share his life with us, 'and this makes us weep: so much love, so much tenderness'.

With Christmas now imminent, Pope Francis commented on Tuesday 17 December on the two readings proposed by the liturgy of the word, taken respectively from Genesis (49:2, 8-10) and the Gospel of Matthew (1:1-17). On his 77th birthday, the Holy Father presided as usual over morning Mass in the chapel of Santa Marta. Among those concelebrating was Cardinal Dean Angelo Sodano, who conveyed the best wishes of the entire College of Cardinals.

In his homily, which focused on God's presence in human history, the Bishop of Rome identified two terms — inheritance and genealogy — as the keys to interpreting the first reading (concerning Jacob's prophecy as he gathers his sons and predicts a glorious lineage for Judah) and the Gospel passage containing the genealogy of Jesus, respectively. Focusing in particular on the latter, he emphasised that it is not 'a telephone directory', but 'an important subject: it is pure history', because 'God sent his son' among men. And, he added, "Jesus is consubstantial with the Father, God; but also consubstantial with the mother, a woman. And this is the consubstantiality of the mother: God became history, God wanted to become history. He is with us. He has walked with us."

A journey, continued the Bishop of Rome, that began long ago, in Paradise, immediately after the original sin. From that moment, in fact, the Lord "had this idea: to walk with us." Therefore, "he called Abraham, the first name on this list, and invited him to walk. And Abraham began that journey: he begot Isaac, and Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah." And so on, throughout human history. "God walks with his people," therefore, because "he did not want to come to save us without history; he wanted to make history with us."

A history, said the Pontiff, made up of holiness and sin, because in the list of Jesus' genealogy there are saints and sinners. Among the former, the Pope recalled "our father Abraham" and "David, who converted after his sin". Among the latter, he identified "high-level sinners who committed grave sins," but with whom God nevertheless "made history." Sinners who were unable to respond to the plan God had imagined for them: like "Solomon, so great and intelligent, who ended up as a poor man who did not even know his own name." Yet, Pope Francis noted, God was also with him. "And this is the beauty of it: God makes history with us. What's more, when God wants to say who he is, he says: I am the God of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob."

That is why, when asked "what is God's surname?", Pope Francis can answer: "It is us, each one of us. He takes his name from us to make it his surname." . And in the example offered by the Pontiff, there are not only the fathers of our faith, but also ordinary people. "I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Pedro, Marietta, Armony, Marisa, Simone, everyone. He takes his surname from us. God's surname is each one of us," he explained.

Hence the observation that by taking "the surname from our name, God has made history with us"; indeed, more than that: "He has allowed us to write history". And we continue to write "this history" today, which is made up of "grace and sin", while the Lord never tires of following us: " this is God's humility, God's patience, God's love." After all, even "the book of Wisdom says that the joy of the Lord is among the children of man, with us."

So, as "Christmas approaches," Pope Francis — as he himself confided at the end of his reflection — naturally thought: " If he has made his history with us, if he has taken his surname from us, if he has let us write his history," we, for our part, should let God write ours. Because, he clarified, "holiness" is precisely "letting the Lord write our history." And this is the Christmas wish that the Pontiff wanted to make "for all of us." . A wish that is an invitation to open our hearts: "Let the Lord write your story and let him write it."

[Pope Francis, homily at St. Martha's, in L'Osservatore Romano, 18/12/2013]

Annunciation to Joseph: meaning and value of Doubt

(Mt 1:16, 18-21, 24)

"Even through Joseph's anguish, God's will, his history, his plan, comes through. Joseph thus teaches us that having faith in God also means believing that He can work even through our fears, our fragility, our weakness. He teaches us that, in the midst of life's storms, we must not be afraid to let God steer our boat. Sometimes we would like to control everything, but He always has a broader view" [Patris Corde n.2].

    In Matthew's infancy Gospels, God takes on two names: Redeemer [Yeshua: God is Saviour] and With-us. The meaning of these divine prerogatives is not mechanical, but theological.

The proper name of the Son Jesus describes his work of restoring all being. And the characteristic attribute Immanuel (taken from Isaiah) specifies its many addresses - its many locations, which are each of us, growing over time.

Incarnation: the Father stands alongside his sons and daughters. Not only is he not afraid of becoming impure through contact with things that concern human dynamics, but he even recognises himself in their condition.

