Jesus, how clearly we see you at Christmas time, cradled by Mary, protected by Joseph, worshiped by shepherds, honored by kings, enshrined on the altar, and loved by the world.
But, oh, Lord, help us look for you, too, among the taxes of life, and the wanderings of rootless travelers. In the world’s smelly stables, and in makeshift mangers. In sweat-like drops of blood and rough-hewn crosses, humanly fashioned. Help us look, Lord – and help us find!
Not only at Christmas, but throughout a New Year that it might become indeed ‘the year of our Lord’.
Mary Sue Rosenberger 1940-2020 American author, nurse and chaplain
Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers his righteousness on you.
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What is one practice you can adopt that would help you seek Jesus throughout the year?
When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under,
in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.
Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”
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Where is a dark place in your world where Jesus needs to enter anew?
Come closer to me, closer still, O Power of the Holy Trinity. Enter into my consciousness more deeply
than thoughts and emblems of the world can. In the same way as a wise mother, when she conceives, prepares and embellishes a cradle for her child, so prepare and embellish my mind for that which will be begotten from You, O Beauty and Purity.
Many evil thoughts lurk like serpents around the cradle of Your Son. And many wicked desires emerge from my heart and seek the cradle of Your Prince, to poison Him with their arrows.
Defend the cradle of my mind, and teach my soul how to give birth and care for an infant.
Shroud in deep darkness
the journey of all malevolent visitors coming to see my newborn son. And raise aloft a most radiant star
over the way of the Wise Men from the East, men who are truly wise,
because they are coming to visit my most precious child with three gifts— faith, hope, and love.
Come closer to me, still closer, my majestic Lord.
Nikolai Velimirovich 1881-1956 Serbian Orthodox monastic Prayers by the Lake, source, edited __________________________________
Father, People of the world walk in darkness. The struggle for power ruins the weak enriches the wealthy and gives power to the powerful. We need to see the great light the light that shines in all its brightness.
Your kingdom of peace comes through a child, and liberation is bestowed on people who become as children: disarmingly defenseless, disarming through their defenselessness, and making others defenseless because they themselves are so disarming. The birth of this child opens for us the future of a life in peace that is different from all life before, since that life was bound up with death. This child is Jesus Christ, the child in the manger, the preacher on the mount, the tormented man on the cross, the risen liberator. Help us to follow this child even today making visible something of this peace that he will complete. Help us to share in the new creation born again to a living hope and live as new men and women.
Jürgen Moltmann 1926-2024 German Reformed theologian
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod,
Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked,
“Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?
We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.
When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law,
he asked them where the Messiah was to be born.
“In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied,
“for this is what the prophet has written:
“‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’”
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How was Jesus disarming as an infant and throughout his life? How can you be more childlike in the ways that Jesus was?
You became human, really human. While we endeavor to grow out of our humanity, to leave our human nature behind us, You became human, and we must recognize that You want us also to be human – really human. Whereas we distinguish between the godly and the godless, the good and the evil, the noble and the common, You love real human beings without distinction. . . . You take the side of real human beings and the real world against all their accusers. . . .
But it’s not enough to say that You take care of human beings. This sentence rests on something infinitely deeper and more impenetrable, namely, that in the conception and birth of Jesus Christ, You took on humanity in bodily fashion. You raised your love for human beings above every reproach of falsehood and doubt and uncertainty by yourself entering into the life of human beings as a human being, by bodily taking upon yourself and bearing the nature, essence, guilt, and suffering of human beings.
Out of love for human beings, You became a human being. You do not seek out the most perfect human being in order to unite with that person. Rather, You take on human nature as it is.
after Dietrich Bonhoeffer 1906 – 1945 German Lutheran theologian and martyr
O Lord Jesus Christ, make me worthy to understand the profound mystery of your holy incarnation, which you have worked for our sake and for our salvation. Truly there is nothing so great and wonderful as this, that you, my God, who are the creator of all things, should become a creature, so that we should become like God. You have humbled yourself and made yourself small that we might be made mighty. You have taken the form of a servant, so that you might confer upon us a royal and divine beauty.
You, who are beyond our understanding, have made yourself understandable to us in Jesus Christ. You, who are the uncreated God, have made yourself a creature for us. You, who are the untouchable One, have made yourself touchable to us. You, who are most high, make us capable of understanding your amazing love and the wonderful things you have done for us. Make us able to understand the mystery of your incarnation, the mystery of your life, example and doctrine, the mystery of your cross and Passion, the mystery of your resurrection and ascension.
Angela of Foligno 1248-1309 Italian Franciscan tertiary
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high
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How do you understand the incarnation of God’s son?
The Nativity, Federico Barocci 1597, wikimedia commons
O food and bread of angels, the angels are filled by you, are satisfied by you, but not to the point of satiety. They live by you; they have wisdom by you. By you they are blessed.
Where are you for my sake? In a mean lodging, in a manger. For whom? He who rules the stars sucks at the breast. He who speaks in the bosom of the Father is silent in the Mother’s lap. But he will speak when he reaches a suitable age, and will fulfill for us the Gospel. For our sakes he will suffer, for us he will die. As an example of our reward, he will rise again. He will ascend into Heaven before the eyes of his disciples, and will come from Heaven to judge the world.
Behold him lying in the manger; he is reduced to tininess, yet he has not lost anything of himself. He has accepted what was not his, but he remains what he was. Look, we have the infant Christ; let us grow with him.
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God
something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
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How is it that Jesus could be fully God even as he was a tiny baby? How is Jesus’ birth the beginning of the Gospel fulfillment?
When waves of pain contort Mary’s body her face is cramped and pale Her eyes scuttle apart like crabs The waves pull, recede again
and attack more violently She clings to the wagon wheel, grits her teeth, and her screams terrify the beasts in the stable
Joseph, pacing nervously, stumbles and falls At last, seated, he strokes her back, grasps her hand; his strength flows into her
Then a tremendous power moves within Mary Like the sun emerging from a mountain ravine the infant’s head appears slowly, deliberately Joseph grips it in both hands
Now the baby’s cry flies out, rends the night Joseph’s doubts dissolve On the straw bed Mary peacefully shuts her eyes
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
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Imagine what the birth of Jesus was like for Mary and Joseph. How can you give thanks to God for the humble, beautiful birth of Jesus?
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