Today we celebrated Francis’ birthday, wishing him every blessing for his life ahead.
Day two of the workshop on a Contemporary Understanding of Jesus began with a prayer celebrating the birthday of Francis Hall.
The morning was devoted to exploring the origin of the gospels, and how they were written. Brigit and Francis invited the Brothers to explore some key passages from the gospels. Some significant events of the life of Jesus were examined: the infancy narratives, the Birth of Jesus and the account of Jesus walking on the water. The group explored the types of narratives in the gospels: the historical facts and the more-than-factual meanings. The question was about what significance these passages had. Each of the groups reported on the result of their discussions on each of the above passages.
The discussion continued where the Brothers asked key questions on the factual or metaphorical nature of the Birth and Resurrection narratives.
Then the group were invited to study a variety of articles that describe some aspects of the historical Jesus. As each group went to research these articles, they came to a deeper appreciation of the humanity of Jesus.