"To begin the year by recalling God’s goodness in the maternal face of Mary, in the maternal
face of the Church, in the faces of our own mothers, protects us from the
corrosive disease of being 'spiritual orphans'. It is the sense of being
orphaned that the soul experiences when it feels motherless and lacking the
tenderness of God, when the sense of belonging to a family, a people, a land,
to our God, grows dim. This sense of being orphaned lodges in a narcissistic
heart capable of looking only to itself and its own interests. It grows when
what we forget that life is a gift we have received – and owe to others – a
gift we are called to share in this common home."
--Pope Francis, Homily, January 1, 2017
"Augustus' instruction regarding the registration, for tax purposes, of all the citizens of the ecumene leads Joseph, together with Mary, his betrothed, to Bethlehem, the city of David, and thus it helps to bring to fulfillment the promise of the prophet Micah that the shepherd of Israel would be born in that city. The Emperor unwittingly contributes to the realization of the prophecy: the history of the Roman Empire is interwoven with the history of the salvation that God established with Israel. The history of God's election, hitherto confined to Israel, enters the wider world, it enters world history. God, who is the God of Israel and of all peoples, shows himself to be the true guiding force behind all history."
--Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: Part Three: The Infancy Narratives (Image, 2012), pp. 64-65
