The Word was in the world, and though God made the world through him, yet the world did not recognize him. He came to his own county, but his own people did not receive him.
JOY - PEACE
The Word was in the world, and though God made the world through him, yet the world did not recognize him. He came to his own county, but his own people did not receive him. Some, however, did receive him and believed in him; so he gave them the right to become God’s children. (Jn.1:10-12)
The word of proclamation is effective in situations where man is listening in readiness for God to draw near, where man is inwardly searching and thus on the way towards the Lord. His heart is touched when Jesus turns towards him, and then his encounter with the proclamation becomes a holy curiosity to come to know Jesus better. As he walks with Jesus, he is led to the place where Jesus lives, to the community of the Church, which is his body. That means entering into the journeying community of catechumens, a community of both learning and living, in which our eyes are opened as we walk.
“Come and see!” This saying, addressed by Jesus to the two seeker-disciples, he also addresses to the seekers of today. At the end of the year, we pray to the Lord that the Church, despite all her shortcomings, may be increasingly recognizable as his dwelling-place. We ask him to open our eyes ever wider as we make our way to his house, so that we can say ever more clearly, ever more convincingly: “we have found him for whom the whole world is waiting, Jesus Christ, the true Son of God and true man”.
Pope Benedict VI
The Word became a human being and, full of grace and truth, lived among us. We saw his glory, the glory which he received as the Father’s only Son.
(Jn. 1: 14)
Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Pierre-Bienvenu Noailles founded the Association of the Holy Family in order to give expression to what was said of the early Christians, that they had but one heart and one soul, and to spread and strengthen the faith.
Our Lord came to gather together all people, of all ages and conditions, to form with them a family of brothers and sisters united by the bonds of the tenderest love. Just as the newly-born Church stretched out its arms to all who wished to live under the law of Jesus Christ, in the same way the Association welcomes all Christians who would like to pray and work together for the glory of God, their own holiness and the salvation of their neighbour, no matter what distances separate them in the world. Annals, 1839
Jesus Christ is the first-born of a multitude of brothers. Through baptism we are incorporated into Christ; we are so closely united to him that we are one with him, and we become other Christs, Christians.
Spiritual Guide … page 5