My Beloved Son

Bishop Robert Barron's The Pivotal Players is a book that introduces the reader to a number of key figures in the history of the Catholic Church who played a decisive role in the spread and development of the Christian faith. Through saints, theologians, philosophers and spiritual leaders, Barron shows how God worked through concrete persons in different historical and cultural contexts. The book helps the reader understand how these influential "players" not only defended doctrine, but also helped the Church enter into dialogue with the culture and society of their time. The book is available from Librerija Preca.

Do you believe in the Magi? Not just as figures in a Christmas crib, but as real people whose journey still speaks to us today. The Magi were very unlikely visitors to Jesus. They came from the East, from Persia, a land that both Jews and Romans disliked and distrusted. They were foreigners and Gentiles, people who followed different beliefs and studied the stars to understand the world. To the people of Israel, the Magi seemed dangerous and unclean. Yet these were the people God chose to call to Bethlehem. Their story shows us something important about God. Many religious leaders at the time knew the Scriptures well. King Herod and the chief priests had knowledge, power, and status, but they did not go to look for the child. The Magi, however, were different. They did not know everything, but they were searching for truth. When they saw the star, they followed it with hope and courage. Saint Matthew tells us that when the Magi saw the star, “they were filled with great joy.” This joy was not only for Israel, but for the whole world. The visit of the Magi shows that Jesus came for everyone, not just one people or nation. Long before, the prophets had spoken about kings bringing gifts and nations coming to God’s light. In the Magi, these promises began to come true. The gifts they brought were full of meaning. Gold was for a king, frankincense was for God, and myrrh pointed to suffering and death. Together, these gifts showed who Jesus truly was: King, God, and Man. By offering these gifts, the Magi gave back to God what had always belonged to Him. The star that guided them was not an ordinary star. The early Christians believed it was sent by God, perhaps even an angel in the form of light. God did not speak to the Magi with words, but guided them with a sign they could understand. He met them where they were. The Magi remind us that God welcomes all who sincerely seek Him. You do not need to have everything worked out for God to guide you. What matters is an open heart. So, do you believe in the Magi? Their story tells us that no one is too far away, too different, or too lost to be led by God’s light into the joy of Jesus Christ.

With the 2026 path unfolding ahead, New Year’s Day maps out the true way through devotion to Our Lady, who always graciously leads the way to her Divine Son, year after year. He declared, once and for all: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” Mary invites us to put on Christ, like a wedding garment. Only when we are properly clad in righteousness is it possible to enter the wedding feast. Explicit guidance is given to each SDC Member (and Associate, too) so that: “Everywhere he is to stand out ... by giving good example in his words, by the way he dresses, and in his behavior.” In such garb and at the Lamb’s High Feast, the beauty of holiness is revealed. It is this sublime beauty for which we long and pray to be given; it is greater than just good moral behaviour. The Navajo Indians of North America had a formal ritual called Hózhó, the Way of Beauty. This tradition was intended to restore and preserve the harmony and right relationships with all creation and peoples. The ‘Way of Beauty’ used repetition of a short prayer: “In beauty I walk”, that invoked beauty in thought, word, and deed. The formal ritual of Hózhó was performed to restore and strengthen the individual person, as well as the whole tribe, in harmony and appreciation of beauty in nature and justice in action. The final blessing from this long ceremony of Hózhó concludes with a chant of thanksgiving: In beauty I walk. With beauty before me I walk; With beauty behind me I walk; With beauty below me I walk; With beauty around me I walk. It has become Beauty again. In our own Christian tradition, St Francis’s, All Creatures of Our God and King, appeals similarly to beauty and right relationship in creation, as in our Brother Sun and Sister Moon. There is also St Patrick’s Breastplate, a long hymn to the Blessed Trinity that longs for wholeness and unity with Jesus: Christ be with me Christ within me Christ behind me Christ before me Christ within me... Christ above me Christ below me Christ in quiet Christ in danger Christ in hearts of all that love me Christ in mouths of friends and strangers. At the beginning of a New Year, may we remain in the Love and Beauty of Christ Jesus, who is preparing all the providential ways for us to walk in. As we go forward together on this sacred way, maybe we could sing that little French Christmas Carol, Bring a Torch, Jeanette Isabella: Ah! Ah! Que la mère est belle, (Oh, the Mother is beautiful!) Ah! Ah! Ah! Que l’Enfant est beau ! (Oh, the Baby is beautiful!) May we walk in beauty in 2026! Ruth D. Lasseter SDC Associate Indiana, USA