For this reason, Joseph's embarrassment even leads to the culmination of the entire history of salvation.

Sources attest that he was by no means a character with a lily in his hand, but perhaps this is only of interest to us to a certain extent.

Matthew's narrative is striking because the turning point and the possibilities of the irruption (of the summit itself) of God's plan for humanity seem to spring not from certainty but from doubt.

The question mark is engaging. Discomfort sows a new seed. It tears down and destroys the identical seedlings of the weeds that infest a full life - which was a law chiselled on appearances.

The 'problem' leads us to dream of other horizons to open up, and in the first person, because the solution is not at hand.

Perplexity leads us out of the mental cages that mortify relationships previously reduced to case studies - overlooking the mechanisms that depersonalise.

Perplexity makes us go beyond common opinion, which attenuates and extinguishes the Newness of God.

Hesitation seeks existential cracks, because it wants to introduce us to territories of life - where others can also draw on different experiences, varied perceptions, and moments in which to receive decisive insights as gifts.

His wise Energy finds breaches and small openings; it acts to make us evolve as children of Eternity - even by arousing discomforts that flood existence with creative suspensions and new passion.

Its lucid Action introduces itself through Dreams that shake off the usual plans, or states of mind that put us in the balance; and the bottlenecks of marginalised thinking that allow us to rediscover the reason why we were born, to discover our place in the world.

Every oscillation, every pain, every danger, every move, can become a birth towards Originality - without first identifying ourselves.

Uniqueness does not cause us to lose sight of the Source that 'watches over' us. Woe betide us if we shy away: we would lose our destination.

This is while the circles of the resolute remain there and wither, precisely because they are always ready to explain everything.

So, for example, as with the Family of Nazareth, life in solitude - whether forced or not - becomes regenerating rather than terrible.

The Spirit that slips into the cracks of standard mentalities finds an intimate 'point' that allows us to flourish differently now, able to bring out the essence of who we truly are, ceasing to copy clichés.

So instead of wondering why something happened, after the first discriminating experience that does not fear the fear of remaining isolated, perhaps we return more frequently to our Core, which constantly gushes for a higher Dialogue.

Then we will not continue to ask ourselves, 'But whose fault is it? How can we remedy the situation? Who should we rely on?'. Rather: 'What new life do I need to explore? What is still to be discovered?'.

We will emerge with a very different virtue of vocation, because the Holy Spirit breaks through the cracks in the norms that make us conformists, then dismantles and overturns those walls. Finally, it spreads, to build its own story - which is not predictable, 'by the book' like that of all those bound by comparison.

Feeling the discomfort of participating in rituals of composed identification causes many problems, but it can be a great opportunity in life to broaden one's horizons... even for those who do not like to take the mediocre path of reassurance - making themselves dependent on opinion, clichés, and feeling immediately celebrated out of fear.

Apparent happiness. In fact, the bite of doubt does not turn us into trashy believers, as hypothesised in disciplined, legalistic religions - in puritanical philosophies with artificial wisdom - but rather into friends, adopted children [i.e. chosen] and heirs.

Thanks to the Relationship of Faith, we are no longer lost in the desert - because the many things and risks become a dialogue of specific weight: we are at Home, respecting our mysterious character and Calling.

Already here and now, we move away from the many things that constrain our Centre with constraints and demands - both in thought and action.

Only in this way are we no longer a mythological or addicted crowd, overflowing with guilt, duties and affiliations - but rather a Family and informal colloquial dissonance.

No longer a mass, but (all-round) People: precisely in our being within limits do we rhyme with great Mission.

Let us begin, like Joseph, to be present to ourselves. And by changing our gaze, we will enjoy the Beauty of the New.

"St Joseph reminds us that all those who are apparently hidden or 'in the background' have an unparalleled role in the history of salvation. To all of them, we offer a word of recognition and gratitude" [Patris Corde intr.].

To internalise and live the message:

What were your turning points? What detour led to your fulfilment?

On what occasion did doubt open up astonishing horizons for you?

When and if you changed your conformist outlook, did you experience the awakening of perspectives, relationships and regenerating energies in your inner world?

How did you perceive, 'see' or 'dream' what was previously invisible and elsewhere?

Did you perhaps start from your own certainty?

