Thoughts, Prayers & Art

Originally Published: May 31, 2025

May we be shaken, 
not gently, not poetically,
but hard 
like a nation waking in the night
to find that Christ has been knocking
at our borders and we have been too afraid, too busy,
too proud to let Him in.

May we be shaken by the truth
that the Mother of our Lord was a migrant girl, traveling alone 
through dangerous lands,
pregnant with salvation,
unwelcome in her own town,
seeking safety in the arms of another woman who simply said, “Blessed are you.”

Now ask yourself:
When a woman like Mary
knocks on your door 
young, brown, exhausted, 
carrying a child and a story you do not understand, 
do you bless her?
Or do you back away?

This is not metaphor.
This is happening today.
In deserts.
In detention centers.
In makeshift shelters 
where holy children still cry 
and no one comes with gold, frankincense, or even a glass of water.

Mary is still on the move.
And we are still saying there’s no room.

So yes, may we be shaken 
from the comfort that has made us cruel.

From the systems that bless the rich and send the desperate away empty.

From the silence that makes us complicit
while Christ comes again and again through the borderlands 
and we do not recognize Him.

You want to honor the Visitation?
Then open your door.
Welcome the traveler.
Protect the mother.
Lift up the lowly.

And make your soul a place where Christ can leap.

Anything less and we have missed the Gospel altogether.

May we be shaken.
And may we never be the same.

Amen.