ST JOSEPH'S ABBEY, SPENCER MA

John testified further, saying, “I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from the sky and remain upon him. I did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain, he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God.”   John 1:32–34 It’s interesting to note that in the Gospel of John, Saint John the Baptist never baptized Jesus, as is depicted in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. Instead, in the Gospel of John, John the Baptist simply witnessed the descent of the Holy Spirit from a distance, and then spoke the quoted line above. The next day, the Baptist pointed to Jesus as the “Lamb of God,” and two of his own disciples left the Baptist to follow Jesus. Why is there this apparent discrepancy between the Gospel of John and the three Synoptic Gospels? Though it’s hard to answer that for certain, one thing that is made uniquely clear in the Gospel of J...

Saints Basil the Great and Gregory of Nazianzen were among the most devoted defenders of the faith in the fourth century. Both were bishops and both are now saints and doctors of the Church. These two men met while studying in Caesarea Cappadocia and strengthened their tight friendship in Athens. After Basil’s death, Gregory wrote of their bond, “We seemed to have one soul, inhabiting two bodies” ( Orationes of Saint Gregory   43:20). Both saints came from families of saints. Basil’s maternal grandmother was a martyr; his paternal grandmother, his parents, and three of his siblings are also saints.   Gregory’s f ather was converted to Catholicism by his wife. After his conversion, he was ordained a priest and then consecrated as Bishop of Nazianzen. He served as   bishop for about forty-five years, living into his nineties. These saintly parents had three children, all of whom became saints. At the time that Saints Gregory and Basil lived, the Church, the body of Christ, ...

Madonna and Child Berlinghiero   Italian,  possibly 1230s On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in   Gallery 601 Used with permission How can a mere mortal be the Mother of the Eternal God who has always existed? Consider how we speak of human motherhood. Our own mothers supply our human nature, our physical bodies; yet, it is God who supplies our spirit and soul. We do not distinguish between the two: a mother gives birth not only to our nature, but to our entire person. In regard to Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary supplied his humanity and is thus the Mother of Jesus.  But Christ has both a human nature and a divine nature.  Nevertheless, she gave birth to the one Person who is Jesus Christ, the Son of God made man.  She is rightly called the Mother of God even though she herself is not the source of his divinity. (Cf. CCC 496) This doctrine is taught implicitly in Scripture, especially in those passages where the Blessed Virgin Mary is called the"Mot...

Today we shift our gaze from the grotto of Bethlehem where the Saviour was born on Holy Night to the humble house of Nazareth, to contemplate the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, whose feast we celebrate in the festive, family atmosphere of Christmas.   The Redeemer of the world chose the family as the place for his birth and growth, thereby sanctifying this fundamental institution of every society. The time he spent in Nazareth, the greater part of his life, continues to be shrouded in deep silence. Very little information about it has been passed on to us by the Evangelists. However, if we aspire to a deeper understanding of Jesus' life and mission, we must draw close to the mystery of the Holy Family of Nazareth to observe and listen. Today's liturgy offers us a providential opportunity to do so.   For every believer, and especially for Christian families, the humble dwelling place in Nazareth is   an authentic school of the Gospel.   Here we ...

The pressing need of devoting ourselves to the consideration of the one thing necessary is especially manifest in these days of general chaos and unrest, when so many men and nations, neglecting their true destiny, give themselves up entirely to acquiring earthly possessions, failing to realize how inferior these are to the everlasting riches of the spirit.  And yet St. Augustine's saying is so clearly true, that "material goods, unlike those of the spirit, cannot belong wholly and simultaneously to more than one person."  The same house, the same land, cannot belong completely to several people at once, nor the same territory to several nations. And herein lies the reason of that unhappy conflict of interests which arises from the feverish quest of these earthly possessions.  On the other hand, as St. Augustine often reminds us, the same spiritual treasure can belong in its entirety to all men, and at the same time to each, without any disturbance of peace between them. ...

The wily king Herod, who was reigning in Judea at the time of the birth of Our Saviour, learned from three Wise Men from the East that they had come to Jerusalem, advised by a star in the heavens, in search of the newborn King of the Jews. Herod's superstitious fear of losing his throne was awakened, and he grew troubled. He called together the chief priests, questioned them, and learned from them that the awaited Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem, the city of David. He said to the strangers: When you have found Him, bring me word, that I too may go and adore Him. The star which had guided the Magi re-appeared over Bethlehem, and they found the Infant and adored Him, and offered Him their royal gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, recognizing by these His perfect Divinity, His royalty, and His prophesied sufferings. God warned them in a dream afterwards not to go back to Herod, and they returned to their lands, rejoicing, by a different route. Saint Joseph, too, was warned duri...

Plaque with Saint John the Evangelist French,  ca. 1175–1200 On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in   Gallery 3 From the Met Collection: Used with permission Saint John, brother of Saint James the Greater, the Apostle of Spain, is the   beloved disciple.   He was privileged, with his brother and Saint Peter, to behold the Savior raise up a dead child to life, then saw Him transfigured on the mountaintop; he alone reposed his head on His breast at the Last Supper. After the crucifixion it is he who, with Saint Peter, hastened to the empty tomb on the morning of the Resurrection. Standing beside Mary at the Cross, he heard his Master confide the Blessed Mother to him to be his Mother also. He took Mary to Ephesus when the persecution of the Jerusalem Christians became too intense; and from there he went out to evangelize Asia Minor, of which he became the first Archbishop. He was later exiled to the Island of Patmos, where he wrote the Apocalypse, but afterwards returned t...