Dear Brothers and Sisters, 

In these last days of Advent the liturgy invites us to contemplate in a special way the Virgin Mary and St Joseph, who lived with unique intensity the period of expectation and preparation for Jesus' birth. 

Today, I would like to turn my gaze to the figure of St Joseph. In today's Gospel St Luke presents the Virgin Mary as "a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David" (cf. Lk 1: 27). The Evangelist Matthew, however, places a greater emphasis on the putative father of Jesus, stressing that through him the Child belonged legally to the lineage of David and thus fulfilled the Scriptural prophecy that the Messiah would be a "son of David". 

But Joseph's role cannot be reduced to this legal aspect. He was the model of a "just" man (Mt 1: 19) who, in perfect harmony with his wife, welcomed the Son of God made man and watched over his human growth. 

It is therefore particularly appropriate in the days that precede Christmas to establish a sort of spiritual conversation with St Joseph, so that he may help us live to the full this great mystery of faith.

Beloved Pope John Paul II, who was very devoted to St Joseph, left us a wonderful meditation dedicated to him in the Apostolic Exhortation Redemptoris Custos, "The Guardian of the Redeemer". 

Among the many aspects on which this Document sheds light, the silence of St Joseph is given a special emphasis. His silence is steeped in contemplation of the mystery of God in an attitude of total availability to the divine desires. 

In other words, St Joseph's silence does not express an inner emptiness but, on the contrary, the fullness of the faith he bears in his heart and which guides his every thought and action. 

It is a silence thanks to which Joseph, in unison with Mary, watches over the Word of God, known through the Sacred Scriptures, continuously comparing it with the events of the life of Jesus; a silence woven of constant prayer, a prayer of blessing of the Lord, of the adoration of his holy will and of unreserved entrustment to his providence. 

It is no exaggeration to think that it was precisely from his "father" Joseph that Jesus learned - at the human level - that steadfast interiority which is a presupposition of authentic justice, the "superior justice" which he was one day to teach his disciples (cf. Mt 5: 20). 

Let us allow ourselves to be "filled" with St Joseph's silence! In a world that is often too noisy, that encourages neither recollection nor listening to God's voice, we are in such deep need of it. During this season of preparation for Christmas, let us cultivate inner recollection in order to welcome and cherish Jesus in our own lives.

[Pope Benedict, Angelus, 18 December 2005]

2. "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins" (Mt 1:20-21).
We find these words in the first chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew. They - especially in the second part - sound similar to those heard by Miriam, that is, Mary, at the moment of the Annunciation. In a few days - on 25 March - we will commemorate in the liturgy of the Church the moment when those words were spoken in Nazareth "to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary" (Lk 1:27).
The description of the Annunciation is found in the Gospel according to Luke.
Later, Matthew notes again that, after Mary's marriage to Joseph, "before they came to live together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit" (Mt 1:18).
Thus, the mystery that had begun at the moment of the Annunciation was fulfilled in Mary, at the moment when the Virgin responded to Gabriel's words: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word" (Lk 1:38).
As the mystery of Mary's motherhood was revealed to Joseph's consciousness, he, "being a just man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, resolved to divorce her quietly" (Mt 1:19), as Matthew's account continues.
And it was then that Joseph, Mary's husband and already her husband before the law, received his own personal "Annunciation".
During the night, he heard the words we quoted above, words that are both an explanation and an invitation from God: "Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife" (Mt 1:20).
3. At the same time, God entrusts to Joseph the mystery whose fulfilment had been awaited for many generations by the line of David and the whole "house of Israel", and at the same time entrusts to him everything on which the fulfilment of this mystery in the history of the People of God depends.
From the moment these words entered his consciousness, Joseph became the man of divine election: the man of a special trust. His place in the history of salvation was defined. Joseph entered this place with simplicity and humility, in which the spiritual depth of man is manifested, and he filled it completely with his life.
"When Joseph awoke from sleep," we read in Matthew, "he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him" (Mt 1:24). These few words say it all. They describe Joseph's entire life and fully characterise his holiness: "He did." Joseph, as we know him from the Gospel, is a man of action.
He is a man of work. The Gospel has not preserved any of his words. Instead, it describes his actions: simple, everyday actions, which at the same time have a clear meaning for the fulfilment of the divine promise in human history; works full of spiritual depth and mature simplicity.

