Joy to the World

The Nativity by Carl Heinrich Bloch

"While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn" (Luke 2:6-7).

Yesterday in Magnificat's Advent Companion (I can't remember the author), I read that when we celebrate the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ we are not celebrating the Incarnation per se, which we celebrated nine months ago on the Annunciation of the Lord. At the Nativity we celebrate the revelation of God's human face. To use the title of a book written by the late Dominican, Fr. Edward Schillebeeckx, who, incidentally, passed away on 23 December 2009, Christ the sacrament of the encounter with God.

So, to both of my readers a Blessed, Merry, Happy, Wonder-filled Christmas!