Talk 3: How Can this Be? The Early and H...

This episode considers the question, “How can this be?” It hearkens Mary’s response to the angel Gabriel and begins our entry into the Second Week of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. In considering the Incarnation, the Nativity, and what are sometimes called the ‘Hidden Years’ of Jesus’ life, we are invited to consider how it can be that God chooses to participate fully in the human experience, and how we can be in relationship with God as a result.

Suggested texts:

• Luke 1:26-38
• Luke 2:1-14
• Luke 2:41-52
• Denise Levertov – “Annunciation”
  

Points for reflection:

• What unexpected news have you gotten in your life? How have you been able to find God at work in that news?
• When you consider the Nativity of the Lord, what images come to mind? How do you imagine the scene of the birth of Jesus?
• What has happened in the course of your whole life? Given your own experience, what might Jesus’ first thirty years of living been like?