[Pope John Paul II, homily, 19 March 1980]

In this fourth and final Sunday of Advent, the Gospel (cf. Mt 1: 18-24) guides us towards Christmas through the experience of Saint Joseph, a figure seemingly in second place, but whose attitude encapsulates all Christian wisdom. He, together with John the Baptist and Mary, is one of the characters whom the liturgy proposes to us for the time of Advent; and of the three he is the most modest. He is one who does not preach, does not speak, but tries to do God’s will; and he does it in the style of the Gospel and the Beatitudes. Let us think of: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5: 3). And Joseph is poor because he lives on what is essential, he works, he lives by his work; it is the poverty typical of those who are aware that they depend on God for everything, and place all their trust in Him.

Today’s Gospel passage presents a situation that is in human terms embarrassing and conflicting. Joseph and Mary are betrothed; they do not yet live together, but she is expecting a child by the work of God. Joseph, faced with this surprise, is naturally disturbed but, instead of reacting in an impulsive and punitive manner – as was the custom, the law protected him – he seeks a solution that respects the dignity and integrity of his beloved Mary. The Gospel says so: “And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly” (v. 19). Joseph knew that if he denounced his betrothed, he would expose her to serious consequences, even death. He had full faith in Mary, whom he chose as his bride. He does not understand, but he seeks another solution.

This inexplicable circumstance leads him to question their bond; therefore, with great suffering, he decides to detach himself from Mary without creating scandal. But the Angel of the Lord intervenes to tell him that the solution he proposes is not the one desired by God. On the contrary, the Lord opened a new path for him, a path of union, love and happiness, and said to him: “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife. For that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit” (v. 20).

At this point, Joseph trusts God totally, obeys the Angel’s words and takes Mary with him. It was precisely this unshakable trust in God that enabled him to accept a humanly difficult and, in a certain sense, incomprehensible situation. Joseph understands, in faith, that the child born in Mary’s womb is not his child, but the Son of God, and he, Joseph, will be its guardian, fully assuming its earthly paternity. The example of this gentle and wise man exhorts us to lift up our gaze and push it further. It is a question of recovering the surprising logic of God which, far from small or great calculations, is made up of openness towards new horizons, towards Christ and His Word.

May the Virgin Mary and her chaste husband Joseph help us to listen to Jesus Who comes, and Who asks to be welcomed in our plans and in our choices.

[Pope Francis, Angelus, 22 December 2019]

From religion to Faith, from barren to Beloved one

(Lk 1:26-38)

The solemnity of the moment that restores the soul to the Mystery invites a passage wave upon wave: from the Temple religion to domestic and personal Faith.

From outside to inside ourselves. From patterns to innate prophecy. Unique Promise, more subtle condition.

Faith-surrender - that of Mother - which shows the freedom and beauty of the new orientations, in the progress of the inner guiding images.

Alliance no longer for what is already known.

His Pact is all in the Opening to the Inexplicable that lives inside us. 

Intimate Eternal, which can now concretize the hope and the journey of the peoples. A turning point of authenticity, growing.

If the heart’s virgins do not impose demands, the Call by Name (from our own fibers) opens the incapable and sterile breath.

Ad coeli Reginam: silent Echo... this invisible core-Vocation is startling. And with spontaneous virtue introduces the spirit into the fruitful synergy of God himself.

Spousal Trust that re-annotate the threads of the history of salvation: and is opposed to the broad road of alliances with people "who matter".

In the intertwining between fruitfuling Initiative and welcome into the bosom, the Handmaiden is icon of the expectation and the way of each one - where what remains decisive is not the usual, predictable desire.

Vibrant Appeal that is prolonged through history, in a sort of unfolded and continuous Incarnation, thanks to the collaboration of “distant”, unstable and insignificant servants, like Mary.

Ours too, despite us still being filled of normal expectations.

To internalize and live the message:

Which Words open us to life in the Spirit and question the foreseen path?

What is our still intermediate zone, without Encounter?

How to make the invisible Seed bloom

The Tao Tê Ching (Lxi) says: «The great kingdom which held itself below is the confluence of the world; is the female of the world. The female always overcomes the male with the quiet, since she is modestly submissive. For this reason, the great kingdom which places below the small kingdom attracts the small kingdom; the small kingdom that is below the great kingdom attracts the great kingdom: one lowers to attract, the other attracts because below. […] In order for each one to obtain what he craves, it’s better for the great to keep down».

