Christmas Sermons

Throughout the Season of Christmas, we will post various sermons by the Saints, the Blessed, the Venerable or just popes, bishops and priests. These will cover some of the chief aspects of Christmas, its purpose, its customs, and its spirituality. May they bring you much inspiration and grace, while helping you spend the season in a truly profitable and fruitful manner.

CONTENTS

1. Pope St. Leo the Great, HOMILY FOR CHRISTMAS DAY
2. Pope St. Leo the Great, HOMILY FOR CHRISTMAS DAY
3.  Pope St. Gregory the Great, HOMILY FOR CHRISTMAS DAY
4. St. Augustine of Hippo, HOMILY ON THE NATIVITY #1 (sermon 184)
5.  St. Augustine of Hippo, HOMILY ON THE NATIVITY #2 (sermon 185)
6. St. Augustine of Hippo, HOMILY ON THE NATIVITY #3 (sermon 186)
7.  St. Augustine of Hippo, HOMILY ON THE NATIVITY #4 (sermon 187)
8.  St. Augustine of Hippo, HOMILY ON THE NATIVITY #5 (sermon 188)
9. St. Augustine of Hippo, HOMILY ON THE NATIVITY #6 (sermon 189)
10. St. Augustine of Hippo, HOMILY ON THE NATIVITY #7 (sermon 190)
11.   St. Augustine of Hippo, HOMILY ON THE NATIVITY #8 (sermon 191)
12.   St. Augustine of Hippo, HOMILY ON THE NATIVITY #9 (sermon 192)
13. Pope St. Leo the Great, HOMILY FOR THE EPIPHANY
14. Pope St. Gregory the Great, HOMILY FOR THE EPIPHANY

15. Pope Leo XIII, ON THE HOLY FAMILY
16. St. Francis de Sales, ON MARRIAGE
17. St. Alphonsus Liguori, ON CHRISTMAS
18. Pope St. Leo the Great, HOMILY FOR THE EPIPHANY
19. Anonymous sermon on THE HOLY FAMILY
20. St. Bernard, IMITATING THE OBEDIENCE AND HUMILITY OF CHRIST
21. St. Alphonsus Liguori, ON THE GREATNESS AND LITTLENESS OF CHRIST
22. St. Alphonsus Liguori, COME TO YOUR SAVIOR
23.   St. Vincent Ferrer, THE EPIPHANY (Part 1 of 5)
24.   St. Vincent Ferrer, THE EPIPHANY (Part 2 of 5)
25.   St. Vincent Ferrer, THE EPIPHANY (Part 3 of 5)
26.   St. Vincent Ferrer, THE EPIPHANY (Part 4 of 5)
27.   St. Vincent Ferrer, THE EPIPHANY (Part 5 of 5)

SERMON 1
Pope St. Leo the Great
CHRISTMAS DAY

I. All share in the joy of Christmas

Our Savior, dearly-beloved, was born today: let us be glad. For there is no proper place for sadness, when we keep the birthday of the Life, which destroys the fear of mortality and brings to us the joy of promised eternity. No one is kept from sharing in this happiness. There is for all one common measure of joy, because as our Lord the destroyer of sin and death finds none free from charge, so is He come to free us all.

Let the saint exult in that he draws near to victory. Let the sinner be glad in that he is invited to pardon. Let the gentile take courage in that he is called to life. For the Son of God in the fullness of time which the inscrutable depth of the Divine counsel has determined, has taken on him the nature of man, thereby to reconcile it to its Author: in order that the inventor of death, the devil, might be conquered through that (nature) which he had conquered.

And in this conflict undertaken for us, the fight was fought on great and wondrous principles of fairness; for the Almighty Lord enters the lists with His savage foe not in His own majesty but in our humility, opposing him with the same form and the same nature, which shares indeed our mortality, though it is free from all sin. Truly foreign to this nativity is that which we read of all others, no one is clean from stain, not even the infant who has lived but one day upon Earth (Job 19:4).

Nothing therefore of the lust of the flesh has passed into that peerless nativity, nothing of the law of sin has entered. A royal Virgin of the stem of David is chosen, to be impregnated with the sacred seed and to conceive the Divinely-human offspring in mind first and then in body.

And lest in ignorance of the heavenly counsel she should tremble at so strange a result , she learns from converse with the angel that what is to be wrought in her is of the Holy Ghost. Nor does she believe it loss of honor that she is soon to be the Mother of God. For why should she be in despair over the novelty of such conception, to whom the power of the most High has promised to effect it. Her implicit Faith is confirmed also by the attestation of a precursory miracle, and Elizabeth receives unexpected fertility: in order that there might be no doubt that He who had given conception to the barren, would give it even to a virgin.

II. The mystery of the Incarnation is a fitting theme for joy both to angels and to men

Therefore the Word of God, Himself God, the Son of God who in the beginning was with God, through whom all things were made and without whom was nothing made (John 1:1-3), with the purpose of delivering man from eternal death, became man: so bending Himself to take on Him our humility without decrease in His own majesty, that remaining what He was and assuming what He was not, He might unite the true form of a slave to that form in which He is equal to God the Father, and join both natures together by such a compact that the lower should not be swallowed up in its exaltation nor the higher impaired by its new associate.

Without detriment therefore to the properties of either substance which then came together in one person, majesty took on humility, strength weakness, eternity mortality: and for the paying off of the debt, belonging to our condition, inviolable nature was united with passible nature, and true God and true man were combined to form one Lord, so that, as suited the needs of our case, one and the same Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, could both die with the one and rise again with the other.

Rightly therefore did the birth of our Salvation impart no corruption to the Virgin’s purity, because the bearing of the Truth was the keeping of honor. Such then beloved was the nativity which became the Power of God and the Wisdom of God even Christ, whereby He might be one with us in manhood and surpass us in Godhead. For unless He were true God, He would not bring us a remedy, unless He were true Man, He would not give us an example.

Therefore the exulting angel’s song when the Lord was born is this, Glory to God in the Highest, and their message, peace on Earth to men of good will (Luke 2:14). For they see that the heavenly Jerusalem is being built up out of all the nations of the world: and over that indescribable work of the Divine love how ought the humbleness of men to rejoice, when the joy of the lofty angels is so great?

III. Christians then must live worthily of Christ their Head

Let us then, dearly beloved, give thanks to God the Father, through His Son, in the Holy Spirit, Who for His great mercy, wherewith He has loved us, has had pity on us: and when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together in Christ (Ephesians 2:4-5), that we might be in Him a new creation and a new production. Let us put off then the old man with his deeds: and having obtained a share in the birth of Christ let us renounce the works of the flesh.

Christian, acknowledge your dignity, and becoming a partner in the Divine nature, refuse to return to the old baseness by degenerate conduct. Remember the Head and the Body of which you are a member. Recollect that you were rescued from the power of darkness and brought out into God’s light and kingdom.

By the mystery of Baptism you were made the temple of the Holy Ghost: do not put such a denizen to flight from you by base acts, and subject yourself once more to the devil’s domination and slavery: because your purchase money is the Blood of Christ, because He shall judge you in truth Who ransomed you in mercy, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

SERMON 2
Pope St. Leo the Great
CHRISTMAS DAY

I. Christmas morning is the most appropriate time for thoughts on the Nativity

On all days and at all times, dearly beloved, does the birth of our Lord and Savior from the Virgin-mother occur to the thoughts of the faithful, who meditate on divine things, that the mind may be aroused to the acknowledgment of its Maker, and whether it be occupied in the groans of supplication, or in the shouting of praise, or in the offering of sacrifice, may employ its spiritual insight on nothing more frequently and more trustingly than on the fact that God the Son of God, begotten of the co-eternal Father, was also born by a human birth.

But this Nativity which is to be adored in Heaven and on Earth is suggested to us by no day more than this when, with the early light still shedding its rays on nature, there is borne in upon our senses the brightness of this wondrous mystery. For the angel Gabriel’s converse with the astonished Mary and her conception by the Holy Ghost as wondrously promised as believed, seem to recur not only to the memory but to the very eyes. For today the Maker of the world was born of a Virgin’s womb, and He, who made all natures, became Son of her, whom He created.

Today the Word of God appeared clothed in flesh, and that which had never been visible to human eyes began to be tangible to our hands as well. Today the shepherds learned from angels’ voices that the Savior was born in the substance of our flesh and soul; and today the form of the Gospel message was pre-arranged by the leaders of the Lord’s flocks, so that we too may say with the army of the heavenly host: Glory in the highest to God, and on earth peace to men of good will.

II. Christians are essentially participators in the nativity of Christ
Although, therefore, that infancy, which the majesty of God’s Son did not disdain, reached mature manhood by the growth of years and, when the triumph of His passion and resurrection was completed, all the actions of humility which were undertaken for us ceased, yet today’s festival renews for us the holy childhood of Jesus born of the Virgin Mary: and in adoring the birth of our Savior, we find we are celebrating the commencement of our own life. For the birth of Christ is the source of life for Christian folk, and the birthday of the Head is the birthday of the body.

Although every individual that is called has his own order, and all the sons of the Church are separated from one another by intervals of time, yet as the entire body of the faithful being born in the font of baptism is crucified with Christ in His passion, raised again in His resurrection, and placed at the Father’s right hand in His ascension, so with Him are they born in this nativity. For any believer in whatever part of the world that is re-born in Christ, quits the old paths of his original nature and passes into a new man by being re-born; and no longer is he reckoned of his earthly father’s stock but among the seed of the Savior, Who became the Son of man in order that we might have the power to be the sons of God. For unless He came down to us in this humiliation, no one would reach His presence by any merits of his own. Let not earthly wisdom shroud in darkness the hearts of the called on this point, and let not the frailty of earthly thoughts raise itself against the loftiness of God’s grace, for it will soon return to the lowest dust.

At the end of the ages is fulfilled that which was ordained from all eternity: and in the presence of realities, when signs and types have ceased, the Law and prophecy have become Truth: and so Abraham is found the father of all nations, and the promised blessing is given to the world in his seed: nor are they only Israelites whom blood and flesh begot, but the whole body of the adopted enter into possession of the heritage prepared for the sons of Faith. Be not disturbed by the cavils of silly questionings, and let not the effects of the Divine word be dissipated by human calculation; “we with Abraham believe in God and waver not through unbelief” (Romans 4:20-21), but know most assuredly that what the Lord promised, He is able to perform.

