We bless the Lord because this week we had a wonderful opportunity to visit Bethlehem. Thinking that we are near to celebrate the holy week we decided to visit the place where Jesus was born. We are doing a memory of his life and how with it he fulfilled the words of the angel Gabriel when he said to Mary in the gospel of Luke:
“…he will be great and will be called Son of the Most High…!” Lk 1,32
Every time that you visit the Nativity church it is amazing to see how people from all around the world are praying in this place. They are full of hope and joy like the shepherds when they went to contemplate the birth of Jesus. We also took our time to appreciate the mystery of God in this significant place where “The Word became flesh” Jn 1,14. We read the gospel and reflected on it. Then we finished this special moment singing together a verse of the “Benedictus”.
After visiting the Nativity church we went to the Milk Grotto church, where we also had time to pray and to admire the beauty of the love of a mother. It was represented by the image of Mary feeding Jesus. We remembered the love of our mothers and pray for them and for mothers and children who are suffering around world.
Concluding both places gave us a deep experience of God’s love because they facilitate our understanding of Jesus’s life and the circumstances of it.
These places that look more like caves invite us to reflect in how people used to live in Jesus times. So that it was easy to imagine how could have been the moment when Mary and Joseph were finding a place for Jesus birth. Probably they found a similar cave where God’s love was revealed to the humankind through a little child.
This experience in Bethlehem called us to live our own life in a similar way that Mary and Joseph did when they were waiting the birth of Jesus. It means allowing ourselves to be open to the gracious of God in our lives. They had humble heart that were full of hope, life, love and joy when Jesus was born.
We thank the Lord to give us Jesus because in him we appreciate and feel the gift of the Father’s love to us and to all the humankind.
“We are called to witness by our life to God’s faithful love for the Jewish people and to his fidelity to the promises he revealed to the patriarchs and prophets of Israel for all humanity. In Christ, the pledge of their fulfilment is given us.” Constitution # 13
Nancy Mena Fernandez NDS, Novice
Congregational Novitiate Ein Karem, Jerusalem
March 2nd, 2016