God at home, and Visits we would not expect?

Slowing down a little, we are Born.

[Weekday liturgy, December 20]

Mary, the Art of Perception that breaks the mould

(Lk 2:19) (Lk 1:26-38)

For a life from the authentic I to the unknown Culmination

"Now, Mary kept and treasured all - really all - these event-words, putting them together and comparing them in her heart" [sense of the Greek text].

What about her, her Son and all the others?

She wanted to understand the essential affinities - with the soul and elsewhere: the meaning of strange and simple happenings. Golden rule for us also.

In the portrait of Jesus suckling, his silence did not linger - and he did not allow himself to be demotivated: he dug.

For this she knew far more expressive things than many minds - sublime and yet incapable of breaking out of automatisms, already flooded with remarkable doctrines and traditions.

We are willingly there too, with Mary; in a culture that invades our senses and pollutes our souls with noisy opinions, with seemingly eloquent but knee-jerk models: stressful and futile.

All emphatic, impactful reproductions - but external.

Yet they overflow into the inner self, and despite glittering appearances, lock the personality into a narrow space of unhealthy habits, only to be exhibited.

Indeed, we force ourselves to run from one side to the other, often reciting prototypes. Precisely, forcibly intrigued by plans, organigrams and thoughts, even devout ones, which however become forms of personal and social trivialisation.

We are becoming accustomed to the fear of our discreet, reserved, non-gossipy, secluded, hidden side, all our own and close to the Source: in a word, custodian of the Calling by Name - which wants to pause to return to the ancient Listening of the new.

A side we do not yet know: it never has the same tone as always. It is all ours, but it hints at real encounters.

By refining our inner vision, we grasp our source and the meaning of history; and its folds - thus we can still give birth to the precious world inside and outside of us.

We do this from the intangible, which acts as the pivot of essence. And guards the Fire within.

For a stretch - ever so brief - the official pundits delude us that we are at the centre of the world.

They want to inoculate us with the false sense of protagonism and permanence that quickly fades away; in fact, they overwhelm us.

We feel the need for a rediscovery of being and essence, not dissolved in the realm of night and illusion [to have power appear, to hold back ascend dominate]. Without escapes, nor rhythms that do not belong to us.

We seek involvement, and distance.

We want to 'perceive' like Mary and like the shepherds - baffled by the religious opinions of others - to become and be reborn, and to become again. Recovering the frenzies, the surprises, the wounds; without dispersing the centre.

"Taking refuge" in a secret space was not for her a rediscovery of the self expected by all, stereotypical and adequate as always.

Rather, he expressed his being - in flight from conventional ways.

In order to live intensely, she did not wish to enter into the nomenclature - then be normal, and enslaved - rather to distance herself, but to be there. So she did not exclude anything.

She also recognised herself in those wanderers.

She would never have imagined herself as the (acting) protagonist of a tradition that placed her on pedestals, forms, solemn attributes, and constraints - the very ones that would have made her sweetly but decisively rebellious.

She did not revisit herself to bask, but rather to verify and reactivate her 'way' - which she did not want to lose: it could be overwhelmed by external opinions and buried by circumstances [impelling but without horizon].

She did not want to lose her address within common, standardised goals, losing sight of what she really was, and introducing her into the heaven of the timeless - nor did she yearn to resemble the majority, or to be above them.

The one we built for her was not her home.

Mary did not face reality and today within us [to help us look at "our" Mystery] with a conformist face; sweetened and artefactual, or intimist, swampy.

Her soul was always on the move. To know the unknowable, she would never stop - even without knowing in advance where to go.

Her character did not want the certainties of accommodation. Without wavering, even within herself she preferred to perceive and live the Passion of love.

He let himself be guided and saved, but from his own sacred centre, sanctuary of the God-Con. He who unlocks, sets us on our way, and sets us free.

She could not allow her Vocation to be covered by idols, nor by any plot, which was nevertheless unfolding.

In the 'here and now' he found his affinity from his very being as a wayfarer, who by advancing put hardship behind him.

