The people of Nazareth thought that they were putting a local upstart in his place. The sad irony is that they were rejecting God.

Your sins cannot cancel the identity you were given in your baptism. But it is possible to forget who you are.

This is what we should ask Jesus for at Christmas: the grace of littleness.

I wanted children to hear the story of the nativity through the eyes of a child, not the experience of an adult. And so the character of Leah began to take flight in my imagination; I wanted my young readers to see the first Christmas through her eyes.

“Humility is the only way that leads us to God.”

“Everyone can find in St. Joseph—the man who goes unnoticed, the man of daily presence, of discreet and hidden presence—an intercessor, a support and a guide in times of difficulty.”