January 1, 2025 //  Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God and the Octave Day of Christmas (Holy Day of Obligation)

Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: Luke 2:16-21

Reflect on the Word //

“Those teens!!” I groaned, exasperated about their ability to misunderstand details of a story to the point of getting the facts wrong, which then resulted in several people upset for no reason.

In hindsight, it was an insignificant situation. Yet this Story That Teens Got Wrong Again illustrates something important about listening to and sharing stories: I either get the story right, or I don’t. 

The Christmas narrative is so familiar to me that my eyes glide right over the words, too fast to let my heart soak in a deeper message. It’s so familiar after forty-plus years of hearing the story that I nearly have the words to Luke’s infancy narrative memorized.

Or do I? I wonder if I would get the details just right if I was in a position to proclaim the Good News to someone who’d never heard it. 

Am I able to listen and tell as the shepherds did? They “made known the message that had been told them” (Luke 2:17) and “returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them” (Luke 2:20, emphasis mine).

Just as it had been told to them. No more, no less. 

I want to listen to Your Word, Lord, as carefully as the shepherds did—with ears of faith and a heart filled with joy, and fully attentive down to the smallest detail. When You call on me to act, I want to pay attention and do what You ask, just as the Mother of God heeded the angel when naming Jesus, eight days after His birth. 

The Holy Spirit will guide us to witness as the shepherds, to listen with attentive ears and to share with truth-filled words. We, too, can give glory to God when we share all we’ve heard and seen of God’s love and goodness, just as it has been told to us.

Relate to the Lord // Revisit the Nativity story in today’s Gospel. Allow the Lord to highlight something new and meditate on it today.