III. Peace with God is His best gift to man

The Savior then, dearly beloved, is born not of fleshly seed but of the Holy Spirit, in such wise that the condemnation of the first transgression did not touch Him. And hence the very greatness of the boon conferred demands of us reverence worthy of its splendor. For, as the blessed Apostle teaches, “we have received not the spirit of this world but the Spirit which is of God, that we may know the things which are given us by God” (1 Corinthians 2:12): and that Spirit can in no other way be rightly worshiped, except by offering Him that which we received from Him. But in the treasures of the Lord’s bounty what can we find so suitable to the honor of the present feast as the peace, which at the Lord’s nativity was first proclaimed by the angel-choir? For that it is which brings forth the sons of God, the nurse of love and the mother of unity: the rest of the blessed and our eternal home; whose proper work and special office it is to join to God those whom it removes from the world.

Whence the Apostle incites us to this good end, in saying, “being justified therefore by faith let us have peace towards God” (Romans 5:1). In which brief sentence are summed up nearly all the commandments; for where true peace is, there can be no lack of virtue. But what is it, dearly beloved, to have peace towards God, except to wish what He bids, and not to wish what He forbids? For if human friendships seek out equality of soul and similarity of desires, and difference of habits can never attain to full harmony, how will he be partaker of divine peace, who is pleased with what displeases God and desires to get delight from what he knows to be offensive to God?

That is not the spirit of the sons of God; such wisdom is not acceptable to the noble family of the adopted. That chosen and royal race must live up to the dignity of its regeneration, must love what the Father loves, and in naught disagree with its Maker, lest the Lord should again say: “I have begotten and raised up sons, but they have scorned Me: the ox knows his owner and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel has not known Me and My people has not acknowledged Me” (Isaias 1:2-3).

IV. We must be worthy of our calling as sons and friends of God

The mystery of this boon is great, dearly beloved, and this gift exceeds all gifts that God should call man son, and man should name God Father: for by these terms we perceive and learn the love which reached so great a height. For if in natural progeny and earthly families those who are born of noble parents are lowered by the faults of evil intercourse, and unworthy offspring are put to shame by the very brilliance of their ancestry; to what end will they come who through love of the world do not fear to be outcast from the family of Christ? But if it gains the praise of men that the father’s glory should shine again in their descendants, how much more glorious is it for those who are born of God to regain the brightness of their Maker’s likeness and display in themselves Him Who begot them, as says the Lord: Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven? (Matthew 5:16).

We know indeed, as the Apostle John says that “the whole world lies in the evil one” (1 John 5:19), and that by the stratagems of the Devil and his angels numberless attempts are made either to frighten man in his struggle upwards by adversity or to spoil him by prosperity, but greater is He that is in us, than he that is against us, and they who have peace with God and are always saying to the Father with their whole hearts: “Thy will be done” (Matthew 6:10) can be overcome in no battles, can be hurt by no assaults.

For accusing ourselves in our confessions and refusing the spirit’s consent to our fleshly lusts, we stir up against us the enmity of him who is the author of sin, but secure a peace with God that nothing can destroy, by accepting His gracious service, in order that we may not only surrender ourselves in obedience to our King but also be united to Him by our free-will. For if we are like-minded, if we wish what He wishes, and disapprove what He disapproves, He will finish all our wars for us, He Who gave the will, will also give the power: so that we may be fellow-workers in His works, and with the exultation of Faith may utter that prophetic song: the Lord is my light and my salvation: whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defender of my life: of whom shall I be afraid?

V. The birth of Christ is the birth of peace to the Church

They then who are “born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13), must offer to the Father the unanimity of peace-loving sons, and all the members of adoption must meet in the First-begotten of the new creation, Who came to do not His own Will but His that sent Him; inasmuch as the Father in His gracious favor has adopted as His heirs not those that are discordant nor those that are unlike Him, but those that are in feeling and affection one. They that are re-modeled after one pattern must have a spirit like the model.

The birthday of the Lord is the birthday of peace: for thus says the Apostle, He is our peace, who made both one; since whether we be Jew or Gentile, through Him we have access in one Spirit to the Father. And it was this in particular that He taught His disciples before the day of His passion which He had of His own free-will fore-ordained, saying, “My peace I give unto you, My peace I leave for you” (John 14:27); and lest under the general term the character of His peace should escape notice, He added, not as the world give I unto you. The world, He says, has its friendships, and brings many that are apart into loving harmony.

There are also minds which are equal in vices., and similarity of desires produces equality of affection. And if any are perchance to be found who are not pleased with what is mean and dishonorable, and who exclude from the terms of their connection unlawful compacts, yet even such if they be either Jews, heretics or heathens, belong not to God’s friendship but to this world’s peace.

But the peace of the spiritual and of Catholics coming down from above and leading upwards refuses to hold communion with the lovers of the world, resists all obstacles and flies from pernicious pleasures to true joys, as the Lord says: “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:21): that is, if what you love is below you will descend to the lowest depth: if what you love is above, you will reach the topmost height: there may the Spirit of peace lead and bring us, whose wishes and feeling are at one, and who are of one mind in faith and hope and in charity: since “as many as are led by the Spirit of God these are sons of God” (Romans 8:14) Who reigns with the Son and Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.

SERMON 3
Pope St. Gregory the Great
CHRISTMAS DAY

Because by the Divine Bounty we are on this day thrice to celebrate the sacred mysteries of the Liturgy, we cannot therefore speak at length on the Gospel lesson. But the Birth of Our Redeemer Himself demands of us that we say something for the occasion, however briefly.

Why was it that at the time when the Lord was to be born, the whole world was enrolled, unless that it so might openly be declared, that He had appeared in the flesh Who would enroll His elect for all eternity?

Against which is the sentence spoken by the prophet concerning the wicked: Let them be blotted out of the book of the living; and with the just let them not be written. (Psalm 68:29).

Also was he, fittingly, born in Bethlehem; since Bethlehem is interpreted as “the House of Bread”. For this is He Who says: “I am the Living Bread, which came down from Heaven.”

The place therefore in which the Lord was born was formerly called the House of Bread, because there it was to be that He would appear in future times, in the substance of our flesh, Who would fill the hearts of the faithful with inward abundance.

And He was born, not in the house of His parents, but upon a journey that He might truly show, that because of the humanity He had taken to Himself, He was born as it were among strangers. Strange, I say, not to His Power, but to His Nature. For of His Power it is written: “He came into His own.” In His own Nature He was born before all time; in ours He came to us in time. To Him therefore Who while remaining Eternal hath appeared in time, strange must the place be where He has descended.

And because the prophet says: All flesh is grass (Isaias 40:6), becoming man He has changed this our grass into wheat Who has declared of Himself: “Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remaineth alone” (John 12:24).

Hence when he was born He was laid in a manger so that He might nourish with the Wheat of His flesh the beasts that He sanctifies, that is, all the faithful, so that they may not be left hungry for the food of eternal knowledge.

And what does it mean that an angel appears to the watching shepherds, and that the Brightness of God shone round about them, if not mystically signifying that they, more than others, shall merit the vision of heavenly things, who have learned to rule carefully over their faithful flocks? For while they are devoutly keeping watch over them, the divine favor shines abundantly upon them.

The Angel announces that a King is born, and the choirs of angels unite their voice with his, and rejoicing all together they sing: “Glory be to God in the highest, and on Earth peace to men of good will.”

Before the Redeemer was born in the flesh, there was discord between us and the angels, from whose brightness and holy perfection we stood afar, in punishment first of Original Sin, and then because of our daily offenses. Because through sin we had become strangers to God, the angels as God’s subjects cut us off from their fellowship. But since we have now acknowledged our King, the angels receive us as fellow citizens.

Because the King of Heaven has taken unto Himself the flesh of our Earth, the angels from their heavenly heights no longer look down upon our infirmity. Now they are at peace with us, putting away the remembrance of the ancient discord; now they honor us as friends, whom before they beheld weak and despised below them.

Hence was it that both Lot and Joshua adored the angels (Genesis 19:1; Josue 5:15), and were not forbidden to adore. But when John, in his Apocalypse, wished to adore the angel, this same angel forbade him to adore, saying: “See thou do it not, for I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren” (Apocalypse. 22:9).

What is the significance of this, that before the coming of the Redeemer angels were adored by men, and the angels were silent; and after, they turned away from being adored; unless that our nature which they before despised, they see now is raised above themselves, and fear exceedingly to see it prostrated before them? Nor dared they now look down on that as beneath them, which they venerate as far above them, in the King of Heaven. Nor do they refuse to accept us as equals, who now adore God made man.

Let us then be careful, dearest Brethren, that no uncleanness shall defile us, who, in the divine foreknowledge, are destined to be the subjects of God’s heavenly Kingdom, and the equal of His angels.

Let us prove our worthiness by the manner of our lives. Let no sensuality soil us, no evil purpose come to accuse us; let malice not devour your hearts, nor pride exalt it, nor the desire of worldly gain blow it about in every direction, nor anger inflame it. For men are called to be as Gods.

Defend then the honor of God within you, O Man, against these vices, since it was because of you that God became man, who liveth and reigneth for ever. Amen.

SERMON 4
St. Augustine of Hippo
FOR THE FEAST OF THE NATIVITY, #184

The birthday of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, on which Truth sprang forth from the Earth [Psalm 84.12] and the procession of day from day extending even unto our time began, has, with the return of its anniversary, dawned upon us today as deserving of special celebration.

“Let us be glad and rejoice therein” [Ps. 117.24], for the faith of Christians holds fast to the joy which the lowliness of such sublimity has offered to us, a joy far removed from the hearts of the wicked, since God has hidden these things from the wise and prudent and has revealed them to the little ones [Matt. 11.25].

Therefore, let the lowly hold fast to the lowliness of God so that, by means of this great help as by a beast of burden supporting their infirmity, they may come to the mountain of God. The wise and prudent, however, while they aim at the heights of God, do not put their trust in lowly things, but pass them by, and hence they fail to reach the heights. Vain and worthless, puffed up and elated, they have halted, as it were, on the wind-swept middle plain between heaven and earth. Wise and prudent in the rating of this world, they fall short of the standards set by Him who made this world.

For, if they possessed the true wisdom which is of God and which is God, they would understand that flesh could have been assumed by God without the possibility of His having been changed into flesh; that He took upon Himself what He was not and remained what He was; that He came to us in the form of man and yet did not depart from His Father; that He preserved His divine nature while He appeared to us in our human nature; and, finally, that power derived from no earthly source was bestowed upon an infant's body.

The whole world is His work as He remains in the bosom of His Father; the miraculous child-bearing of a virgin is His work when He comes to us. In fact, His Virgin Mother has given testimony to His majesty in that she, a virgin before His conception, remained a virgin after childbirth; found with child, she was not made so by man; pregnant with man without man's co-operation, she was more blessed and marvelous in that her fecundity was granted without loss of integrity.

