大象传媒

Good morning. The story is told of a famous artist working high up inside a church painting a picture on the ceiling.聽 He's on a platform supported by scaffolding, and barely visible from the ground.聽 He sees a figure far below enter the church and shuffle into a pew, kneel down and begin to pray.聽 He thinks,聽"Ah They can't see me. I can have some fun up here."
So he shouts to the ground, "Hello, this is Jesus." But the figure just keeps on praying.

"Perhaps they didn't hear me", the artist thinks He shouts down from the scaffolding again:聽 "Hello, This is Jesus." Still no response. He says, "Hello.聽 This is Jesus.聽 Can't you hear me?" And the person praying looks up, with a severe expression on their face, and shouts up:"Young man, I know perfectly well who you are.聽 I'm trying to have a word with your mother!"

Today, many people will be echoing the words of that person in the pew as they celebrate one of the most popular but more unusual feasts in the Christian Calendar聽 - the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary.聽In reflecting upon the life of Jesus of Nazareth, if we are to call him Son of God, we then look afresh at the one who brought him to birth, on whom he depended for life and who shaped the way he appreciated the world into which he grew.聽

Some are uncomfortable with this festival because it makes the figure of Mary seem remote, ideal and other-worldly.聽 Yet the whole point is rather different.聽 She gives birth to one whose role is to make God's love approachable, accessible and real.聽聽聽

O God, who brought us to birth and leads us into life, we thank you for the love of a mother, wherever we may find it.聽

础尘别苍.听听听听