When the maji followed the start to Bethlehem, did they really know why they were doing it and what they would find? They were looking for the newborn King of the Jews according to Matthew 2:1 but did they really know what significance that title held? What was their religious background? How were they trained? What did they believe? All these years later, we really don't know the answers to those questions. In the end, does it really matter? They exhibited a brand of faith that Jesus would preach about himself. He calls us all to have the faith of little children. That is best described as inquisitiveness and inquiry. A wonderment about the how and why of things. God's lesson in the maji's journey could be that we are to follow the star to find Jesus. What star you might ask? The star can be whatever it is you are called to do. What has God placed on your TAG? When we are conceived, God creates a TAG for us that includes our Talents, Abilities, and Gifts. How we choose to use them is our call. Sometimes we ignore them completely and look longingly at someone else's TAG. But God calls us to follow the star to Jesus and that means we should be good at what we do. If you are a husband, you should be the best husband. If you are a father, you should be the best father. If you are a teacher, you should be the best teacher. That is the way to Jesus. Using the best of what God has given you will help you to follow the star to Jesus. And as we learn in Luke 9:28-36, the way to God is through Jesus. Some of the disciples learned this first hand as witnesses to the transfiguration of Jesus. When God tells the men that Jesus is His chosen Son and that they should listen to Him, I wonder what they thought? If they had any doubts at all, they had to be gone at that point. What a magnificent scene. How blessed were Peter , John, and James to witness the majesty of the Father and Son? If we just follow the star, we will also be blessed. We will also experience the transfiguration and know God's glory in the presence of Jesus.
Born during the turbulent era of the French Revolution, Saint Jeanne Jugan rose above hardship and a lack of formal schooling to become a profound vessel of Christ’s mercy. After losing her father at a young age and working through her youth as a kitchen maid and nurse, her life radically changed one freezing night when she encountered a blind, paralyzed elderly woman with nowhere to go. Jeanne carried the woman back to her own home, placed her in her own bed, and began a lifelong mission of radical hospitality. This act of profound love blossomed into the Little Sisters of the Poor , a thriving community dedicated to sheltering and honoring the destitute elderly. Despite later facing heavy trials—including being unjustly sidelined and stripped of her leadership by a controlling chaplain—Jeanne accepted her obscurity and exile with a joyful spirit, resting her complete trust in God's hidden providence until her death in 1879. In our daily lives, Saint Jeanne Jugan invites us to lo...
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