Now the birth of Jesus Christ happened this way. While his mother Mary was engaged to Joseph, but before they came together, ¹  she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.

As they came into the house and saw the child with Mary his mother, they bowed down ¹  and worshiped him. They opened their treasure boxes and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, ²  and myrrh. ³ 

¹ [[Early on the first day of the week, after he arose, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had driven out seven demons.

Then the people ¹  who were with Mary ²  in the house consoling her saw her ³  get up quickly and go out. They followed her, because they thought she was going to the tomb to weep ⁴  there.

Now when Mary came to the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

Then Mary took three quarters of a pound ¹  of expensive aromatic oil from pure nard ²  and anointed the feet of Jesus. She ³  then wiped his feet dry with her hair. (Now the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfumed oil.) ⁴ 

When he had contemplated this, an ¹  angel of the Lord ²  appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

When Joseph awoke from sleep he did what the angel of the Lord ¹  told him. He took his wife,

But ¹  she was greatly troubled ²  by his words and began to wonder about the meaning of this greeting. ³ 

So ¹  when Joseph and Mary ²  had performed ³  everything according to the law of the Lord, ⁴  they returned to Galilee, to their own town ⁵  of Nazareth. ⁶ 

(Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.) ¹ 

Now ¹  when the time came for their ²  purification according to the law of Moses, Joseph and Mary ³  brought Jesus ⁴  up to Jerusalem ⁵  to present him to the Lord

Then he got up, took the child and his mother during ¹  the night, and went to Egypt.

So ¹  the child’s ²  father ³  and mother were amazed ⁴  at what was said about him.

Because Joseph, her husband to be, ¹  was a righteous man, and because he did not want to disgrace her, he intended to divorce her ²  privately.

She ¹  exclaimed with a loud voice, ²  “Blessed are you among women, ³  and blessed is the child ⁴  in your womb!

So ¹  Simeon, ²  directed by the Spirit, ³  came into the temple courts, ⁴  and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what was customary according to the law, ⁵ 

At that moment, ¹  she came up to them ²  and began to give thanks to God and to speak ³  about the child ⁴  to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. ⁵ 

They said ¹  to her, “Woman, ²  why are you weeping?” Mary replied, ³  “They have taken my Lord away, and I do not know where they have put him!”

When ¹  his parents ²  saw him, they were overwhelmed. His ³  mother said to him, “Child, ⁴  why have you treated ⁵  us like this? Look, your father and I have been looking for you anxiously.” ⁶