Hear the Christmas story in a new way

On behalf of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, I wish you and your family a merry and blessed Christmas. We pray that throughout the season, you will see Christ’s light in your life in many ways.

May you hear the Christmas story in a new way this year, and every year. Different parts of the story stand out to us at different times of our lives. We may mirror the amazement of the shepherds, or wonder what an angel chorus might sound like, or the feel we are kneeling at the rough edges of a wooden manger, though in Bethlehem it would have more likely been made of stone.

I have been thinking about all the traveling that is part of the story. We think of Christmas as a holiday of home, but the Christmas story tells of people uprooted and searching. Mary and Joseph and many other people were traveling to fulfill the requirements of the census. The Magi were traveling to follow the star.

Often, we set out on a trip imagining that it will go one way, then run into roadblocks and detours. Sometimes we feel disoriented or lost and may wonder if we will ever get there. The important thing is to keep going. There comes a point in any journey where the details and delays fall away, and we just focus on the destination. We can clearly see where we are going, in this case, to the birthplace of the One who offers salvation of the world.