Christmas Day - 25 December 2024
25th December 2024
“Let us celebrate Christmas, not merely by exchanging gifts and worldly pleasures, but by bringing the love of Christ into our hearts and spreading it to all those we meet.” - St Padre Pio of Pietrelcina
A Christmas reflection by the Venerable Archbishop Fulton J Sheen:
"This Babe Who is named Jesus, which means Saviour, is not a man who made himself a God … rather He is true God and true Man, for He did not cease being God when He became Man. There was no conversion of His Godhead into flesh, but the taking up of manhood unto God.
"When we say that God became Man, we do not mean that the Godhead was cut down to human dimensions; it means, on the contrary, that a human nature was taken up into the Person of God and made One with Him. This union is called the Incarnation, which literally means an ‘enfleshment,’ or ‘made flesh.’
"Of every other child born into the world, friends might say that it resembles its mother. This is the first instance in time that anyone could say that the Mother resembles the Child. Here is the beautiful paradox of the Child Who made His Mother; therefore the Mother is only a child – a creature of God. It was also the first time in the history of this earth of ours that anyone could ever think of Heaven being anywhere else than ‘way up there,’ but Mary, with the Divine Child in her arms, now looks down to Heaven.
"The human nature which God assumed, was taken out of the world of freedom by a free act on the part of Mary His Mother. God’s way with man is not dictatorship but cooperation. He would redeem humanity with human consent, and not against it.
"Christmas is not something that happened such as the Battle of Waterloo; it is something that is happening. What happened to the human nature which Christ took from Mary by her consent, can happen, in a lesser manner, to our human nature, by our free consent.
"On our part, there must be the free response of man to the Divine initiative, but this implies dying to the lower existence of sin and selfishness, pride and lust. To become a Christian does not mean reading religious books, or singing hymns or being kind to neighbours; it means sharing the Divinity that first came to us at Bethlehem. We can conceive of our manhood being taken up into God, since God has humbled Himself to take our nature. When this Christ-life gets inside of us, it affects our intellect, by giving us a truth which reason itself cannot know; it affects our will, by giving us an impetus and an energy for good which we could not produce of and by ourselves. It is, in the truest sense of the term, a rebirth except this time we are born not of the flesh, but of the Spirit. As someone has said, ‘We are all eggs at present, but we just cannot go on being ordinarily “decent eggs’. Either we have to get hatched to the Divine or else we rot.’
"The descent of God to man, and eternity into time, makes a tremendous difference to all people whether they ever heard of Him or not, or whether they respect Him or not. From that point on, it is possible for man to divinise himself, not by his own efforts, but by response to Divine Life. Just as our modern world is bathed in radio and television waves but only those who are turned in to them receive their messages of knowledge and enjoyment, so too, there is a radiation through history of this Divine Life, but only those who freely appropriate it ever enjoy its peace and blessing."
(The True Meaning of Christmas)
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. 💖💐🙏
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.
Octave of Christmas
Octaves in the liturgy mean every day within the octave is the feast all over again. There are subtleties, so unlike the Easter Octave it is more of a “little” Christmas rather than the actual Solemnity, but technically days in the octave is Christmas all over again. The Octave of Christmas is celebrated as an eight-day feast in the liturgical calendar which begins on the Nativity of Christ, 25 December, and continues to 1 January, the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God. The Church recognises that the days of the Christmas Octave are repeating the solemn nature of Christmas for eight days, concluding on a high note with another Solemnity that echoes the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord. While Christmas is considered primarily a feast of our Lord, the Church both adores the Saviour and venerates His glorious Mother. The Octave gives us time to impress upon our souls the mysteries, joys and graces of Christmas.