People prefer to consider so tremendous a miracle as fictional rather than factual. Hence, in regard to Christ, the God-Man, since they cannot believe His human attributes, they despise them; since they cannot despise His divine attributes, they do not believe them. However, in proportion as the body of the God-Man in His humiliation is the more abject in their estimation, to that same degree it becomes more pleasing to us; and in proportion as the fruitfulness of a virgin in the birth of a child is more impossible in their eyes, in ours it becomes the more divine.

(2) Hence, let us celebrate the birthday of the Lord with a joyous gathering and appropriate festivity. Let men and women alike rejoice, for Christ, the Man, was born and He was born of a woman; thus, each sex was honored. Now let the honor accorded to the first man before his condemnation pass over to this second Man. A woman brought death upon us; a woman has now brought forth life.

The likeness of our sinful flesh [Rom. 8.3] was born so that this sinful flesh might be cleansed. Let not the flesh be blamed, but let it die to sin so that it may live by its real nature; let him who was in sin be born again in Him who was born without sin.

Exult, you holy youths, who, having chosen Christ as a model eminently worthy of imitation, have not sought marriage. He whom you have thus esteemed did not come to you through marriage, so that He might bestow upon you the grace to despise the means through which you came into the world. For you came into existence through carnal union, without which He came to spiritual nuptials; and to you, whom He has called in a special way to spiritual nuptials, He has granted the grace to scorn earthly ones. Therefore, you have not sought joys from the source whence you derived existence because you, more than others, have loved Him who did not come into the world in that manner.

Exult, you holy virgins. A Virgin has brought forth for you One whom you may wed without defilement, and you can lose the One whom you love neither by conceiving nor by bringing forth children. Exult, you who are just; it is the birthday of the Justifier. Exult, you who are weak and ill; it is the birthday of the Savior. Exult, you who are captives; it is the birthday of the Redeemer. Exult, you who are slaves; it is the birthday of the Ruler. Exult, you who are free; it is the birthday of the Liberator. Exult, all Christians; it is the birthday of Christ.

(3) This child, born of the Father, created all ages; now, born of a mother, He has commended this day. That first nativity could not possibly have had a mother, nor did the second one call for any man as a father. In a word, Christ was born of both a father and a mother, and He was born without a father and without a mother; for as God He was born of the Father and as Man He was born of a mother; as God He was born without a mother and as Man He was born without a father.

Therefore, “Who shall declare his generation?” [Isaias 53.8] whether we consider His generation without the limits of time or that without seed; the one without a beginning or that without precedent; the; the one which has no end or that which has its beginning there where it has its end.

Rightly, then, did the Prophets announce that He would be born; truly did the heavens and angels announce that He had been born. He who sustains the world lay in a manger, a wordless Child, yet the Word of God. Him whom the heavens do not contain the bosom of one woman bore. She ruled our King; she carried Him in whom we exist; she fed our Bread. O manifest weakness and marvelous humility in which all divinity lay hid! By His power He ruled the mother to whom His infancy was subject, and He nourished with truth her whose breasts suckled Him. May He who did not despise our lowly beginnings perfect His work in us, and may He who wished on account of us to become the Son of Man make us the sons of God.

SERMON 5
St. Augustine of Hippo
FOR THE FEAST OF THE NATIVITY, #185

That day is called the birthday of the Lord on which the Wisdom of God manifested Himself as a speechless Child and the Word of God wordlessly uttered the sound of a human voice. His divinity, although hidden, was revealed by Heavenly witness to the Magi and was announced to the shepherds by angelic voices. With yearly ceremony, therefore, we celebrate this day which saw the fulfillment of the prophecy: “Truth is sprung out of the Earth: and justice hath looked down from Heaven.”

Truth, eternally existing in the bosom of the Father, has sprung from the Earth so that He might exist also in the bosom of a mother. Truth, holding the world in place, has sprung from the Earth so that He might be carried in the hands of a woman. Truth, incorruptibly nourishing the happiness of the angels, has sprung from the Earth in order to be fed by human milk. Truth, whom the Heavens cannot contain, has sprung from the Earth so that He might be placed in a manger. For whose benefit did such unparalleled greatness come in such lowliness? Certainly for no personal advantage, but definitely for our great good, if only we believe.

Arouse yourself, O man; for you God has become man. “Awake, sleeper, and arise from among the dead, and Christ will enlighten thee!” For you, I repeat, God has become man. If He had not thus been born in time, you would have been dead for all eternity. Never would you have been freed from sinful flesh, if He had not taken upon Himself the likeness of sinful flesh. Everlasting misery would have engulfed you, if He had not taken this merciful form. You would not have been restored to life, had He not submitted to your death; you would have fallen, had He not succored you; you would have perished, had He not come.

Let us joyfully celebrate the coming of our salvation and redemption. Let us celebrate the festal day on which the great and timeless One came from the great and timeless day to this brief span of our day. He has become for us ... justice, and sanctification, and redemption; so that, just as it is written, “Let him who takes pride, take pride in the Lord.” For, so that we might not resemble the proud Jews who, “ignorant of the justice of God and seeking to establish their own, have not submitted to the justice of God” when the Psalmist had said: “Truth Is sprung out of the Earth” he quickly added: “and justice hath looked down from Heaven.”

He did this lest mortal frailty, arrogating this justice to itself, should call these blessings its own, and lest man should reject the justice of God in his belief that he is justified, that is, made just through his own efforts. “Truth Is sprung out of the Earth” because Christ who said: “I am the truth” was born of a virgin; and “justice hath looked down from Heaven” because, by believing in Him who was so born, man has been justified not by his own efforts but by God. “Truth Is sprung out of the Earth” because “the Word was made flesh” and “justice hath looked down from Heaven” because “every good and perfect gift is from above.” “Truth is sprung out of the Earth” that is, His flesh was taken from Mary; and “justice hath looked down from Heaven” because no one can receive anything unless it Is given to him from Heaven.

“Having been justified therefore by Faith, let us have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we also have access by Faith unto that grace in which we stand and exult in the hope of the glory ... of God.” With these few words, which you recognize as those of the Apostle, it gives me pleasure, my brethren, to mingle a few passages of the psalm [which we are considering] and to find that they agree in sentiment. “Having been justified by Faith, let us have peace with God” because “justice and peace have kissed”; “through our Lord Jesus Christ” because “truth is sprung out of the Earth”; “through whom we also have access by Faith unto that grace in which we stand, and exult in the hope of the glory of God” he does not say “of our glory” but “of the glory of God” because justice has not proceeded from us but “hath looked down from Heaven.”

Therefore, “let him who takes pride, take pride in the Lord” not in himself. Hence, when the Lord whose birthday we are celebrating today was born of the Virgin, the announcement of the angelic choir was made in the words: “Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace among men of good will.” How can peace exist on Earth unless it be because “truth is sprung out of the Earth,” that is, because Christ has been born in the flesh?

Moreover, “He Himself is our peace, he it is who has made both one” so that we might become men of good will, bound together by the pleasing fetters of unity. Let us rejoice, then, in this grace so that our glory may be the testimony of our conscience wherein we glory not in ourselves but in the Lord. Hence the Psalmist [in speaking of the Lord] has said: “My glory and the lifter up of my head.” For what greater grace of God could have shone upon us than that, having an only-begotten Son, God should make Him the Son of Man, and thus, in turn, make the Son of man the Son of God? Examine it as a benefit, as an inducement, as a token of justice, and see whether you find anything but a gratuitous gift of God.

SERMON 6
St. Augustine of Hippo
FOR THE FEAST OF THE NATIVITY, #186

Let us rejoice, my brethren, let the nations exult and be glad because, not the visible sun, but the invisible Creator of the sun has consecrated this day on which the Virgin, a true but inviolate Mother, gave birth to Him who became visible for our sake and by whom she herself was created. A virgin conceives, yet remains a virgin; a virgin is heavy with child; a virgin brings forth her child, yet she is always a virgin.

Why are you amazed at this, O man? It was fitting for God to be born thus when He deigned to become man. Such did He make her, who was born from her; He existed before she was created; and, because He was omnipotent, He was able to become man while remaining what He was. He created His own Mother when He was with the Father; and when He was born of that Mother He remained in His Father. How would He―who granted to His Mother the privilege of remaining a virgin when she brought forth her child―cease to be God when He became Man?

Furthermore, the fact that the Word became flesh does not imply that the Word withdrew and was destroyed on being clothed with flesh, but rather that flesh, to avoid destruction, drew near to the Word, so that, as man is soul and body, Christ might be God and Man. The same One who is Man is God, and the same One who is God is Man, not by a confusion of nature but by a unity of person.

Finally, He who is the Son of God, being born of the Father, is always co-eternal with His Father; He, being born of the Virgin, became the Son of Man. Thus, humanity was added to the divinity of the Son without producing a fourfold union of Persons; the Trinity remains.

Do not, therefore, let the opinion of certain persons―who are unmindful of the rule of Faith and of the words of the sacred Scriptures―influence you. For these persons say: “He who was the Son of Man became the Son of God; He who is the Son of God did not become the Son of Man.”

In making this statement they have concentrated their attention on a principle that is true, but they have not been able to elucidate the truth. For to what principle did they direct their attention except that human nature could have been changed into something higher, but that divine nature could not have been changed into something lower? That is true, but, even so, the Word became flesh without the divinity being changed into something lower, for the Gospel does not say: “Flesh was made the Word,” but it does say: “The Word was made flesh.”

Moreover, the Word is God―as the Evangelist says: “The Word was God.” And what is flesh but man? Furthermore, this flesh of man did not exist in Christ without a soul, since He says: “My soul is sad, even unto death.” If, therefore, the Word is God and man is flesh, what else does the statement, “The Word was made flesh,” signify except that He who was God became Man? And, by the same reasoning, He who was the Son of God became the Son of Man by taking upon Himself a lower nature without changing His higher nature, by receiving what He was not, not by losing what He was.

For, how would we proclaim in the Creed that we believe in the Son of God who was born of the Virgin Mary, if it were not the Son of God but the Son of Man who was born of the Virgin Mary? What Christian would deny that the Son of Man was born of that woman; that God became Man; and that, thus, a God-Man was born, since “The Word was God” and “the Word was made flesh”?

Therefore, we must admit that He who was the Son of God, in order to be born of the Virgin Mary, assumed the form of a servant and became the Son of Man, remaining what He was and taking upon Himself what He was not, beginning to exist in that, as Man, He was less than the Father, yet always existing in so far as He and the Father are one.

(3) For, if He who is eternally the Son of God did not become the Son of Man, how does the Apostle say of Him: “Who though he was by nature God, did not consider being equal to God a thing to be clung to, but emptied himself, taking the nature of a slave, being made like unto men, and appearing in the form of man”?

