Thursday 29th December

1 John 2:3-11; Psalm 96:1-3,5-6; Luke 2:22-35.

Bringing our children to God

The Gospel today recalls the Jewish custom of purification after 40 days from birth. We see an interesting little indicator that Mary and Joseph may have been poor; they offered ‘a pair of birds’ rather than a one year old lamb and a young pigeon or turtledove. We see the ordinariness of Mary and Joseph bringing their child Jesus to the Temple following their desire to ask for God’s blessing on their child. Perhaps the invitation today could be to remember bringing your children to Church for baptism and renewing your offering of them to God that they may become “a light to enlighten the world”.