As she developed her inner eye, she also transmuted her inner self to find the step of the Annunciation hidden in the misfits, which still led her.

Only this lasted her through the years - not the functional side.He did not dream of a quiet life, but of understanding his personal mission.

Without naivety, she questioned the meaning of her intimate callings, of the happenings, of the ways, and of her motions - alien only to the anxiety of pleasing everyone.

She wished to understand how best to fit in, moving towards the new promised land [cf. Lk 1:29: "But she was greatly troubled by the Word and wondered what greeting this was"; Lk 1:34: "How shall this be?"].

The stillness within was not uniform, but filled with the vicissitudes and unpredictable 'news'.

Never did she want to be a model: an expired identity card - plastered, dogmatic. Never an icon of privilege, and ostentatious - like a woman who extinguishes her consciousness, and makes herself identified, empty, disjointed.

In the midst of others - even the lazy, indiscreet ones - Maria let herself be, perceiving the inaudible sounds of the silence of the soul.

Notes that produced her figure and - even better - her evolution and Destiny, without disturbing her with separate stubbornness.

Removing the gaze from conformist intention.

To really exist, intensely, she changed or broke through; she recovered history but listened to the inside of herself.

Catching her own deep layers, perceiving herself in her most intimate voices, she became aware of the meaning of her life, and of the unfolding story. 

In the intervals of thought, she reactivated the energy of the 'gaze'.

And without mortification, she brought her attention to another dimension, gradually entering the Wind that ceaselessly disengaged her.

In this way, he learnt not to expect something aligned to normal intentions and predictions, nor to social and cultural ranking: he had to enter into the events, and detach himself (to contemplate their importance and depth).

Mysteriously - thus peering without doing too much - he read the 'notes', chose the right registers; he interpreted the score.

Epiphany of God in a creature completely devoid of hieratic or courtly style; rather, delicate and gypsy.

She did not rush to put things in place: she sensed 'inside' the summary life, rather than leading it and organising it, or arranging it.

He waited for his eminent Self to lead the strange, non-directed, non-voluntarist path that was unfolding, truly all eccentric and unexemplary.

She did not act to please.

We also learn in her: to see the domestic God happen, the 'visits' we would not expect; the intensity of different colours.

They then lead us to a different look into the soul as well; involved and detached.

Like the surrounding reality, Mary was not always the same.

She did not have in mind a champion to chase to the end, only to find herself chronicled in the exemplarity of others - uprooted, external, dissipated and unloaded.

Situations and emotions had value, not only and not primarily on the basis of the paradigm register - now useless - with which they were interpreted.

In the hope of things present and in their sensitive Listening, she was acquiring fluidity.

In this way, she passed unforced from the religion of the fathers to the Faith, to the risk of friendship in the unpredictable proposal of the one Father.

Retreating into the Abode of the Spirit, within a Hope that unveiled itself wave by wave, she learned to understand relationships and inner energies, unpacked.

Once listened to and assumed, they could deviate, and take precisely the unexpected path.

Step by step, the attentive eye, ear and heart also introduce us - like Mary - into a territory of suspension of closed intentions. Where the love and destiny of the Newness of God dwells.

He expanded the Vision not just from around.

Unfolding her lost self in the We, not selective, but only from her own sacred centre, the horizon also dilated in the sensation of infinity in action.

In contemplating events, she would flesh out and even reinvent the figure of the heart that had guided her there.

She still reinterpreted the expressive image of her Vocation. And it changed its destiny - not giving weight to one-sided angles.

No obligations and chiselled intentions - against the tide but natural, without the laceration of titanic efforts.

Thus even the hardships brought her closer to her Mission as Mother of the new humanity, in her Son.

And each one equally rediscovered the energy of the primordial suggestion that led him or her, so that in Meditation he or she might once again embrace the Calling that still wants to snatch him or her from the mire.

Echo of the Primal Call that is woven into the events and is already the Destination.

Witnessing every moment to be rediscovered in the "intimate and full void" to be made within, to wait for something we do not know what it is first.

Mary let herself be traced in time by unpatented Love.

Such are the Dreams of creatures totally immersed in the true passions, which grasp, anticipate and actualise the timelessness in time.He did not give up wondering what - with its many aspects - was inhabiting it and silently guiding it.

We still imagine it (v.19) 'as with eyes closed': a situation our culture often ignores.