As we begin the new year, 2026, we turn our gaze to our Mother Mary and honour her with her most exalted title: Mother of God. No greater title could be given to the Blessed Virgin, for it gathers within it all the graces bestowed on her by God the Father. Since Mary is the true mother of Jesus, God the Son, she is rightly acclaimed as the Mother of God. Indeed, the most blessed woman in all of history. Today the Catholic Church also celebrates the World Day of Peace. In a world marked by aggression and violence, we earnestly long for the gift of peace proclaimed by the angels to those of good will, those who seek to do the will of God. Lord God, in whose hands are the hearts of rulers, guide them by your will, that they may govern in your grace and bring peace to their peoples; for nothing is impossible for you. Let us also entrust ourselves to Mary, Mother of God, asking her to intercede for us before the Lord for the much-needed gift of peace, both within our hearts and throughout the world. O Blessed Virgin, O Gate of Heaven, O Mother of Mercy, O Delight of God, pray for us, for we know that he who bestowed upon you the dignity of divine motherhood will deny you nothing. Amen.

Such is Christmas in our age. But is this truly Christmas? One of the greatest events in human history bore no resemblance to these festivities. The coming of the Messiah was announced to a simple young maiden in a small and almost forgotten village. After receiving this revelation, Mary hastened to serve her cousin Elizabeth. The journey to the humble town of Bethlehem was arduous, and upon their arrival, Mary and Joseph found not even a single place in the inn. There was no comfort, no luxury surrounding the birth of Jesus; and the first to behold him were shepherds, humble and sidelined by society. It was they who became the first heralds, recounting to all they met the wonders they had seen and heard. Thus, in this manner, the Son of God entered our humanity. This was the first Christmas. In a world where extravagance has always held sway – where the costly, the pleasurable, the powerful, and the wealthy dominate – God himself, through the birth of Jesus, wished to show us that peace, and what is truly precious, arrives by another path. “Jesus was born in a humble stable, into a poor family. Simple shepherds were the first witnesses to this event. In this poverty heaven's glory was made manifest. To become a child in relation to God is the condition for entering the kingdom. For this, we must humble ourselves and become little. Even more: to become "children of God" we must be "born from above" or "born of God". (CCC 525–526) Such was the experience of Thérèse of Lisieux who, at fourteen, still expected to find her shoes beneath the Christmas tree brimming with gifts. She would take offence at trifles and behave as a small child. That year, as she ascended the stairs, she overheard her father say, “Thank God this is the last time we shall do such a thing!” Instead of letting her heart grow wounded, Thérèse descended again, opened her gifts, and rejoiced as though she had heard nothing. Christmas of 1886 became for her a moment of profound conversion, teaching her to prize the small and simple things of life and to expect nothing. She would later write to her sister: “You know well that the Lord does not look at how many great deeds we accomplish, nor at their difficulty, but at the love with which we perform them.” (Letter to Céline) “Never miss a chance to make even a tiny sacrifice, here with a smile, there with a kind word; always perform the smallest actions well and do all things with love.” (The Story of a Soul) Is this not the essence of the first Christmas? That God, who is Love, was born for you and for me in the humblest of surroundings, revealing thereby the immense power of small things. And so, whoever you are, in whatever circumstances you find yourself, with riches or without them, in joy or in adversity, you too may share in the grace of Christmas this year. In the words of Saint John Paul II, “the mystery of Christmas invites us to rediscover the sanctifying power of small things carried out with great love. God became small so that we might not fear to draw near to him.” (Christmas Message, 1998)

