19 December 2025 MARY AND JOSEPH

Welcome

Opening Prayer

Lord, we come into this place, and into your presence to rest for a while amid the busyness of this Christmas season.

So minister to us Lord in these moments of quietness, in our times of sharing, in our meditations, in our thoughts.

As we return again to the wonder of the Nativity, the wonder of “The word made Flesh,” fill us again with the joy and the certainty of Christ’s coming into the world.

Like Mary, may we Ponder all these things in our hearts. Amen

Janet’s Reflections

Christmas is coming…and everyone you meet starts saying  “Have you started your Christmas shopping yet?” or even worse,  “Are you all ready for Christmas then?”

Preparing for Christmas is not one of my favourite jobs…that is wrapping presents, making mince pies, writing cards….

BUT PREPARING MY HEART AND MIND ONCE AGAIN TO CONTEMPLATE THE WONDER AND MYSTERY OF THE BIRTH OF JESUS,  THAT IS JUST WONDERFUL.

Isn’t it almost beyond belief to even dream that the Creator of the whole universe would visit our world as one of us? Yet, this is exactly what happened.

At a given point in human history, the second person of the Trinity of God left the timelessness of eternity and the vastness of the universe to enter our world.  And history was changed for ever.

I wonder what it must have been like for Mary…to know that she was carrying the Messiah?  We think it must have been overwhelming, terrifying, beyond comprehension….and yet she accepted the reality of it, the consequences of it, the significance of it.

What must it have been like to know that you had been CHOSEN from among all women to carry the son of God?

I wonder what it must have been like for Joseph, to understand what was happening, to cope with what people were saying, and yet to completely accept the message from God that he was to be a part of this divine calling.

And as if that was not enough, to be told that they had to travel to Bethlehem to register their credentials…walking for between 4 days and a week.  Yet Joseph was always obedient to the message of the angel both before the birth of Jesus, and at the escape to Egypt.  What an amazing man of trust.

Readings

What kind of greatness can this be?

What kind of greatness can this be

That chose to be made small?

Exchanging untold majesty

For a world so pitiful

That God should come as one of us

I'll never understand

The more I hear the story told

The more amazed I am

Oh what else can I do

But kneel and worship you

And come just as I am

My whole life an offering

The One in whom we live and move

In swaddling cloths lies bound

The voice that cried "let there be light"

Asleep without a sound

The One who strode among the stars

And called each one by name

Lies helpless in a mother's arms

And must learn to walk again

Oh what else can I do

But kneel and worship you

And come just as I am

My whole life an offering

What greater love could he have shown

To shamed humanity

Yet human pride hates to believe

In such deep humility

But nations now may see his grace

And know that he is near

When his meek heart, his words, his works

Are incarnate in us here

Oh what else can I do

But kneel and worship you

And come just as I am

My whole life an offering

Graham Kendrick from “Rumours of Angels”

Henri Nouwen wrote extensively about Mary and Joseph, viewing them as models of radical trust, vulnerability, and obedient waiting for God's plan, especially during Advent, emphasizing their simple lives as a path to holiness and seeing their relationship as a "Divine Romance," a profound example of God's love and presence in the ordinary. Writing in the book “Jesus and Mary – Finding our Sacred Centre,” Nouwen observes:

"Jesus has to be and become ever more the centre of my life... Jesus must become the heart of my heart, the fire of my life, the love of my soul, the bridegroom of my spirit. He must become my only thought, my only concern, my only desire."

Mary is described as a "gentle guide" who leads to a deeper union with Jesus and calls us back to "the heart of God which... is also the heart of the world."

Reflection from Janet

“What child is this?” 

The Shepherds must have asked

Mary and Joseph must have wondered

Everyone asked and no one had an answer.

But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart

What child is this?   

From Hebrews 1

·       He through whom God created the world -----PAST

·       Sustaining all things ----PRESENT

·       The heir of all things   ----FUTURE

·       The radiance of God’s Glory

·       The Representation of God’s beings

·       The fulfilment of the Old Testament prophesies

What child is this?

From Revelation

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying: “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honour and glory and power, for ever and ever!”

What child is this who laid to rest

on Mary's lap is sleeping?Whom angels greet with anthems sweet

while shepherds watch are keeping.This, this is Christ the King

whom shepherds guard and angels sing.Haste, haste to bring Him laud.The babe, the son of Mary.

Introduction to Silence

Blessing

Within the busyness of this day

may you sense God’s presence,

an inner warmth and strength

that can overcome adversity,

a sense of peace, a whisper

heard through the distractions

of daily life, uplifting, calming,

enabling, your assurance that,

whatever this day might throw,

you are well-equipped, ready

and willing to follow the call

to be God’s hands and voice

and make a difference today

Thoughts to ponder:

How do you capture the wind on the water?

How do you count all the stars in the sky?

How do you measure the love of a mother

Or how can you write down a baby's first cry?

Candlelight, angel light, firelight and star-glow

Shine on his cradle till breaking of dawn

Silent night, holy night, all is calm and all is bright

Angels are singing; the Christ child is born

Shepherds and wise men will kneel and adore him

Seraphim round him their vigil will keep

Nations proclaim him their Lord and their Saviour

But Mary will hold him and sing him to sleep

Candlelight, angel light, firelight and star-glow

Shine on his cradle till breaking of dawn

Silent night, holy night, all is calm and all is bright

Angels are singing; the Christ child is born

Find him at Bethlehem laid in a manger

Christ our Redeemer asleep in the hay

Godhead incarnate and hope of salvation

A child with his mother that first Christmas Day

John Rutter

Mary's Carol (last 4 verses)

….. Then my soul praised God: magnifying His name and deeds,

Rejoicing that He saved me by grace from a certain fate.

