This is Holy Family School of Faith.

Welcome to our Rosary meditation.

Let's begin in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Let's call to mind all those we've promised to pray for.

I have an icon of the nativity, the birth of Jesus in my little chapel at home.

Jesus lies in the manger in the cave of Bethlehem in the center

of the scene. Yes it was a cave and not a barn. The baby Jesus is

surrounded by an ox and ass, for Isaiah tells us that the ox knows its owner and the ass its master's crib.

There, too, are Marion Joseph, the Magi, the Shepherds, and the Angels, all the usual suspects, oh yes, and the sheep.

Christmas Day is the moment when all these characters see for the first time what they have always longed for,

whether they knew it or not.

Either way, after much journeying, they now see with their own eyes the fulfillment of all their desire.

Now take away all the characters and leave the manger empty.

Put Mary and Joseph back in Nazareth with Jesus in her womb, place the magi back in Iran or Iraq somewhere in Persia probably,

put the Shepherds, well, who knows where the Shepherds were, put them with the sheep

somewhere, and put the angels back in heaven.

And what do they all have in common?

A longing for God.

They wanted God more than anything else, and that is what caused them to set out on their journey.

That is why Mary said yes to the angel at the Annunciation.

Why Joseph married to the most perfect and beautiful woman in the history of the world

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