Not another, but He Himself, equal to the Father in the form of God, He the only-begotten Son of the Father “emptied himself, being made like unto men.” Not another, but He Himself, equal to the Father in the form of God, “humbled” not another but “himself, becoming obedient to death, even to death on a cross.”

All this the Son of God accomplished only under the form of the Son of Man. Likewise, if He who is always the Son of God did not become the Son of Man, how does the Apostle describe himself in his Epistle to the Romans as: set apart for the Gospel of God, which he had promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning his Son who was born to him according to the flesh of the offspring of David?

Behold, He who had always been the Son of God was made one of the offspring of David according to the flesh, becoming that which He had not been before. Likewise, if He who is the Son of God did not become the Son of Man, how it is that “God sent his Son, born of a woman”?

In the Hebrew language, virginal integrity is not denied by this word, but female sex is indicated. Who was sent by the Father except the only-begotten Son of God? How, then, was He born of a woman unless this same Son of God who was with the Father was sent and became the Son of Man?

Born of the Father without the limits of time, He was born of a Mother on this day. This day, which He created, He chose for His own creation in the flesh, just as He was born of the Mother whom He Himself had created. This day, from which each subsequent day receives additional light, symbolizes the work of Christ by whom our inner man is renewed day by day. It was indeed fitting that the day on which all temporal creation was in peace and harmony should be the birthday of the eternal Creator now created in time.

SERMON 7
St. Augustine of Hippo
FOR THE FEAST OF THE NATIVITY, #187

Let no one believe, then, that the Son of God was changed into the Son of Man; rather, let us believe that, with the perfect preservation of His divine nature and the perfect assumption of human nature, He, remaining the Son of God, became also the Son of Man. For the fact that the Scriptures say “The Word was God” and “The Word was made flesh” does not mean that the Word became flesh in such a way as to cease to be God since, because the Word was made flesh, in that same flesh “Emmanuel . . . God with us” was born.

In like manner, the word which we form within us becomes an utterance when we bring it forth from our mouth; the word is not changed into the utterance, but the voice by which it comes forth is taken on while the inner word remains unchanged; what is thought remains within, what is heard sounds forth.

Nevertheless, the same thing is expressed in sound which had previously been expressed in silence; thus, when the word becomes an utterance, it is not changed into this utterance, but remains in the light of the mind; having taken on the voice of the flesh, it reaches the listener without leaving the thinker. Not when the utterance, whether it be in Greek, Latin, or any other language, is being thought out in silence, but when, before all the diversity of language [begins to operate], the matter to be expressed exists bare and unadorned in the chamber of the heart, is it clothed with the voice of the speaker so that it may come forth. Both that which is considered in the mind, however, and that which sounds forth in speech are variable and diverse; the thought will not remain when you have forgotten it, nor will the utterance remain when you are silent. But the Word of the Lord remains forever and remains unchanged.

When the Word assumed flesh in time, so that He might enter into our temporal life, He did not, in this flesh, give up His eternity, but gave immortality to this flesh. Thus He, “as a bridegroom coming out of his bride-chamber, hath rejoiced as a giant to run the way,” who, “though he was by nature God, did not consider being equal to God a thing to be clung to,” but, so that for our sake He might become what He was not, “He emptied himself,” not laying aside the nature of God, but “taking the nature of a slave,” and by this nature “being made like unto men,” not in His own nature [as God], but “appearing in the form of man.”

For, all that we are in soul and body constitutes, for us, our complete nature, but, for Him, only a visible nature. If we had not this soul and body, we would still exist; if He had not this soul and body, He would still be God. Remaining God, He became Man; that is, He began to be what had not been before, so that not one but two natures may truthfully be ascribed to Him.

Because He was made Man, the statement, “for the Father is greater than I,” is true; because He remained God, the statement, “I and the Father are one,” is true. If the Word were changed into flesh, that is, if God were changed into man, only the statement, “for the Father is greater than I,” would be true because God is greater than man; but the other statement, “I and the Father are one,” would be false since God and man are not one. In such a case, He could say: “I and the Father were one,” but not “are one,” implying that He has ceased to be what He was; that He was so in the past, but is so no longer.

On the contrary, because of the true nature of servant which He had taken upon Himself, He said truthfully: “The Father is greater than I”; because of the true nature of God which He retained, He said with equal veracity: “The Father and I are one.” Therefore, He emptied Himself among men, becoming what He had not been previously, not in such a way as to cease to be what He was, but, hiding what He was, He showed forth only what He had become.

Hence, since the Virgin conceived and brought forth a Son, because of His manifest nature of servant, [we read:] “A child is born to us”; but, because the Word of God, which remains forever, became flesh so that He might dwell with us, on account of His real, though hidden nature of God, we, using the words of the Angel Gabriel, call His Name Emmanuel. Remaining God, He has become Man so that the Son of Man may rightly be called “God with us” and so that [in Him] God is not one person and man another. Let the world rejoice in those who believe, for whose salvation He came, by whom the world was made, the Creator of Mary born of Mary, the Son of David yet Lord of David, the Seed of Abraham.

SERMON 8
St. Augustine of Hippo
FOR THE FEAST OF THE NATIVITY, #188

It is not at all strange that human consideration and human speech are inadequate when we undertake to praise the Son of God, the Word of God and God Himself, the Life and Light of men, as He exists in the bosom of the Father, equal to and co-eternal with Him in whom all things visible and invisible, in heaven and on earth, were established.

For how would our tongue be able to pay suitable tribute to Him whom our heart, destined by God to be the instrument by which He is to be seen, as yet cannot see, if iniquity would be purged, weakness be healed, and the clean, of heart become blessed because they will see God?

It is not strange, I say, for us to fail to find words in which to speak of the Word by whom the word was spoken which gave being to us who would now say something about Him. For our mind brings words into existence after they have been thought over and formed, but our mind itself is formed by the Word. Nor does man fashion words in the same way in which man was made by the Word, because the Father Himself did not beget His only Word in the same way in which He made all things through the Word. For God begot God, but the Begettor and the Begotten are one and the same God.

Moreover, God made the world but the world passes while God remains. Although these things which were made certainly did not make themselves, He by whom all things were made was made by no one. It is not strange, then, that man, one of those created things, does not know how to discuss the Word by whom all things were made.

Let us direct our ears and minds to this consideration for a little while to see if, by any chance, we can say something suitable and worthy, not by reason of the fact that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God; and the Word was God,” but because “the Word was made flesh”; to see if, by chance, something adequate may be expressed by us because He “dwelt among us”; or if, perchance, He may be satisfactorily discussed there where He wished to be seen. For these reasons we celebrate this day on which He deigned to be born of a virgin, a generation which He Himself caused to be narrated by men.

But “who shall declare his generation” in that eternity in which God was born of God? Such a day set apart for solemn celebration does not exist in eternity, for the day in eternity does not pass, destined to return with the revolving year; it remains without a setting because it began without a rising.

Therefore, the only-begotten Word of God, the Life and Light of men, is indeed the Eternal Day, but this day on which, joined to human flesh, He became, as it were, a “bridegroom coming out of his bride-chamber” is our today and passes as tomorrow becomes yesterday.

Nevertheless, our today commends the Eternal Day born of the Virgin because the Eternal Day born of the Virgin consecrated this day. What praises shall we voice, what thanks shall we give for the charity of God who so loved us that for us He by whom all time was made became Man in time; that He, in His eternity more ancient than the world, became inferior in age to many of His servants in the world; that He who made man became Man; that He was formed in the Mother whom He Himself formed, carried in the hands which He made, nourished at the breasts which He filled; that, in the manger in mute infancy, He the Word without whom all human eloquence is mute wailed?

Consider, O man, what God became for your sake; understand this lesson of surpassing humility presented by a teacher who, as yet, says no word. Once, in paradise, you were so eloquent that you named every living thing; for your sake, however, your Creator lay speechless and did not even call His Mother by her name.

By disregarding obedience, you have lost yourself in the tractless reaches of fruitful groves; He, in obedience, came into the very narrow confines of mortality so that by dying He might seek you who were dead. Though you were man, you wished to be God, to your own destruction; though He was God, He wished to be man that He might find what He had lost. Human pride brought you to such a depth that only divine humility could raise you up again.

Therefore, let us celebrate with joy the day on which Mary brought forth the Savior; on which the one joined in marriage brought forth the Creator of the union, and a virgin, the Prince of virgins; on which one given to a husband is a mother not by that husband, since she was a virgin before marriage and in marriage, a virgin when with child and when nursing her child. The birth of her omnipotent Son detracted in no way from the virginity of holy Mary, whom He Himself chose when He contemplated the assumption of human nature.

Fertility is a blessing in marriage, but integrity in holiness is better. Therefore, the Man Christ who was able to furnish both prerogatives to His Mother (for He was God as well as Man) would never have granted to His Mother the blessing in which wives delight in such a way as to deprive her of the better gift for which virgins forego motherhood. And so, the holy Church, as a virgin, celebrates today the child-bearing of a virgin.

For to the Church the Apostle says: “I have betrothed you to one spouse, that I might present you a chaste virgin to Christ.” Why, addressing so many persons of both sexes, including not only youths and maidens but also married men and women, does he say “a chaste virgin”?

Why is this, I repeat, unless he refers to the integrity of faith, hope, and charity? Hence, Christ, intending to establish virginity in the heart of the Church, preserved it first in the body of Mary. In human marriage, a woman is given to her husband so that she may no longer be a virgin; but the Church could not be a virgin, unless she had first found the Son of the Virgin as a spouse to whom she might be given.

SERMON 9
St. Augustine of Hippo
FOR THE FEAST OF THE NATIVITY, #189

The Eternal Day who made all days has sanctified this day for us, my brethren. Of Him the Psalmist writes: “Sing ye to the Lord a new canticle! Sing to the Lord, all the Earth! Sing ye to the Lord and bless His Name! Bless His salvation from day to day.”

What does this phrase “from day to day” mean unless it be that the Son was born of the Father, Light of Light? That Eternal Day called into being this Day, who was born of a virgin today.

The Eternal Day, therefore, has no beginning and no end. I refer to God the Father. What is this Day if it be not Light? Not the light of carnal eyes, the light which we share with beasts, but the Light which shines upon the angels, by the brilliance of which hearts are cleansed. The night in which we live, and in which the lamps of the Scriptures are lighted for us, passes; then that Light will come which is foretold in the psalm: “In the morning I will stand before thee, and I will contemplate thee.”

That Day, then, the Word of God, the Day which shines upon the angels, the Day which brightens the homeland from whence we came, was born clothed in flesh of the Virgin Mary, was wondrously brought forth, for what is more wondrous than the child-bearing of a virgin? She conceives and is still a virgin; she brings forth her Child and remains a virgin. He was formed in her whom He Himself formed; He gave her fertility but He did not mar her integrity.

