In Home
December 2023
Theme: The Incarnation
Online Session for the week of December 17, 2023

Opening Prayer:

Begin with the Sign of the Cross: Invite a family member to lead the prayer:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . .
And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1, 14)

Amen

Discuss:

Talk with your family about the best family tradition that reminds each person of Jesus.

• • Is it going to Christmas Mass?
  • Is it gathering together with family?
  • Is it listening to the story of the birth of Jesus?

Catechesis:

We celebrate Jesus’ birth on December 25 each year. Every year we hear the story of how Jesus was born. Where he was born. And who came to visit him, Mary and Joseph. But what does Jesus’ birth really mean to us?

First we have to understand that Jesus is God. But God wanted to feel what it would be like to walk and talk with human beings so God took on flesh and came into the world as a baby with a Mom and Dad. We call God taking on flesh (being “enfleshed”) the INCARNATION---invite your younger children to say it after you.

Incarnation actually means to take some that is not physical (like God) and make it physical (like Jesus---a person who walked, talked, loved, cried, etc.). God became visible to the world through the man of Jesus. Jesus was truly human and truly divine (God). He was like all human beings except he did not sin. He came into the world to save us from our sins, but he did not sin because he was also God.

That is the way Jesus is. He could have become a man in some glorious way. But instead, he chose to come into an ordinary family, in fact into a poor family. He grew up, just like you. He had a family and friends, just like you. He learned things, just like you. God loves you so much that he wanted to experience life just like you do. He also wanted to free you from your sins.

That is the incarnation.

Read:

Read the passage, Luke 2: 1-21, two or three times inviting a different member of your family to read the passage each time.

Once the passage has been read the third time ask each member of your family what word or phrase stuck out to them and have them explain why a particular word or phrase stuck out to them.

A reading from the Gospel according to Luke:

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria. So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town.

And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.

While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields and keeping the night watch over their flock. The angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were struck with great fear. The angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.”

And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

When the angels went away from them to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go, then, to Bethlehem to see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.”

So they went in haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child. All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds. And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them.

Watch Together:

Grades 1-4:

Grades 5-10:

Closing Prayer:

Begin with the Sign of the Cross. Invite a family member to lead the prayer:
Jesus, thank you for coming physically to us.
You became human. A real human with a real body.
Who can imagine that God, the true eternal life, became man?
The people who witnessed your life saw you with their physical eyes.
They felt you with their actual hands.
You weren’t a vision or a dream, but the real God that came to bring joy and life to us.
Thank You, Jesus!

Amen!

Questionnaire: 

Please make sure you submit your answers below so your child/ren can be marked present for this session. Thank you!