Infancy Narratives & Liturgical Seasons

1. CHRISTIAN
LIVING
EDUCATION

2. THE INFANCY NARRATIVES
After Jesus’ Death and Resurrection, the Christian
community – all those who came to believe Jesus as the
Risen Lord and Messiah – initiated the process of
interpreting Jesus and His message. Their major
concern was how to effectively give witness to Jesus’
Good News.

3. THE INFANCY NARRATIVES
THE FOURTH WISE MAN
The story of the fourth wise man connects Bethlehem
(Jesus’ birth) and Calvary (Jesus’ death).

4. THE INFANCY NARRATIVES
We celebrate Christmas because of Jesus’ birth.
Gift-giving is traditional at Christmas not because of
Santa Claus but because God started the tradition by
giving His only Son Jesus as a gift to humankind to be
our Savior.

5. THE INFANCY NARRATIVES
The Infancy stemmed from the concern of the early
Church to search for ways of communicating who is the
Risen Lord, the savior of the World.
Only the Gospel of Luke and Matthew contain the
Infancy Narratives
The primary purpose of it is to bring out the religious
significance of the coming of Jesus.

6. THE INFANCY NARRATIVES
The events that constitute the Infancy Narratives are:
Matthew
1. The Genealogy of Jesus
2. The Birth of Jesus
3. The Visit of the Magi
4. The Flight to Egypt
5. The Massacre of the Infants
6. The Return from Egypt
Luke
1. Announcement of the Birth of John
2. Announcement of the Birth of Jesus
3. Mary Visits Elizabeth
4. The Canticle of Mary
5. The Birth of John
6. The Canticle of Zechariah
7. The Birth of Jesus
8. The Visit of the Shepherds
9. The Circumcision and Naming of
Jesus
10. The Presentation in the Temple
11. The Return to Nazareth

7. THE INFANCY NARRATIVES
The Genealogy of Jesus (Mt 1:17; Lk 3:23-28)
Matthew
- Traces the lineage of Jesus
to David and Abraham.
- If Jesus is the Messiah, He
must be of the house of
David’s royal line.
- He must be also an Israelite,
a son of Abraham.
Luke
- He presents Jesus as
Savior of all people.
- Traces Jesus’ lineage to
Adam, the father of all
of us, “the son of God.”

8. THE INFANCY NARRATIVES
The Announcement of the Birth of Jesus
Matthew
- The announcement was
made to Joseph (head of the
family)
Luke
- Mary as the recipient of the
annunciation.
- Focused on Joseph to
defend the legitimacy in
Jewish law of Mary’s giving
birth to Jesus.
- Gives prominence to the
role of Mary in Jesus’
infancy narratives

9. THE INFANCY NARRATIVES
Unique Details in the Infancy Narratives
Matthew
- The account on the Holy
Family’s flight to Egypt.
Luke
- The visit of Mary to her cousin,
Elizabeth.
- This visitation describes the
quality of faith of Mary.
- Comparison of how Moses
was saved from the
Egyptian’s Pharaoh’s
slaughter of the Hebrew
babies and how Jesus was
saved from Herod’s
slaughter of the innocents.
- Jesus is circumcised and was
given the highly symbolic name –
JESUS.
- Jesus is presented in the Temple.
(Simeon and Anna were the first
to herald the significance of Jesus’

10. THE INFANCY NARRATIVES
The First Visitors of Jesus
Matthew
- Narrates the journey of the Magi
from the east to visit Jesus.
Luke
- Narrates the story of some poor
shepherds – to whom angels
proclaimed the good news that a
savior has been born for them.
MAGI refers to astrologers.
They were Gentiles (non-Jews)
- The narrative shows that Gentiles
embraced Jesus as the Messiah while the
Jews did not recognize Him.
- Shepherds have no idea that time
of the Jewish laws and considered
among the unclean or outcasts
Magi’s rich symbolic gifts:
Gold – worthy of a king
Frankincense – used in offerings to God
Myrrh – used to prepare a body for
- Luke wanted to show that Jesus
compassionately reaches out to
the poor, the outcasts, and the
sinners.

11. THE INFANCY NARRATIVES
COMMON ELEMENTS IN MATTHEW AND LUKE
Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary
Jesus was born in the time of King Herod the Great
Angels brought the Good News

12. THE INFANCY NARRATIVES
The Finding of Jesus in the Temple
Reveals that Jesus was brought up as a practicing Jew
Jesus’ obedience to His human parents shows Jesus as the model of
obedience to parents’ authority as asserted in the Fourth
Commandment.
His obedience to His parents shows an early sign of fulfilling His mission
as the One whom God sent for us.

13. THE INFANCY NARRATIVES
The Message of the Hidden Years
Jesus’ hidden life at Nazareth allows us to enter into fellowship with Him by means
of the most ordinary events in our daily life.
Nazareth was described by Pope Paul VI as the school in which we begin to
understand the life of Jesus narrated in the Gospels.
THREE LESSONS:
SILENCE – as we grow toward maturity, we learn to esteem silence as indispensable
quality of mind.
FAMILY LIFE – communion of love, with austere and simple beauty.
WORK – Nazareth was the home of the “Carpenter’s Son”, in whom we understand and
exercise the redeeming law of human work.