Whence did Mary spring? From Adam. Whence did Adam come? From the earth. If Mary sprang from Adam, and if Adam came from the earth, then Mary, too, came from the earth. If this is so, let us acknowledge the truth of the words: “Truth is sprung out of the earth.” What benefit has Truth bestowed upon us? “Truth is sprung out of the earth and justice hath looked down from Heaven.”

For the Jews, as the Apostle says, “ignorant of the justice of God and seeking to establish their own, have not submitted to the justice of God.” How can man become just? Of himself? What poor man gives bread to himself? What naked person clothes himself unless clothes have been given to him? Whence does justice come? What justice is there without Faith? For “he who is just lives by Faith.” He lies who says that he is just without Faith, for he lies in whom there is no Faith.

If anyone wishes to speak the truth, let him turn to the Truth. For Truth which “is sprung out of the earth” was far removed from you. You were sleeping; Truth came to you. You were wrapped in heavy slumber; Truth aroused you and prepared a path for you lest you should be lost. Hence, “Truth is sprung out of the earth,” since Christ was born of a virgin, and “Justice hath looked down from Heaven,” that, through justice men might learn to relish again what through injustice they had foolishly cast aside.

We were mortal, overwhelmed by our sins; we bore the penalties of our sins. Every man, at birth, begins life in wretchedness. Do not seek for a prophetic utterance in this regard; ask the child who is born; see his tears. Since this wretchedness was the mark of God’s anger on the Earth, what sort of condescension came suddenly into His attitude? Truth is sprung out of the earth.

He created all things; He [as man] was created among all things. He made the day; He came into the day. He is the Lord Christ existing without a beginning eternally with His Father, yet He has a birthday. In the first place, if the Word had not had human generation, we would not have acquired divine regeneration; He was born so that we might be born again. Christ was born; let no one hesitate to be reborn.

He was generated with no need of regeneration, for who has experienced the need of rebirth except the one whose birth was blameworthy? Let His compassion, then, be born in our hearts. His Mother carried Him in her womb; let us carry Him in our hearts. The Virgin was heavy with the incarnate Christ; may our hearts be heavily freighted with belief in Christ. The Virgin brought forth the Savior; may our souls bring forth salvation; may we bring forth praise also. Let us not be sterile; let our souls be full of fruitfulness in the Lord.

The twofold generation of Christ is admirable; the first, His birth of a Father without a mother, is eternal; the second, His birth of a Mother without a father, happened in time. Eternal Himself, He was born of His eternal Father. Why do you wonder? He is God. Consider His divinity, and all cause for wonder will cease.

Let amazement pass away; let praise ascend; let Faith be present; believe what has happened. Has not God humiliated Himself enough for you? He who was God became Man. The inn was too small; wrapped in swaddling clothes, He was placed in a manger. Who does not marvel? He who fills the world found no room in an inn. Placed in a manger, He became our food.

Let the two animals, symbolic of two races, approach the manger, for the ox knows his Owner, and the ass his Master’s crib. Do not be ashamed to be God’s beast of burden. Carrying Christ, you will not go astray; with Him burdening you, you make your way through devious paths.

May the Lord rest upon us; may He direct us where He wishes; may we be His beast of burden and thus may we come to Jerusalem. Though He presses upon us, we are not crushed but lifted up; when He leads us, we shall not go astray. Through Him may we come to Him so that we may rejoice forever with the Child who was born today.

SERMON 10
St. Augustine of Hippo
FOR THE FEAST OF THE NATIVITY, #190

Our Lord Jesus, Who was with the Father before He was born of His Mother, chose not only the Virgin of whom He was born, but also the day on which His birth took place.

Men subject to error very often choose days: one for planting, another for building, another for making a journey, and still another for contracting marriage.

When a man so chooses, he is motivated by the hope that successful issue may come from his undertaking. No one, however, can choose the day of his birth. But Christ the Lord was able both to create and to select the day of His birth.

Nor did He make His choice as they do who foolishly determine the fates of men by the arrangement of the stars. He who was born was not rendered blessed by being born on a particular day, but He made that day blessed on which He deigned to be born. The day of His nativity holds the mystery of His light, for the Apostle says: “The night is far advanced; the day is at hand! Let us therefore lay aside the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light! Let us walk becomingly as in the day!”

Let us recognize the day and let us be as the day, for we were in darkness when we lived unfaithfully. Since that infidelity which had covered the whole world with the darkness of night had to be lessened by an increase of Faith, therefore, on the birthday of our Lord Jesus Christ, night began to suffer diminution and day began to increase.

And so, my brethren, let us hold this day as sacred, not as unbelievers do because of the material sun, but because of Him who made the sun. For, He who was the Word became flesh so that for our sake He might live under the light of the sun. He was incarnate beneath the sun, but in majesty He was above the entire universe in which He had placed the sun. Now, in truth, even in the flesh He is above the sun which is worshiped as a god by those who, blinded in mind, do not see the true Sun of Justice.

Let us, O Christians, celebrate this feast, not of the divine nativity of the Lord, but of His human nativity when He became one of us so that through the invisible made visible we might pass to the invisible from the visible. For we of the Catholic Faith ought to hold that there are two births of the Lord: the one divine, and the other human; the one timeless, and the other in time.

Both nativities are marvelous: the one, without a mother; and the other, without a father. If the one is incomprehensible, the other is inexplicable. Who could understand this strange, extraordinary happening, unique in the history of the world, wherein the unbelievable became believable and in unbelievable fashion was entrusted to the whole world; namely, that a virgin would conceive and would bear and bring forth a Son, while remaining a virgin?

What human reason does not grasp Faith lays hold on; and where human reason fails Faith succeeds. For who would say that the Word of God, by whom all things were made, could not have taken flesh even without a mother, just as He made the first man without father and mother? However, since He had created both sexes, that is, male and female, He wished to honor, in His birth, both sexes which He had come to save.

You know well that the first man fell because the Serpent, not daring to address the man, used the help of a woman to encompass man’s ruin. Through the weaker sex he gained the stronger and, worming his way in through the one, he triumphed over both.

Therefore, so that we would not be able to shudder with a sentiment of justifiable grief at our death in this woman, Eve, and to believe ourselves irreparably condemned, when the Lord came to seek what was lost, He wished to approve both sexes by honoring both because both had been ruined.

In regard to neither sex, then, should we do injury to the Creator; the nativity of the Lord encouraged both to hope for salvation. The glory of the male sex is in the humanity of Christ; the glory of womanhood is in the Mother of Christ. The grace of Jesus Christ has worsted the wile of the Serpent.

Therefore, let both sexes be reborn in Him who was born today and let both celebrate this feast on which the Lord Christ, far from beginning to exist since He had always existed with His Father brought forth into the light of day the human nature which He had received from His Mother when He granted her fertility without depriving her of integrity. He is conceived and born; He is an Infant.

Who is this Infant whom we so call because He is not able to speak? He is both a speechless Child and He is the Word. In His humanity, He is silent; through His angels, He teaches. The Leader and Shepherd of shepherds is announced to shepherds, and the food of the faithful lies in the manger of dumb beasts. For the Prophet had predicted: “The ox knows his Owner, and the ass his Master’s crib.”

For that reason He sat upon the colt of an ass when He entered Jerusalem amid the praises of the multitude surging around and before Him. Let us understand; let us draw near to the manger; let us eat of this food; let us bear the Lord, our Guide and Leader so that under His direction we may come to the heavenly Jerusalem. The birth of Christ from His Mother is subject to human weakness, but from His Father He has unlimited majesty. In these fleeting days of ours He lives for a brief span but He is the Eternal Day born of Eternal Day.

Rightly, then, are we stirred by the voice of the Psalmist as by the sound of a heavenly trumpet, when we hear: “Sing ye to the Lord a new canticle! Sing to the Lord all the Earth. Sing ye to the Lord and bless His Name!” Let us recognize, then, and proclaim the “Day born of the Day” who became incarnate on this day.

The Day is the Son born of the Father, the Eternal Day, God of God, Light of Light; He is our Salvation, of whom the Psalmist says elsewhere: “May God have mercy on us, and bless us! May He cause the light of his countenance to shine upon us! ... That we may know thy way upon Earth: thy salvation in all nations.”

The idea expressed in “upon the Earth” he expanded to “in all nations” and the significance of “Thy way” he repeated in “Thy salvation.” We recall that the Lord Himself said: “I am the way.” And only recently, when the Gospel was read, we heard that the thrice-blessed old man, Simeon, had received a divine promise that he would not experience death until he had seen Christ the Lord and that, when he had taken the infant Christ into his hands and had recognized the mighty little One, he said: “Now thou dost dismiss Thy servant, O Lord, according to Thy word, in peace―because my eyes have seen Thy salvation!”

Gladly, then, let us announce His salvation, this Day born of the Eternal Day, let us declare “His glory among the Gentiles! His wonders among all people!”

He lies in a manger but He holds the world in His hand; he is nourished at the breast but He feeds the angels; He is wrapped in swaddling clothes but He clothes us with immortality; He is suckled but is adored; He does not find room in the inn but He makes a temple for Himself in the hearts of believers. For Strength took on weakness that weakness might become strong.

Therefore, let us marvel at rather than despise His human birth; from it let us learn the lowliness which such loftiness assumed for our sake. Then let us enkindle our love so that we may come to His eternal day.

SERMON 11
St. Augustine of Hippo
FOR THE FEAST OF THE NATIVITY, #191

Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, the true Sun of Justice, so shone upon the earth as not to leave the heavens, remaining there eternally, but coming hither for a time; there determining the everlasting day, here enduring the day of humanity; there living perpetually without the passage of time, here dying in time without the inroads of sin; there remaining in life without end, here freeing our life from the destruction of death.

There He enkindles the minds of angels with the fiery splendor of His majesty; here He determines the lives and characters of men. There light is received which no one extinguishes by sin; here Man is born who clearly defines all sin. There God is with God; here He is God and Man. There He is Light of Light; here, the Light which enlightens every man. There by a word He spreads out the heavens; here He shows a way of reaching the heavens.

There with His Father He confirmed the mystery of His nativity; here He formed His human members in His Mother. There sitting at the right hand of the Father, here lying in a manger; there feeding the angels, here on earth a hungry Child; there unfailing Bread with perfect powers, here, along with speechless children, needing the nourishment of milk; there doing good, here suffering evil; there never dying, here rising after death and bestowing eternal life on mortals. God became man so that man might become God. The Lord took the form of a servant so that man might be turned to God. The Founder and Inhabitant of heaven dwelt upon earth so that man might rise from earth to heaven.

