How do you feel about getting older? How does the process of aging feel in your body? Do you pine for your “lost youth” or feel your best years are present—or even ahead of you?

The story of salvation begins with two old people who have nothing to show for their lives and nothing to lose. Abraham and Sarah left their home and people behind in hopes of a fresh start. But after a lifetime of roaming across territories where they didn’t belong and were often in danger, they had no children.

When the days stipulated by Moses for purification were complete, they took him up to Jerusalem to offer him to God as commanded in God’s Law.

[Into cell phone.] “Oh, hi! I was wondering when you’d call. I know, we’re lucky if we can catch our breath after the holidays. 

Like the shepherds who went in haste to see the child Jesus, we eagerly seek to receive God’s forgiveness and blessings.

Abraham is running out of hope, but God never loses sight of the promise. God’s covenant is binding for a thousand generations.

"Now I can die happy!” We sometimes say that in moments of sheer joy. In the Liturgy of the Hours, the office of Christian prayer, the words of the prophet Simeon are recited in night prayer, the last prayer before hitting the sack.

Jesus is the only person in recorded history whose parents thought he was a child of God rather than their own creative project and possession. —Polly Berrien Berends