This is a painting by Peter Paul Rubens titled "The Virgin and Child Surrounded by the Holy Innocents". I love it because it is often the way I picture my son and all the other aborted babies in heaven...in the presence of Jesus and His mother. And although the thought of this in no way makes abortion ok, it does bring me peace to know Joshua is, as John Paul the II said in the Gospel of Life, "living with the Lord".
May our Holy Innocents along with the ones in today's Gospel, intercede for us before God ...
Todays Gospel
When the magi had departed, behold,
the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said,
“Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt,
and stay there until I tell you.
Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.”
Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night
and departed for Egypt.
He stayed there until the death of Herod,
that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled,
Out of Egypt I called my son.
When Herod realized that he had been deceived by the magi,
he became furious.
He ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity
two years old and under,
in accordance with the time he had ascertained from the magi.
Then was fulfilled what had been said through Jeremiah the prophet:
A voice was heard in Ramah,
sobbing and loud lamentation;
Rachel weeping for her children,
and she would not be consoled,
since they were no more.