The Word of the Father, by whom all time was created, was made flesh and was born in time for us. He, without whose divine permission no day completes its course, wished to have one day [set aside] for His human birth. In the bosom of His Father, He existed before all the cycles of ages; born of an earthly Mother, He entered upon the course of the years on this day.

The Maker of man became Man that He, Ruler of the stars, might be nourished at the breast; that He, the Bread, might be hungry; that He, the Fountain, might thirst; that He, the Light, might sleep; that He, the Way, might be wearied by the journey; that He, the Truth, might be accused by false witnesses; that He, the Judge of the living and the dead, might be brought to trial by a mortal judge; that He, Justice, might be condemned by the unjust; that He, Discipline, might be scourged with whips; that He, the Grape, might be crowned with thorns; that He, the Foundation, might be suspended upon a cross; that Courage might be weakened; that Security might be wounded; that Life might die.

To endure these and similar indignities for us, to free us, unworthy creatures, He who existed as the Son of God before all ages, without a beginning, deigned to become the Son of Man in these recent years. He did this although He who submitted to such great evils for our sake had done no evil and although we, who were the recipients of so much good at His hands, had done nothing to merit these benefits. Begotten by the Father, He was not made by the Father; He was made Man in the Mother whom He Himself had made, so that He might exist here for a while, sprung from her who could never and nowhere have existed except through His power.

Thus the prediction of the Psalmist was fulfilled: “Truth is sprung out of the earth.” Mary, a virgin before conception, remained a virgin after childbirth. Far be it that in this earth, that is, in the flesh out of which Truth has sprung, integrity should be marred. Indeed, after His Resurrection, when He was thought to be merely a spirit and not actually corporeal, He said: “Feel Me and see; for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have!” Nevertheless, the substance of His mature body passed through closed doors to His disciples.

Why, then, could He, who as a grown man was able to enter through closed portals, not pass through incorrupt members as an infant? To neither the one nor the other of these marvels do unbelievers wish to give their assent. Therefore, Faith believes both, because infidelity believes neither. In truth, this is that type of unbelief which sees no divinity in Christ.

Furthermore, if Faith believes that God was born in the flesh, it does not doubt that the two miracles are possible to God, namely, that though the doors of the house were closed, He manifested His mature body to those within the house, and that as an infant He came forth, a spouse from His bride-chamber, that is, from the virginal womb, leaving His Mother's integrity inviolate.

The only-begotten Son of God deigned to take upon Himself a human nature drawn from a virgin so that He might thus link a spotless Church to Himself, its spotless Founder. In doing so He not only thought of virgins undefiled in body, but He also desired that, in that Church which the Apostle Paul calls a virgin, the minds of all should be undefiled. “For I betrothed you to one spouse, that I might present you a chaste virgin to Christ.”

The Church, therefore, imitating the Mother of her Lord in mind, though not in body, is both mother and virgin. Since the virginity of His Mother was in no way violated in the birth of Christ, He likewise made His Church a virgin by ransoming her from the fornication of demons. You holy virgins, born of her undefiled virginity, who, scorning earthly nuptials, have chosen to be virgins in the flesh, rejoice now and celebrate with all solemnity the fecundity of the Virgin on this day.

The Lord was, indeed, born of a woman, but He was conceived in her without man's co-operation. He who has offered to you this blessing of virginity to cherish did not deprive His Mother of that gift. Far be it that He who repairs in you the harm wrought by Eve should even in the slightest degree mar in His Mother Mary that virginity which you have prized.

She in whose footsteps you are following had no human intercourse when she conceived; she remained a virgin when she brought forth her child. Imitate her as far as you can, not in her fecundity, because this is not in your power, but in the preservation of your virginity. She alone enjoyed both prerogatives; you have chosen one of them and you lose this one if you desire to possess both. She alone could be both virgin and mother because she brought forth the omnipotent Lord by whose power she thus miraculously conceived. It was fitting that the only-begotten Son of God alone should become the Son of Man in this way.

Nevertheless, the fact that Christ is the Son of only one virgin does not preclude any relation between you and Him. Indeed, you have gained as the spouse of your heart Him whom you could not bring forth as your child in the flesh. He is a spouse whom your joy so cherishes as a redeemer that your virginity does not shrink from Him in fear of violation. For He who did not deprive His Mother of virginity by actual child-bearing preserves that virginity in you to a much greater degree in His spiritual embrace.

Do not consider yourselves sterile because you remain virgins, for that holy integrity of the flesh conduces to fertility of the soul. Do as the Apostle directs. Since you do not ponder over the things of the world, wondering how you may please husbands, think about the things of the Lord and consider how you can please Him in all respects, so that you may have offspring, not of the flesh, but of the soul, that is, of virtues.

Finally, I address all here present; I speak to all; I include in my exhortations the whole Church, that chaste virgin whom the Apostle speaks of as espoused to Christ. Do, in the inner chambers of your soul, what you view with amazement in the flesh of Mary. He who believes in his heart unto justice conceives Christ; he who with his mouth makes profession of Faith unto salvation brings forth Christ. Thus, in your souls, let fertility abound and virginity be preserved.

SERMON 12
St. Augustine of Hippo
FOR THE FEAST OF THE NATIVITY, #192

On this day “Truth is sprung out of the earth” Christ was born as Man. Rejoice as befits a great feast; reminded by this temporal day, consider the Eternal Day and desire eternal gifts with unfaltering hope; according to the privilege granted to you, presume to be the sons of God. For your sake the Maker of time has been made in time; for your sake the divine Architect of the world has appeared in human form; for your sake the Creator has been created.

Why, O mortals, are you still delighted with passing trifles and why do you attempt to grasp this fleeting life, as if this could be done? A far brighter hope has now shone upon the Earth as a pledge to mortal men of life in Heaven. To gain credence in this promise an incredible event has been permitted. He who was God became Man in His effort to make godlike those who were men; without relinquishing what He was, He desired to become what He had made. He Himself fashioned what He would become, in that He added man’s nature to God without losing God’s nature in man.

We marvel at the child-bearing of a virgin and we try to convince unbelievers of this unheard-of manner of birth wherein the fetal life began without seed, and the mother, without human intercourse, brought forth a son of man, whose father she did not embrace as man, and wherein the integrity of virginity remained intact in conception and incorrupt in parturition.

God’s power is wonderful but more marvelous is His mercy, for He, who was able to be born in this manner, wished to be so born. He who was born as the only Son of His Mother was already the only Son of His Father; He was fashioned as man by the Mother whom He Himself had made; existing eternally with His Father, He took a temporal existence from His Mother; created by His Mother after His Mother, He was uncreated by His Father before all time; without Him the Father never existed; without Him His Mother would never have existed.

Rejoice, virgins of Christ, for the Mother of Christ is your associate. You could not have borne the Christ-Child, but for the love of Christ you have not desired to bear any child. He who was not born of you was born for you. However, if you remember His words, as you should, you know that you are His mothers because you do the will of His Father. For He Himself has said: “Whoever does the will of My Father ... he is My brother and sister and mother.”

Rejoice, widows of Christ, for you have vowed the holiness of continency to Him who made your virginity fruitful. Rejoice, you who are chaste in marriage, living faithfully with your husbands; guard in your hearts what you have lost in body. Since physical integrity is no longer possible for you, let your conscience be intact in Faith even as the whole Church is virginal. In Mary, consecrated virginity brought forth Christ; in Anna, aged widowhood recognized the little Christ; in Elizabeth, conjugal chastity and late fertility struggled for Christ.

All classes of faithful members have brought to their Head what by His grace they were able to give. In like manner do you, because Christ is Truth and Peace and Justice, conceive Him in Faith and show Him forth in works. Let your heart accomplish in the law of Christ what Mary’s womb wrought in the flesh of Christ.

How are you not included in the child-bearing of the Virgin since you are the members of Christ? Mary brought forth your Head; the Church, you His members. For the Church, too, is both mother and virgin: mother by the bowels of charity, virgin by the integrity of Faith and piety. She brings forth diverse peoples, but they are members of Him whose body and spouse she is, and even in this respect she bears the likeness of the Virgin because in the midst of many she is the mother of unity.

Let us all, therefore, unanimously, with chaste minds and holy affections, celebrate this birthday of the Lord on which we came into being according to the words: “Truth is sprung out of the earth.” For the following passage of the same psalm has already been fulfilled. When He who sprang from this earth, that is, who was born of flesh, ascended into Heaven, then without a doubt “Justice hath looked down from Heaven,” because He came from Heaven and is above all men.

He Himself commends this justice in the words He used when promising the Holy Spirit: “He will convict the world of sin, and of justice, and of judgment: of sin―because they do not believe in Me; of justice, because I go to the Father, and you will see Me no more.” This is the justice which hats looked down from Heaven for “His going out is from the end of Heaven, and his circuit even to the end thereof.”

Lest anyone should despise the Truth because He sprang from the earth when as a spouse He came forth from His bride-chamber, that is, from the virginal womb and when He, the Word of God, was united in an ineffable union with human nature I repeat, lest anyone should despise Him on that account and believe that Christ, although marvelous in His birth, and in His words and deeds, was, because of the likeness of sinful flesh, nothing more than man, the Psalmist, after saying: “As a bridegroom coming out of his bride-chamber hath rejoiced as a giant to run the way,” immediately adds: “His going out is from the end of Heaven.”

Therefore, the words which you hear, “Truth is sprung out of the earth,” constitute an honor, not a mere condition; they are a mark of mercy, not of misery. Truth descended from Heaven that He might spring forth from earth; His going out is from the end of Heaven so that as a bridegroom He might proceed from His bride-chamber.

Hence it is that He was born on the day which is the shortest in our earthly reckoning and from which subsequent days begin to increase in length. He, therefore, who bent low and lifted us up chose the shortest day, yet the one whence light begins to increase. By such a coming, though silent, He urged us, as with the sound of a mighty voice, to learn how to be rich in Him who became poor for us; to accept freedom in Him who took the form of a slave for us; to possess Heaven in Him who sprang from earth for us.

SERMON 13
Pope St. Leo the Great
THE EPIPHANY

Dearly beloved brethren, rejoice in the Lord; again I say, rejoice. But a few days are past since the solemnity of Christ's Birth, and now the glorious light of His Manifestation is breaking upon us. On that day the Virgin brought Him forth, and on this the world knew Him. The Word made Flesh was pleased to reveal Himself by degrees to those for whom He had come. When Jesus was born He was manifested indeed to the believing, but hidden from His enemies.

Already indeed the heavens declared the glory of God, and their sound went out into all lands, when the Herald Angels appeared to tell to the shepherds the glad tidings of a Savior's Birth; and now the guiding star leads the wise men to worship Him, that from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof, the Birth of the true King may be known abroad; that through those wise men the kingdoms of the east might learn the great truth, and the Roman empire remain no more in darkness.