“I am the Light of the World. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but have the light of Life.” John 8,12 Our late Pope Benedict XVI wrote Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives; it was first published in 2012. In this little book, the Holy Father reflects on the gifts of the Magi and the Star that they followed. He suggests that while there have been many studies on the astrological possibilities of the Star of Bethlehem, the deeper significance for Christians is in the spiritual realm. The Star is a sign of the longing that every human being has for God, the creator of everything and of all people. Thus, the Star is a supernatural light, emanating from the Blessed Trinity, that draws all people. Whether they recognize it or not, the Star is brilliant with an infusion of the divine light of Heaven, first appearing in Bethlehem, drawing both the wise of exotic royalty and the poor, lowly shepherds. Further, the medieval Church saw the Star as the true guiding light for all three ages of human life:  youth, middle age, and old age. In the personages of the Magi, or three kings of the mysterious Orient, each life-phase has a unique gift to bring the returned thanks to Baby Jesus, the Incarnate Word of God. Gold represents the gift of Jesus’s eternal lordship over all creation. Gold was symbolic of the best things in life, those things that do not corrupt nor perish. Gold is associated with the precious reality of Wisdom, found in the truth of God’s presence among us and in the experience of true love. Wisdom is considered a rare gift of understanding because so often overlooked in the folly of adolescent longing for money, sex, and prestige. Frankincense is symbolic of the gift of a mature spiritual life, usually realized only in middle age. Incense is offered as a result of the human spirit and life burning with the fire of God. Frankincense is the gift of a choice to avoid acquisitiveness of stuff, but to instead to settle in gratitude for the gifts of Wisdom and fair love in relationships. The appropriate response of middle age – the gift of frankincense – is that of thanksgiving, of a deepening, all-pervading prayer as the primarius of human life, in humble recognition that Jesus is the author of Life, of Grace, and the high priest overall. The offering of frankincense aligns with an attitude of gratitude and submission of all good endeavors and relationships to a greater hierarchy of loves, originating in God’s Love. The “bitter perfume” of myrrh looks beyond suffering towards the Resurrection of Jesus and the coming of the Kingdom of God. Myrrh is understood as intercession – a gifting through Jesus for others by loss of conventional comfort, by fasting, daily suffering, and sacrificial generosity. With the inevitable approach of death, old age is usually marked by pain, loss, suffering, and weakness. These can be transformed from sorrow to blessing, and so offered as a gift, not as an affliction. Myrrh is associated with Jesus’s passion and death as atonement for separation from God through the “deceit of the devil, the world, and ourselves” (as we pray in The Watch). At the end of life, the temptation may be to declare oneself as finished, as just too weary to go on with the Christian vocation. The gift of myrrh, of old age, aligns with “final perseverance” that is fitting for a disciple of Jesus. It is to remember and reaffirm the religious vocation of earlier phases of life, to continue pursuing the promise of the Star, even while acknowledging the limitations of age. Old age brings with it the reality of inadequacy and goals unfinished, even of inevitable human failure. Can anyone speak the triumphant last word of Jesus on the Cross, without Jesus speaking through that person in his final hour? The victory cry of “It is finished!” belongs to the One, the only One, who was victorious over death and loss. Neither the gold of wisdom nor the incense of a mature life of prayer and service can long endure without the gift of a fusion of our mortality with the eternal Lord of Life, Jesus Christ, who is our armor of Light – “the true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world”). And so, the Magi, uniting with all ages, all peoples, and representing all phases of human life, follow the Star on their ancient quest. Theirs is our life-pilgrimage, too, because Jesus is the everlasting Star of John 9:13. With the humility of the shepherds and the privilege of the Magi, humanity can bring the gifts of Life to the Holy Family at the altar of the manger at the midnight hour of Jesus’s birth, “...in Bethlehem, in a stable, in piercing cold.” We await His coming for entry at the locked door of our own hearts, even as we teach the little ones how to join the Christian pilgrimage of all the ages with shepherds and kings and united with the Holy Family. There is a warning in the nativity narrative, however. It may be against false teaching or the deceitful “inner light” of self-focus that, apart from unity with the Pope, continues to shatter Christendom into shards of spiritual sects, each with a shard of the divine light, but causing chaos and darkness in the social order, nevertheless. Our Blessed Lord has words of fire for “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea” (Matthew 18:6). Do we, who are the modernist Magi – the parents, catechists, and teachers – realize that Jesus’s fearful rebuke is directed at us, too? Therefore, we wait for the Light of Christ to rise, like the morning Star, with a thrill of hope and with love for the young souls who we encourage and direct in their own longing for Heaven. At Christmas, we wait for the coming of our God, who is a God of people, and who holds the world in His hands with tender love and preference the little children, who come to Him for blessing. Ruth D. Lasseter SDC Associate Indiana, USA

On the Fourth Sunday of Advent we celebrate love. Through the flame of the Fourth Advent candle, we are reminded of the profound love that the Lord God has for us as human beings. This love became visible when the Son of God became man. Jesus is the most visible sign of this love, for it is no longer something abstract, but love that has taken on flesh. Through the birth of Baby Jesus, God shows us what our love should be like; our love for Him, for ourselves, and for one another. Saint George Preca teaches us that we should have a heart set ablaze for God, who loves us with immeasurable love; a heart of bronze towards ourselves, so that we may control our passions and allow them to serve us for good; and a heart of flesh for our neighbour, capable of loving with compassion. Let us pray with Saint George Preca: Lord God, enkindle our hearts with your love! Take a moment for personal reflection on this Fourth Sunday of Advent: How deeply do I truly believe that I am loved by God? Do my actions bear witness to how great my love for the Lord God is? Am I reflecting Jesus’ love in the way I treat others?