She did not think of efficient causes: it was to rediscover otherwise her opening the door to visitors, and to each new thing to be astonished.

She was already nursing, not only her Son; at the same time she was feeding herself.

Not out of vain intimism did he rediscover the subtle Mystery nested in the different - and raw - unpredictable within and without.

Without realising it, it was already feeding the world, guarding itself.

Truly, she comes to us and in us, tending the nest of essence and history... without any semblance of banners and display cases - respecting only what happens.

Similarly, her entire Family becomes the true fruitful lady of an impossible Feast of the Announcement around - which one does not understand where it came from (Lk 1:20).

Certainly from nothing outside. Therefore decisive.

Totally adherent to circumstances and present in himself, he became completely - in the clear and spontaneous motions, even of others.

Certainly he had no people around him who could boast of screens. Just strange individuals, but who ceaselessly let their vital instincts emerge.

They too did not tell each other beforehand where to go. That is why they found themselves in an incessant pregnancy.

All they had in store was the experience of distance; often frost and rejection. 

They never knew a figure who helped them to recognise themselves completely, and to look at things from the point of view of the timelessly discovered gentleness.

Even capable of tending to the wider and more inclusive global [we would say, to the servant eternity of the angelic condition].

Instead, they were set ablaze by the everlasting Flame - that of the whole world (past, present and future) that knows how to recover and stay hidden, apart but in the cosmos - as the dawn and day of the Lord.

In the culture of the time, the condition of the spirits of the heavenly throne service, who glorified and praised God (v.20) "for all that they had heard and seen".

Faced with the domestic Church Family, in Mary and Jesus the shepherds have a decisive experience.

No longer of one-sided lack and judgement, but of rebirth in esteem; of another world, available and inclusive - of another realm, unison without uniformity.

The Mother of God is a possibility of tending to the eternal present, no longer exclusive: but like a dance, where the changing whole puts one perfectly at ease - with no tracks to follow already.

Society's oddballs, pilgrims and prairie dogs in hiding, skilled only in transhumance, had perhaps never had the ability to recognise the ecstasy of being well and intensely in the summation.

Perhaps they had never had the experience of recognising in an accurate creature their own sensitive, tender and feminine side.

Appearance that in the authentic Woman Church becomes the guardian and differently announcer [in the shaky] of the treasure chest of Life.

From the warmth of Mary and the Cradle, amidst their labyrinths, they now brought to their own secluded place a thrilling blessing, and the indestructible intimate side; even elsewhere.

To question ourselves as well.

We seek a silent soul, for an art of rebirth.

Here was Maria: she had noticed, as she meditated, that others reflexively did too.

When she carved out preparatory energies, she also arranged herself in a more balanced, fuller way for the Announcement.

He walked through life to guard and nurture new fathers and mothers of humanisation. 

Not to comment, but to intuit and dissolve; not to extinguish the dreamy side with the 'up to the mark', old.

Her realm of truthfulness that heals the I and the Thou was the heaven and earth of new powers.

Reliable virtues because they sprang from the Silence of the Way that was completely renewing her - loving contradictions. 

Because everything can now happen, regenerate; and each day bring its tide (of the unprecedented) in the presence of Spirit, without routine.

A genuine soul, devoid of pretense, can do that.

For an adventure that pushes away continuity, filled with foundational Eros; for a direct exploration to the unknown Culmination.

Mary: Slowing down a little, one is born

Those who do not follow innate intuitions, a call more radical than the self, or stunning proclamations [Lk 1:26-38. 2:8-15] do not develop their destiny, do not move; they do not set things right.

Common proclamations end up incinerating personalities.

It is true that the shepherds find nothing extraordinary or prodigious but a family reduced to an ordinary condition, which they know.

But it is that simple hearth that draws them into the new Project, and into the proclamation of its scandalous unconditional Mercy - which did not electrocute them for impurity.

Archaic religion had branded them forever: lost, despicable beings, without remedy. Now they are free from identification.They have another eye - like that of the first time. A look that will bring them one hundred per cent.

Exodus facing a defenceless image of God, they do not bother to engage in ethical discipline: it would have crumbled them.

Rather, they enjoy the wonder of a simply human reality - in a mysterious relationship of mutual recognition.