The very cruelty of Herod, when he strove to crush at His birth this King Whom he alone feared, was made a blind means to carry out this dispensation of mercy. While the tyrant with horrid guilt sought to slay the little Child he did not know, amid an indiscriminate slaughter of innocents, his infamous act served to spread wider abroad the heaven-told news of the Birth of the Lord.

Thus were these glad tidings loudly proclaimed, both by the novelty of their story, and the iniquity of their enemies. Then was the Savior carried into Egypt, that nation, of a long time hardened in idolatry, might by the mysterious virtue which went out of Him, even when His presence was unknown, be prepared for the saving light so soon to dawn on them, and might receive the Truth as a wanderer even before they had banished falsehood.

We recognize in the wise men who came to worship Christ, the first-fruits of that dispensation to the Gentiles, wherein we also are called and enlightened. Let us then keep this Feast with grateful hearts, in thanksgiving for our blessed hope, whereof it doth commemorate the dawn. From that worship paid to the new-born Christ is to be dated the entry of us Gentiles upon our heirship of God and co-heirship with Christ.

Since that joyful day the Scriptures which testify of Christ have lain open for us as well as for the Jews. Yea, their blindness rejected that Truth, Which, since that day, hath shed Its bright beams upon all nations. Let all observance, then, be paid to this most sacred day, whereon the Author of our salvation was made manifest, and as the wise men fell down and worshipped Him in the manger, so let us fall down and worship Him enthroned Almighty in heaven. As they also opened their treasures and presented unto Him mystic and symbolic gifts, so let us strive to open our hearts to Him, and offer Him from thence some worthy offering.

SERMON 14
Pope St. Gregory the Great
ON THE EPIPHANY

You have heard from the Gospel lesson, beloved brethren, how, when the King of Heaven was born, the king of Earth was troubled. The depths of Earth are stirred, whilst the heights of Heaven are opened. Now, let us consider the question why, when the Redeemer was born, an angel brought the news to the shepherds of Judea, but a star led the wise men of the East to adore Him. It seems as if the Jews, as reasonable creatures, received a revelation from a reasonable being, that is, an angel; whilst the Gentiles without, not listening to their reason, are attracted, not by a voice, but by a sign, that is, a star.

Hence, St. Paul says: “A sign, not to believers, but to unbelievers ; but prophecies, not to unbelievers, but to believers” (1 Corinthians 14:22). So the prophesying that is, of an angel was given to those who believed, and the sign to them that believed not. We also remark that later on the Redeemer was preached among the Gentiles, not by Himself, but by the Apostles, even as when a little child He is shown to them, not by the voice of angels, but merely by the vision of a star. When He Himself began to speak, He was made known to us by teachers; but when He laid silent in the manger, by the silent testimony in Heaven.

However, whether we consider the signs accompanying His birth, or His death, this special thing is wonderful, namely, the hardness of heart of the Jews, who would not believe in Him, in spite of both prophecies and miracles. All things in creation bore witness that its Creator was come. Let us reckon them up after the manner of men.

The Heavens knew that He was God, and sent a star to shine over where He lay. The sea knew it, and bore Him up when He walked upon it. The Earth knew it, and quaked when He died. The sun knew it, and was darkened. The rocks and walls knew it, and broke in pieces at the hour of His death. Hell knew it, and gave up the dead that were therein. And yet, up to this very hour, the hearts of the unbelieving Jews do not acknowledge that He, to Whom all nature did testify, is their God, and, being more hardened than rocks, refuse to be rent by repentance.

But that which increases their guilt and punishment lies in the fact that they despise that God Whose birth had been announced to them by the prophets, hundreds of years before, and Whom they had seen after His birth in the stable. They even knew the place of His birth, for they spoke of it to the inquiring Herod, and told him that, according to the testimony of Holy Scripture, Bethlehem was to be renowned as the birthplace of the Messias. They strengthen, therefore, our Faith, whilst their own knowledge condemns them. The Jews are like Isaac, whose eyes were overtaken with the darkness of death, when he blessed, but could not see his son Jacob standing before him. Thus the unhappy nation was struck with blindness, and, knowing what the prophets had said about the Redeemer, would not recognize Him, though He stood in the midst of them.

When Herod heard of the birth of our King, he betook himself to his cunning wiles, and, lest he should be deprived of an earthly kingdom, he desired the wise men to search diligently for the Child, and when they had found Him, to bring him word again. He said, that he also may come and adore Him; but, in reality, if he had found Him, that he might put Him to death. Now, behold, of how little weight is the wickedness of man, when it is tried against the counsel of the Almighty. It is written: “There is no wisdom, there is no prudence, there is no counsel against the Lord” (Proverbs 21:30). And the star which the wise men saw in the East still led them on; they found the new-born King, and offered Him gifts; then they were warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod. And so it came to pass, that when Herod sought Jesus, he could not find Him. Even so it is with hypocrites who, whilst they make pretence to seek the Lord, to adore Him, find Him not.

It is well to know that one of the errors of the Priscillianist heretics consists in believing that every man is born under the influence of a star. In order to confirm this notion, they bring forward the instance of the star of Bethlehem that appeared when the Lord was born, and which they call His star, that is, the star ruling His fate and destiny. But, consider the words of the Gospel concerning this star; they say: It went before them until it came and stood over where the Child was. Whence we see that it was not the Child who followed the star, but the star that followed the Child, as if to show that the Child ruled over the star, instead of the star ruling over Him.

Let, therefore, the hearts of the faithful be free from the thought that anything rules over their destiny. In this world there is only One Who directs the destiny of man, that is, He Who made him. Neither was man made for the stars, but the stars for man; and if we say that they rule over his destiny, we set them above him, for whose service they were created. When Jacob came out of his mother’s womb, and his hand took hold of his brother Esau’s heel, the first could not have been perfectly born without the second immediately following. Yet such was not in after-life the position of these two brothers, whom their mother brought forth at one birth.

Should a ridiculous astrologer, according to his principles, pretend that the power of the stars depends on the very moment of the birth to which their whole operation is referred, we answer that the birth of man requires a certain space of time during which the stars continually change their position. These changes would consequently form as many destinies as there are limbs in those who are born during that space of time.

There is another fixed rule accepted by the adepts of this pseudo-science, namely, that he who is born under the sign of Aquarius (waterman) will never have any other profession than that of a fisherman. Yet we know from history that the Gatulians never carry on that business. But who will pretend that not one of them was ever born under that special sign of the Zodiac? By the same principle they will say that all those, born under the sign of the Balance, will be bankers or money-lenders. But we know that there are many nations among which these kinds of business are unknown.

These so-called learned astrologers must, therefore, confess, either that these nations have not this sign of the Zodiac, or that none of their children are born under this sign. Many nations, as we know, have a law that their rulers must be of royal blood. But are not many poor children in these countries born at the very moment when the one, who is destined to be king, sees the light? Why, then, should there be a difference between those who are born under the same sign, so that some are clothed in purple whilst others are slaves? We wish, in speaking of the star that appeared to the wise men, to say these few words against the deceptions of astrology.

The wise men brought gold, frankincense and myrrh. Gold is a gift suitable for a king, frankincense is offered in sacrifice to God, and with myrrh are embalmed the bodies of the dead. By the gifts, therefore, they presented to Him, the wise men set forth three things concerning Him, to Whom they offered them. The gold signifies that He was King; the frankincense that He was God, and the myrrh that He was mortal.

There are some heretics who believe Him to be God, but confess not His Kingly dominion over all things. These offer Him the frankincense, but refuse the gold. There are some others who admit that He is King, but deny that He is God. These present the gold, but withhold the frankincense. Again, there are other heretics who profess that Christ is both God and King, but deny that He took to Himself a mortal nature. These offer Him gold and frankincense, but not myrrh for the burial incident to His mortality.

Let us, however, present gold to the new-born Lord, acknowledging His universal Kingship; let us offer Him frankincense, confessing that He Who had been made manifest in time, was still God before time; let us give Him myrrh, believing that He, Who cannot suffer as God, became capable of death by assuming our human, mortal nature. There is also another meaning in this gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Gold is the type of wisdom, for, as Solomon says, wisdom is a treasure to be desired, and that it is found in the mouth of the wise (Proverbs 21:20). Frankincense, which is burnt in honor of God, is a figure of prayer; witness the words of the Psalmist: “Let my prayer be directed as incense in Thy sight” (Psalm 141:2). By myrrh is represented the mortification of the body, as where Holy Church says of her children laboring in their strife after God even unto death: “My hands dropped with myrrh” (Canticles 5:5).

We offer, therefore, gold to this new King when in His sight we reflect the brilliancy of true wisdom. We offer Him frankincense when our pious prayers, like a sweet odor before God, banish all wicked thoughts and inflame good desires. We offer him myrrh, when by fasting and penance we mortify our passions; for through the effects produced by the myrrh, as we have already remarked, the bodies are preserved from corruption.

Our flesh is corrupted when we give up this mortal body to luxury, as the prophet says: “The beasts have rotted in their dung” (Joel 1:17). The image of these beasts indicates those carnal beings who give themselves up to their shameful desires, and hasten towards their own destruction. We bring, therefore, a present of myrrh to God, when by temperance and mortification we preserve our bodies from all impurity.

The wise men teach us also a great lesson in that they went back another way into their country; and what they did, having received an answer in sleep, we ought to do. Our country is Heaven, and when we have once known Jesus, we can never reach it by returning to the way, wherein we walked before knowing Him. We have gone far from our country by the way of pride, disobedience, worldliness, and forbidden indulgence; we must seek that heavenly fatherland by subjection, by contempt of the things which are seen, and by curbing the fleshly appetites.

Let us, then, depart into our own country by another way. They that have by enjoyment put themselves away from it, must seek it again by sorrow. It behooves us, therefore, beloved brethren, to be ever fearful and watchful, having continually before the eyes of our mind, on the one hand, the guilt of our doings, and, on the other, the judgment at the last day. It behooves us to think how that, awful Judge, Whose judgment is hanging over us, but has not yet fallen, will surely come. The wrath to come is before sinners, but has not yet smitten them; the Judge yet tarries, that when He comes there may perhaps be less to condemn.

Let us afflict ourselves for our faults with weeping, and with the psalmist, “let us come before His presence with thanksgiving” (Psalm 95:2). Let us take heed that we be not fooled by the appearance of earthly happiness, or seduced by the vanity of any worldly pleasure; for the Judge is at hand, Who says: “Woe to you that now laugh, for you shall mourn and weep” (Luke 6:25). Hence, also, Solomon says: “Laughter shall be mingled with sorrow, and mourning taketh hold of the end of joy” (Proverbs 14:13). And again: “Laughter I counted error, and to mirth I said: ‘Why art thou vainly deceived?’” (Ecclesiastes 2:2). And yet again: “The heart of the wise is where there is mourning, but the heart of fools where there is mirth” (7:5). Let us fear lest we do not fulfill the commandments given to us.