14. THE INFANCY NARRATIVES
The Message of the Hidden Years
Jesus’ hidden years represent His long years of preparation
for His public ministry.
And the result of that long preparation is His wisdom, prayer,
discipline, strength of character, fellowship with others, and especially
His compassion for the poor, the sick, and the sinners of His society.

15. ENCOUNTERING CHRIST THROUGH
THE LITURGICAL YEAR
A.D. stands for Anno (in the Year) Domini (of the Lord)
Liturgical Year – yearlong pattern of celebrations of the official prayer
of the Church.
It begins with Advent and ends with the thirty-fourth week of the year, and the
feast of Christ the King.
Through the Liturgy:
- we celebrate the mystery of the Risen Christ’s presence and action in our lives
now
- Jesus is brought present to us every day of our lives.

16. LITURGICAL SEASONS
-follow the pattern of the main events in the life of Jesus: his birth,
infancy, ministry, Passion, death, Resurrection, and Ascension to
heaven.
FIVE SEASONS:
Advent
Christmas
Lent
Easter
Ordinary Time

17. LITURGICAL SEASONS
ADVENT
- Is the four-week season starting our liturgical
year.- Comes from the Latin word “adventus” – “coming.”
- The season that commemorates the two comings of Christ: His
birth and incarnation, and His second coming in glory at the end
of time.- Prepares us for the liturgical coming of Christmas.

18. LITURGICAL SEASONS
CHRISTMAS
• The feast of the human birth of our Lord who came as light into
the darkness of this world.
• incarnation, the mystery of God the Son becoming man in
Christ.
• Season of joy because God become one of us, the Emmanuel.

19. LITURGICAL SEASONS
LENT
• Forty-day period preparing for Easter.
• The time where Christians get ready to celebrate Holy Week,
Christ’s Paschal Mystery
• Begins on Ash Wednesday and ends before the Eucharist on
Holy Thursday.
• A season for prayer and fasting, for confessing our sins in the
Sacrament of Reconciliation, for attending recollections in
school and parish.
• Participating in Sacred Triduum: Holy Thursday, Good Friday,
Easter Virgil – a time for spiritual renewal so we can draw
ourselves nearer to God and Jesus.

20. LITURGICAL SEASONS
LENT
• Mahal na Araw or Holy week – commemoration of our Lord’s
Passion and Death. Also called Paschal Week, Greater Week, Week
of the Lord’s Passion, Week of Sorrowing.
• Holy Week leads to Easter – the highest point of the liturgical
year.
• Holy week begins on Palm Sunday (Domingo de Ramos or
Linggo ng Palaspas) – there is a dramatization of the
triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.
• During Holy Monday, Holy Tuesday and Holy Wednesday the
church reflects on the Lord’s Passion through readings in the
liturgy. – The readings present us Jesus as the Suffering-
Servant and the incidents that happened in the last days before

21. LITURGICAL SEASONS
LENT
• On Holy Thursday, we celebrate the “The Last Supper” and reenact
the institution of the Eucharist, the ordination of the apostles, and
the washing of the feet.
• On Good Friday, the day commemorating the Lord’s Death on
the Cross, no full mass is celebrated.
• CROSS is the symbol of “perfect liberating love for all people for all times.”
• On Holy Saturday, the Church meditates during the day at the
Lord’s tomb, prayerfully preparing for celebrating the
Resurrection.

22. LITURGICAL SEASONS
LENT
EASTER VIGIL HAS FOUR PARTS:
• Service of Light – uses fire and the blessing of the Paschal Candle to
proclaim that darkness of sin has been overcome by Christ, the Light.
• Liturgy of the World – Selected readings which cover the whole story of salvation from
creation to redemption in Christ. (Three are selected from the seven possible readings
from the Old Testament, and the epistle taken from the letter to the Romans. The Gospel,
taken from the three synoptic accounts, proclaim Resurrection.
• Liturgy of the Baptism – The faithful are led to renew their baptismal vows
and confirm their commitment to the Triune God. Baptisms are traditionally
celebrated during this night.
• The Mass – has a special Alleluja, Preface, and the Post-Communion Prayer
that focus on the Resurrection, the high point of the liturgical year.

23. LITURGICAL SEASONS
LENT
EASTER or PASKO NG PAGKABUHAY
• Greatest feast in the liturgical year
• It celebrates Christ rising from the dead
• Feast of the resurrection, the greatest feast of the Christian faith
• Celebrated through fifty days climaxing with the sending by the Father and
the Risen Christ of the Holy Spirit on the Pentecost, the fiftieth day after
Easter.

24. LITURGICAL SEASONS
ORDINARY TIME
• Consists of thirty-three to thirty-four weeks, or more than half of
the year.
• The time to celebrate and deepen our understanding of the public life of
Jesus, with His teachings and miracles.
• Begins on the day after the feast of the Baptism of the Lord
and runs to the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, starts again
after Pentecost, and runs to the end of the liturgical year.