Christmas Day - 25 December
25th December 2023
Christmas Day - 25 December
“For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God.” - St Irenaeus
Christ Candle
The fifth and final candle, is the Christ candle. The centre white candle is lit on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, celebrating the arrival of He Whom we have been anticipating. Jesus is born and our season of waiting is at an end. With the lighting of the Christ candle, we remember the Light which shines in the darkness - the source of our hope, champion for peace, reason for our joy, and giver of love.
A reflection on today's important celebration by the Venerable Archbishop Fulton J Sheen:
"The Lord to be born of Mary is the only Person in the world Who ever had a prehistory; a prehistory to be studied not in the primeval slime and jungles, but in the bosom of the Eternal Father.
"St. John at the beginning of his Gospel relates His prehistory as the Son of God. 'In the beginning was the Word.' Whatever there is in the world, is made according to the thought of God, for all things postulate thought. Every bird, every flower, every tree was made according to an idea existing in the Divine Mind. Greek philosophers held that thought was abstract. Now, the Thought or Word of God is revealed as Personal. Wisdom is vested in Personality. Prior to His earthly existence, Jesus Christ is eternally God, the Wisdom, the Thought of the Father. In His earthly existence, He is that Thought or Word of God speaking to men. The words of men pass away when they have been conceived and uttered, but the Word of God is eternally uttered and can never cease from utterance.
"In the agelessness of eternity, the Word was with God. But there was a moment in time when He had not come forth from the Godhead, as there is a moment when a thought in the mind of man is not yet uttered. As the sun is never without its beam, so the Father is never without His Son; and as the thinker is not without a thought, so in an infinite degree, the Divine Mind is never without His Word. God did not spend the everlasting ages in sublime solitary activity. He had a Word with Him equal to Himself. […]
"When finally the scrolls of history are completed down to the last words in time, the saddest line of all will be: 'There was no room in the inn.' Out to the hillside to a stable cave, where shepherds sometimes drove their flocks in time of storm, Joseph and Mary went at last for shelter. There, in a place of peace in the lonely abandonment of a cold windswept cave; there, under the floor of the world, He Who is born without a mother in heaven, is born without a father on earth.
"Of every other child that is born into the world, friends can say that it resembles his mother. This was the first instance in time that anyone could say that the mother resembled the Child. This is the beautiful paradox of the Child Who made His mother; the mother, too, was only a child. It was also the first time in the history of this world that anyone could ever think of heaven as being anywhere else than 'somewhere up there' when the Child was in her arms, Mary now looked down to Heaven.
"In the filthiest place in the world, a stable, Purity was born. He, Who was later to be slaughtered by men acting as beasts, was born among beasts. He, Who would call Himself the 'living Bread descended from Heaven,' was laid in a manger, literally, a place to eat. Centuries before, the Jews had worshiped the golden calf, and the Greeks, the ass. Men bowed down before them as before God. The ox and the ass now were present to make their innocent reparation, bowing down before their God.
"He, Whom the angels call the 'Son of the most High,' descended into the red dust from which we all were born, to be one with weak, fallen man in all things, save sin.
"Only two classes of people found the Babe: the shepherds and the Wise Men; the simple and the learned; those who knew that they knew nothing, and those who knew that they did not know everything. He is never seen by the man of one book; never by the man who thinks he knows. Not even God can tell the proud anything! Only the humble can find God!"
(Life of Christ)
A Christmas Prayer
Glory to God in the highest!
My precious Lord, Jesus, I adore you with profound love and rejoice in the celebration of Your birth. Your love for us is unfathomable, it is glorious, transforming, awe-inspiring, and deeply personal. You chose to come and dwell among us, being born into poverty, rejection, and humility. Yet Your mother knew whom she bore. Her heart was filled with the tenderest love as she adored her Child and her God. Help me, dear Lord, to come to love You with the heart of Your Mother. Invite me to adore You with St Joseph and the poor shepherds. Reveal to me the glorious power of Your birth and change my life on account of this perfect gift of Yourself. I love You, dear Lord Jesus. Help me to love You with all my heart. Newborn Saviour of the World, I trust in You. Mother Mary and St Joseph, Pray for me and for all. Amen. ???
Food for Thought
The noble love of Jesus urges us to do great things and spurs us on to desire perfection. Nothing is sweeter than love, nothing higher, nothing stronger, nothing larger, nothing more joyful, nothing fuller, nothing better in heaven or on earth; for love is born of God and can find its rest only in God above all He has created. This Christmas strive to bring a spark of God’s love into your family gatherings. Treat all you meet with the same kindness and gentleness you would bestow upon the Divine Infant.