Отрок Иисус в xpaмe

The Lord lived in Nazareth for about thirty years. Of this entire long period, the Holy Gospel tells about only one event - the journey of 12-year-old Jesus with his parents to the Temple of Jerusalem. But this narrative is such that it throws light on all this obscure life of the Lord. From the age of twelve, a Jewish youth received certain rights equal to those of adults. From then on, he began to wear a headband during prayer, appeared with adults in the synagogue and traveled to the Jerusalem Temple on the main holidays: Easter, Pentecost and Tabernacles. The Blessed Virgin and Righteous Joseph went to Jerusalem every year for the holiday of Easter. When the Lord Jesus Christ turned 12 years old, they took Him with them. These journeys were made by entire crowds of people and were enlivened by the singing of psalms. At the end of the seven days of the holiday, Joseph and Mary, with their relatives and neighbors, set off on their way back and walked all day in the confidence that Jesus was also walking ahead of them with his peers. But at the first stop, to their horror, they saw that He was not on the way. Therefore, despite the darkness of the night, they returned back to Jerusalem to look for Him. They searched for Him for two days without success. On the third day in the morning they saw the Lord Jesus Christ in the church. He sat among the teachers, listened and asked them. Everyone who was here marveled at His intelligence and answers. At the end of the conversation, Mary said to Jesus: “Son, what have you done to us? Behold, Your father and I searched for You with great sorrow.” The Lord answered them: “Why did you look for Me (in other places and not here), or did you not know that I should be in what belongs to My Father?” In these words He pointed out to them His great calling, but Joseph and Mary did not understand them in all the depth of their meaning. After this He went with them to Nazareth and showed them obedience. As He grew, His wondrous spiritual gifts were gradually revealed. The special love of God for Him was revealed more and more clearly to those who were attentive, and at the same time the love for Him on the part of good people increased more and more. The Child Jesus in the Church. From a painting by Prof. Nikolai Andreevich Koshelev (1840 – 1918) You might be interested in: