Sunday 30 December

The holy family

1 Samuel 1:20-22, 24-28; Psalm 83 (84):2-3, 5-6, 9-10; 1 John 3:1-2, 21-24; Luke 2:41-52

Mary’s song

Mary’s reference to ‘generation after generation’ and the promise ‘made to our ancestors, to Abraham and his descendants’ includes the land. She walks on the land promised to her ancestors. Her pregnant body is sustained by the Earth, pregnant too, with life. During her journey from Nazareth to a village in Judea about 160 kilometres away, she was sustained by the food grown in fields through which she passed. Her thirst was quenched by the water from streams and wells. Her breath breathed of the life-giving air. How do I care for the Earth which sustains my family and future generations?