The Immaculate Heart of Mary

This weekend is Saturday the 20 June, the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and Sunday the 21 June, beginning the 12th week of Ordinary time.  

Audrey Assad with the Porter’s Gate sings, ‘Every Mother Every Father’. As we prepare to hear today’s passage about Jesus as a child, can you take a moment to reflect on the ways Mary and Joseph loved and raised our Lord?   Yesterday we heard about God revealing things to little children, and today we hear of God’s own Son as a child as he was learning and discovering who he was. This story can be a comforting one; Jesus was just like any other 12 year old. Wandering off and doing his own thing, without any thought for those who care about him. Can I hear and understand what Jesus is saying in today’s reading from the Gospel of Luke.    

Luke 2:41-51

Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Assuming that he was in the group of travellers, they went a day’s journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents* saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, ‘Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.’ He said to them, ‘Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’* But they did not understand what he said to them. Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart.

Imagine you were there in the temple sitting with Jesus, who else is there with you? What is being discussed? What questions does the ‘boy’ Jesus ask? Look for the amazement in the faces of those sitting around...  

Is that how you react to the things Jesus reveals to you? Are you amazed at the way He works in your life?  

As you listen to the reading again, what feelings of wonder, awe and perhaps even amazement do you notice in yourself?  

As today’s time of prayer comes to a close, you might want to thank Jesus for the things he has revealed to you, or ask for Him to continue to work wonders in your life. Or perhaps you might just want to sit in amazement of His presence.  

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.