Our Lady of Loreto
(Translation of the Holy Family home from
Nazareth to Loreto, Italy)
10 December
(The Mass of Mary is offered today)
Prayer
“O Holy House of Nazareth
Humble Abode, blessed by the LORD,
May we and our refuges be blessed too!”
Reading
LK 2:41-51
Each year his parents went to Jerusalem for the feast
of Passover, and when he was twelve years old, they
went up according to festival custom. After they had
completed its days, as they were returning, the boy
Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, but his parents
did not know it.
Thinking that he was in the caravan, they journeyed
for a day and looked for him among their relatives
and acquaintances, but not finding him, they
returned to Jerusalem to look for him.
After three days they found him in the temple, sitting
in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and
asking them questions, and all who heard him were
astounded at his understanding and his answers.
When his parents saw him, they were astonished, and
his mother said to him, “Son, why have you done this
534
to us? Your father and I have been looking for you
with great anxiety.”
And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me?
Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s
house?”
But they did not understand what he said to them.
He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and
was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these
things in her heart. And Jesus advanced in wisdom
and age and favour before God and man.