A baby in a manger, an unclean place where the beasts used to play.

It is strange that the modest sign convinces them, makes them regain esteem, and makes them evangelisers - perhaps not even assiduous evangelisers.

Like Calvary (to which it refers), the resolving Manifestation of the Eternal is a paradox.

But the affective geography of this Bethlehem devoid of conformist circuits remains intact, because it is spontaneously rooted in us.

There is a sense of immediacy, without any particular entanglement or ceremony.

The Child is not even worshipped by the now 'pure' gazes of the little, vilified prairie dogs and transhumance dogs - as, conversely, the Magi will do (Mt 2:11).

They did not even know what it meant, reflecting Eastern court ceremonials - like the kissing of red slippers.

[This is why Pope Francis rejected them, along with the ermine - after Paul VI had had the courage to lay down the pluridirigist sign of tiaras, with its three overlapping crowns; a little more intricate was the affair of the anachronistic gestatorial chair].

The wretched of the earth and the distant of the flocks are those who hear the Announcement, readily verify it, and found the new divine lineage.

People untroubled by static judgement - men in the midst of all; no longer at high altitude.

Meanwhile, Mary sought the meaning of surprises and thus regenerated, for a new way of understanding and 'being' together - to give birth also to the inner world of a whole different people of fullness.

She would put facts and Word together, to discover the common thread.

And to remain receptive; not to be swayed by the convictions of the devotional enclosures - targetted and inflexible, which would have given her no escape.

The Mother herself, though taken by surprise, prepared herself for God's eccentricity, without departing from time and her real condition.

Her figure and that of the shepherds question us, demand the courage of an answer - but after letting the same kind of inner Presences flow: worthy visitors, who are allowed to express themselves.

Like us, she too had to move from the beliefs of the fathers to Faith in the Father.

From the idea of love as reward to that of 'gift'.

From the practice of cults and closures that do not make one intimate with the Eternal at all, to the opening of the mind and the exits.

She did not achieve this without effort, but rather by enduring the resistance of her arid environment.

Jesus was indeed circumcised - a useless rite that according to custom claimed to change the Son of God into the son of Abraham.

The Good News proclaims a reversal: what religion had considered far from the Most High is very close to Him; indeed, it corresponds fully to Him.

Never before imagined.

In the Annunciations of the Gospels, the adventure of Faith is opened wide.

And the new Babe has a Name that expresses the unprecedented essence of Saviour, not executioner.

His whole story will also be fully instructive from the point of view of how to internalise uncertainties and discomforts: these 'no moments' and precariousness that teach us how to live.

Indeed, we too, like Mary, 'recognise' the presence of God in the enigmas of Scripture, in the Little One 'wrapped in bandages' - even in the ancestral echo of our inner worlds.

And we let ourselves go - we don't really know where. But so is the Infinite, the immense Secret, the inexplicable Breath, in its folds.

The wise Dream that inhabits the human knows of ancient humus, but its echo is reborn every day, in the tide of being that directs one to truly 'look', without veils.

A conformist demeanour of 'seeing things' would not solve the problem.

Sometimes, in order not to be conditioned, we need to rebuild ourselves in silence, like the Virgin; to build a kind of hermeneutic island that opens different doors, that introduces other lights.

Within her sacred circuit, the Mother of God also valorised the innate transformative energies, precisely by rooting them in the questions...

Thus returning to her primordial being and the sense of the Newborn - an image steeped in primordial sense and life-wave, dear to many cultures.

Mary entered an Elsewhere and did not leave the field of the real.

She was 'inside' her Centre, unhurried - searching for the Sun drowned in her being and which returned, emerged, resurrected; from within, it made her exist beyond.

Thus he did not allow himself to be absorbed by the conformist ideas of others or by [external] situations that wanted to break the balance.

In her veracious solitude - filled with Grace - that superior and hidden self in essence came more and more to Her. He made himself a new Dawn and guide.She did not want to live inside thoughts, knowledge and reasoning around - none capable of amplifying life - all in the hands of the drugs of procedures, dehumanising the Enchantment.

The happy magic of that Frugolo of flesh brought her Peace.

Dreams sustained and conveyed her nest and inner core - causing new life to flow from the core of her Person, and the youth of the world.

"Now Mary kept all Word-events by comparing them in her heart".