Marveling at how He had always filled His people's needs,

From generation to generation: Abraham up to that date.

The night I bore my Lord Jesus is always clear in my mind;

No inn or house in sight; just a cold, dusty (but dry) cave.

Even the beasts “understood”, and were so gentle and kind;

The Lord of Lords was now with us, to seek and to save.

Angels sang of glad tidings; curious shepherds came to see --

After hearing loud heavenly choruses of great peace and joy --

The King of kings, David's heir, and carpenter's son of Galilee.

God had become man: the eternal Creator was a baby boy!

Then I quietly meditated on the divine mission my child had;

Though my soul be pierced; by His death we'd reach heaven.

But I accepted this: God's love and mercy made me so glad;

For this divine plan my body and soul I have joyfully given.

Dave Armstrong, https://www.ncregister.com/blog/2-christmas-poems-about-our-lady-and-st-joseph 

Today marked the first of festive celebrations since the horrors of the recent 2 year Gaza war, and it was  heartening to see large crowds engulfed in Christmas illuminations once more against the magnificent backdrop of the Church of the Nativity. Amidst all the bustle a positive air of resilience prevailed:  a reminder that the challenges of post war trauma are still being faced, that the suffering in Gaza continues but that the Candle of Hope, lit in this first week of Advent which now draws to a close, burns strong!

Text and photograph Marion Jadon

St Francis -  Nativity

According to the first biographer of St. Francis, Brother Thomas of Celano, the friar desired to “represent the birth of that Child in Bethlehem in such a way that with our bodily eyes we may see what he suffered for lack of the necessities of a newborn babe and how he lay in manger between the ox and ass.”

That was how, in December 1223, in the rocky crags a short distance outside Greccio, people flocked to see the simple scene during Christmas Mass. St. Francis, who was a deacon, proclaimed the Gospel and preached the homily.

According to accounts of the moment, fires lit the dark scene while crowds arrived at the spot carrying candles and torches. An eyewitness says a miracle happened at Mass that night. Giovanni Veleti asserted that he saw a real infant appear in the empty manger and that St. Francis took the beautiful child into his arms, holding him to his chest in an embrace.

In the period that followed, other miracles were reported, brought about by touching the straw of the manger where the Child Jesus had appeared. Miraculous healings took place after pieces of hay were placed on sick animals or laboring women in difficulty. The place where the first Nativity was staged can still be seen today in the Franciscan hermitage and sanctuary outside the main town. The rock is topped by an altar for celebrating Mass and adorned with frescoes depicting Jesus’ birth.

Pope Francis has visited the spot two times: in 2016 and then on Dec. 1, 2019, when he signed an apostolic letter on the meaning and importance of Nativity scenes.

“All those present” at St. Francis’ Christmas Mass, Pope Francis wrote in Admirabile Signum, “experienced a new and indescribable joy in the presence of the Christmas scene. The priest then solemnly celebrated the Eucharist over the manger, showing the bond between the Incarnation of the Son of God and the Eucharist. At Greccio there were no statues; the Nativity scene was enacted and experienced by all who were present.”

“In a particular way, from the time of its Franciscan origins, the Nativity scene has invited us to ‘feel’ and ‘touch’ the poverty that God’s Son took upon himself in the Incarnation. Implicitly, it summons us to follow him along the path of humility, poverty, and self-denial that leads from the manger of Bethlehem to the cross,” Pope Francis wrote.

Every year at Christmas, the people of Greccio stage a live, historical reenactment of St. Francis and the first Nativity scene.

https://www.ncregister.com/cna/st-francis-and-the-story-of-the-first-nativity-scene

Luke 1:46-55 - Mary’s Song

And Mary said:

“My soul glorifies the Lord

    and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

 for he has been mindful

    of the humble state of his servant.

From now on all generations will call me blessed,

     for the Mighty One has done great things for me—

    holy is his name.

His mercy extends to those who fear him,

    from generation to generation.

He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;

    he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.

He has brought down rulers from their thrones

    but has lifted up the humble.

He has filled the hungry with good things

    but has sent the rich away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel,

    remembering to be merciful

to Abraham and his descendants forever,

    just as he promised our ancestors.”

“The song of Mary is the oldest Advent hymn. It is at once the most passionate, the wildest, one might even say the most revolutionary Advent hymn ever sung. This is not the gentle, tender, dreamy Mary whom we sometimes see in paintings.…This song has none of the sweet, nostalgic, or even playful tones of some of our Christmas carols. It is instead a hard, strong, inexorable song about the power of God and the powerlessness of humankind.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer - Sermon during Advent 1933.)

What do you think of Bonhoeffer’s statement?

Luke 21.28 Now when these things begin to take place, stand up

and raise your heads, because your redemption

is drawing near.

Drawing Near

It is difficult to see it from here,

I know,

but trust me when I say

this blessing is inscribed

on the horizon.

Is written on

that far point

you can hardly see.

Is etched into

a landscape

whose contours you cannot know

from here.

All you know

is that it calls you,

draws you,

pulls you toward

what you have perceived

only in pieces,

in fragments that came to you

in dreaming

or in prayer.

I cannot account for how,

as you draw near,

the blessing embedded in the horizon

begins to blossom

upon the soles of your feet,

shimmers in your two hands.

It is one of the mysteries

of the road,

how the blessing

you have traveled toward,

waited for,

ached for

suddenly appears

as if it had been with you

all this time,

as if it simply

needed to know

how far you were willing

to walk

to find the lines

that were traced upon you

before the day

that you were born.

Jan Richardson, Circle of Grace, p2

Isaiah 9:22 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light;

on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.

Our next meeting will be 10.30am on Friday 23 January 2026 - Inner Stillness of God - Discovering the Presence of God Within  www.Quiet-Spaces.co.uk