Saint Gertrude Parish - Lasne

Portrait of Saint Francis of Assisi, by the master Cimabue (1240–1301), in the Lower Basilica of Assisi. The Gospel we have just heard is preceded by the account of a difficult moment in Jesus’ mission, which we might describe as a moment of ‘pastoral desolation’: John the Baptist doubts that he is truly the Messiah; many of the towns he has passed through, despite the miracles he has performed, have not been converted; people accuse him of being a glutton and a drunkard, whe

by Saint Alberto Hurtado, S.J. As Christians, we know that we must live our lives with our eyes fixed on Christ and our ears open to his Word. Yet we do not always fully understand what this means for our lives. Saint Alberto Hurtado, a 20th-century Chilean Jesuit, explains how we can imitate Christ today. For some, the imitation of Christ is a historical study of Jesus. Like archaeologists, they study the ‘Jesus phenomenon’; they study the Gospels, learn about the customs of

Today we celebrate the Epiphany of the Lord, that is, his manifestation to all peoples, embodied by the Magi (cf. Mt 2:1–12). They were wise men who, having been drawn by the appearance of a star, set out on their journey and arrived in Bethlehem. They found Jesus, “with Mary his mother”, and prostrated themselves before him, offering him “gold, frankincense and myrrh” (v. 11). These wise men recognised the presence of God in a simple child: not in a prince or a nobleman, but