The Collect for Mass yesterday is familiar as a Prayer used also in praying the Rosary.
It also reminds how Advent/Christmas finds its fullest meaning, and reveals its deepest truth in the mysteries also of Holy Week and Easter.
Pour forth, we beseech you, O Lord,
your grace into our hearts,
that we, to whom the Incarnation of Christ your Son
was made known by the message of an Angel,
may by his Passion and Cross
be brought to the glory of his Resurrection.
Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Artists have regularly introduced themes of the Passion (at least) into their depictions of the Bethlehem story.
- Where/how do they feature also in our Christmas devotions and prayer?
In 2016 Lent/Easter follow quickly on the heels of this year’s Advent/Christmas.
It is not too early for us to be thinking what we want to carry from our 2015 experiences into Lent/Easter for our own spiritual development and that of our parishes and communities.
In the days of Christmas and in the days that follow, how do we wish to live out our ‘Yes’ to the Lord?
What resources might we draw on to help our wishes to come to pass.
The Annunication -detail of the Rosary Triptych. Arthur Fleischmann. (c) 2013, Allen Morris
Living Eucharist 
Reblogged this on St Nicholas, Boldmere.
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