This week’s readings are a great example of prophecy being fulfilled. In Isaiah, we have a sign given by God that a virgin will conceive and bear a son and will call Him Emmanuel. Now here are some things to think about: Emmanuel is not a formal name like Tom or Hannah, it is a title featuring an attribute of God. The title means “God is with us”, and for the first time in all of history, a virgin would give birth without marital relations of any kind, and the one person who would document and give us the most detail about this blessed event? It was a doctor. The one and only St. Luke – The great Physician. If anyone would deny the reality of a virgin birth, it would be a Physician, yet it is this man who documents and promotes this miraculous event forever changing mankind. In the Gospel, Joseph her husband does not know how to react, but being a righteous man decides to divorce Mary quietly. However, an Angel appears to him in a dream and tells him that Mary has conceived by the Holy Spirit and to protect her. Just like the Joseph of the Old Testament, this Joseph takes the child and flees to Egypt in order to protect them. Interestingly enough, Joseph never says a single word in all of scripture. He simply does what needs to be done and is a righteous and virtuous man. He is an example that all men should model their manliness from. Finally think about this, when the Dead Sea scrolls were found, the one complete scroll was that of Isaiah. Here we have documented proof as the scroll was verified to have been written hundreds of years before Christ and contained within is the many prophecies of Jesus and the virgin birth. Once again verifying the claims of Christianity through science. This week, think about mystery, prophecy and doing the right thing and how through a virgin, God took on flesh – (her flesh to be precise) and dwelt physically with us…May God richly bless all of you…