If we wish to celebrate this feast to His glory, let us offer Him the acceptable sacrifice of our sorrow, for the royal prophet says: “A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit ; a contrite and humbled heart, God, Thou wilt not despise” (Psalm 51:19). Our former faults were remitted by the Sacrament of Baptism, yet we have again offended God; and these sins which the water of baptism cannot cleanse, will be forgiven only when in real and deep sorrow we shed tears of contrition. We have gone away from our real fatherland; we have followed the false gods which allured us; let us, therefore, return by another way, the way of suffering, the bitterness of which we shall endure with the grace of God.

SERMON 15
Pope Leo XIII
ON THE HOLY FAMILY

When God in his mercy determined to accomplish the work of man’s renewal, which same had so many long ages awaited, He appointed and ordained this work on such wise that its very beginning might show to the world the august spectacle of a Family which was known to be divinely constituted; that therein all men might behold a perfect model, as well of domestic life as of every virtue and pattern of holiness: for such indeed was the Holy Family of Nazareth.

There in secret dwelt the Sun of Righteousness, until the time when He should shine out in full splendor in the sight of all nations. There Christ, our God and Savior, lived with His Virgin Mother, and with that most holy man Joseph, who held to Him the place of father.

No one can doubt that in this Holy Family was displayed every virtue which can be called forth by an ordinary home life, with its mutual services of charity, its holy conversations, and its practices of godly piety, since the Holy Family was destined to be a pattern to all others. For that very reason was it established by the merciful designs of Providence, namely, that every Christian, in every walk of life and in every place, might easily, if he would but give heed to it, have before him a motive and a pattern for the good life.

To all fathers of families, Joseph is verily the best model of paternal vigilance and care. In the most holy Virgin Mother of God, mothers may find an excellent example of love, modesty, resignation of spirit, and the perfecting of faith. And in Jesus, who was subject to His parents, the children of the family have a divine pattern of obedience which they can admire, reverence, and imitate.

Those who are of noble birth may learn, from this Family of royal blood, how to live simply in times of prosperity, and how to retain their dignity in times of distress. The rich may learn that moral worth is to be more highly esteemed than wealth. The working class, and all such as are bitterly grieved by the narrow and slender means of their families, if they would but consider the sublime holiness of the members of this domestic fellowship, cannot fail to find some cause for rejoicing in their lot, rather than for being merely dissatisfied with it.

In common with the Holy Family, they have to work, and to provide for the daily wants of life. Joseph had to engage in trade, in order to live; even the divine hands labored at an artisan's calling. It is not to be wondered at, that the wealthiest men, if truly wise, have been willing to cast away their riches, and to embrace a life of poverty with Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.

From the foregoing it is evident how natural and fitting it was that devotion to the Holy Family should in due time have grown up amongst Catholics; and once begun, that it should spread far and wide.

Proof of this is found first in the sodalities instituted under the ínvocation of the Holy Family; then in the unique honors bestowed upon it; and above all, by the privileges and favors granted to this devotion by our predecessors to stimulate fervor and piety in its regard. This devotion was already held in great esteem in the seventeenth century.

Widely propagated in Italy, France, and Belgium, it spread over almost the whole of Europe; thence, crossing the wide ocean, through Canada it made its way into the Americas, and finding favor there, became very flourishing. Indeed, among Christian families, nothing more salutary nor efficacious can be imagined than the example of the Holy Family, where are to be found all domestic virtues in perfection and completeness.

When Jesus, Mary, and Joseph are invoked in the home, charity is likely to be maintained in the family through their example and heavenly entreaty; a good influence is thus exerted over conduct; the practice of virtue is thus incited; and thus the hardships which are everywhere wont to harass mankind, are both mitigated and made easier to bear.

To increase devotion to the Holy Family, Pope Leo XIII prescribed that Christian families should be consecrated thereto. Benedict XV extended the Mass and Office to the whole Church.

SERMON 16
St. Francis de Sales
ON MARRIAGE

Marriage is a great Sacrament both in Jesus Christ and His Church, and one to be honored to all, by all and in all. To all, for even those who do not enter upon it should honor it in all humility. By all, for it is holy alike to poor as to rich. In all, for its origin, its end, its form and matter are holy. It is the nursery of Christianity, whence the Earth is peopled with faithful, till the number of the elect in Heaven be perfected; so that respect for the marriage tie is exceedingly important to the commonwealth, of which it is the source and supply.

Would to God that His Dear Son were bidden to all weddings as to that of Cana! Truly then the wine of consolation and blessing would never be lacking; for if these are often so wanting, it is because too frequently now men summon Adonis instead of our Lord, and Venus rather than Our Lady. He who desires that the young of his flock should be like Jacob’s, fair and ring-streaked, must set fair objects before their eyes; and he who would find a blessing in his marriage, must ponder the holiness and dignity of this Sacrament, instead of which too often weddings become a season of mere feasting and disorder.

Above all, I would exhort all married people to seek that mutual love so commended to them by the Holy Spirit in the Bible. It is little to bid you love one another with a mutual love―turtle-doves do that; or with human love―the heathen cherished such love as that. But I say to you in the Apostle’s words: “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church. Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands as unto the Lord.” It was God Who brought Eve to our first father Adam, and gave her to him to wife; and even so, my friends, it is God’s Invisible Hand Which binds you in the sacred bonds of marriage; it is He Who gives you one to the other, therefore cherish one another with a holy, sacred, heavenly love.

The first effect of this love is the indissoluble union of your hearts. If you glue together two pieces of deal, provided that the glue be strong, their union will be so close that the stick will break more easily in any other part than where it is joined. Now God unites husband and wife so closely in Himself, that it should be easier to sunder soul from body than husband from wife; nor is this union to be considered as mainly of the body, but yet more a union of the heart, its affections and love.

The second effect of this love should be an inviolable fidelity to one another. In olden times finger-rings were wont to be graven as seals. We read of it in Holy Scripture, and this explains the meaning of the marriage ceremony, when the Church, by the hand of her priest, blesses a ring, and gives it first to the man in token that she sets a seal on his heart by this Sacrament, so that no thought of any other woman may ever enter therein so long as she, who now is given to him, shall live. Then the bridegroom places the ring on the bride’s hand, so that she in her turn may know that she must never conceive any affection in her heart for any other man so long as he shall live, who is now given to her by our Lord Himself.

The third end of marriage is the birth and bringing up of children. And herein, O ye married people! are you greatly honored, in that God, willing to multiply souls to bless and praise Him to all Eternity, He associates you with Himself in this His work, by the production of bodies into which, like dew from Heaven, He infuses the souls He creates as well as the bodies into which they enter.

Therefore, husbands, do you preserve a tender, constant, hearty love for your wives. It was that the wife might be loved heartily and tenderly that woman was taken from the side nearest Adam’s heart. No failings or infirmities, bodily or mental, in your wife should ever excite any kind of dislike in you, but rather a loving, tender compassion; and that because God has made her dependent on you, and bound to defer to and obey you; and that while she is meant to be your helpmeet, you are her superior and her head.

And on your part, wives, do you love the husbands God has given you tenderly, heartily, but with a reverential, confiding love, for God has made the man to have the predominance, and to be the stronger; and He wills the woman to depend upon him―bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh―taking her from out the ribs of the man, to show that she must be subject to his guidance. All Holy Scripture enjoins this subjection, which nevertheless is not grievous; and the same Holy Scripture, while it bids you accept it lovingly, bids your husband to use his superiority with great tenderness, loving kindness, and gentleness. “Husbands, dwell with your wives according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel.”

But while you seek diligently to foster this mutual love, give good heed that it do not turn to any manner of jealousy. Just as the worm is often hatched in the sweetest and ripest apple, so too often jealousy springs up in the most warm and loving hearts, defiling and ruining them, and if it is allowed to take root, it will produce dissension, quarrels, and separation. Of a truth, jealousy never arises where love is built up on true virtue, and therefore it is a sure sign of an earthly, sensual love, in which mistrust and inconstancy is soon infused. It is a sorry kind of friendship which seeks to strengthen itself by jealousy; for though jealousy may be a sign of strong, hot friendship, it is certainly no sign of a good, pure, perfect attachment; and that because perfect love implies absolute trust in the person loved, whereas jealousy implies uncertainty.

If you, husbands, would have your wives faithful, be it yours to set them the example. “How have you the face to exact purity from your wives,” asks St. Gregory Nazianzen, “if you yourself live an impure life? Or how can you require that which you do not give in return? If you would have them chaste, let your own conduct to them be chaste. St. Paul bids you possess your vessel in sanctification; but if, on the contrary, you teach them evil, no wonder that they dishonor you. And ye, O women! Whose honor is inseparable from modesty and purity, preserve it jealously, and never allow the smallest speck to soil the whiteness of your reputation.”

Shrink sensitively from the veriest trifles which can touch it; never permit any gallantries whatsoever. Suspect any who presume to flatter your beauty or grace, for when men praise wares they cannot purchase they are often tempted to steal; and if anyone should dare to speak in disparagement of your husband, show that you are irrecoverably offended, for it is plain that he not only seeks your fall, but he counts you as half fallen, since the bargain with the new-comer is half made when one is disgusted with the first merchant.

Ladies both in ancient and modern times have worn pearls in their ears, for the sake (so says Pliny) of hearing them tinkle against each other. But remembering how that friend of God, Isaac, sent earrings as first pledges of his love to the chaste Rebecca, I look upon this mystic ornament as signifying that the first claim a husband has over his wife, and one which she ought most faithfully to keep for him, is her ear; so that no evil word or rumor enter therein, and nothing be heard save the pleasant sound of true and pure words, which are represented by the choice pearls of the Gospel. Never forget that souls are poisoned through the ear as much as bodies through the mouth.

Love and faithfulness lead to familiarity and confidence, and Saints have abounded in tender caresses. Isaac and Rebecca, the type of chaste married life, indulged in such caresses, as to convince Abimelech that they must be husband and wife. The great St. Louis, strict as he was to himself, was so tender towards his wife, that some were ready to blame him for it; although in truth he rather deserved praise for subjecting his lofty, martial mind to the little details of conjugal love. Such minor matters will not suffice to knit hearts, but they tend to draw them closer, and promote mutual happiness.

Before giving birth to St. Augustine, St. Monica offered him repeatedly to God’s Glory, as he himself tells us; and it is a good lesson for Christian women how to offer the fruit of their womb to God, Who accepts the free oblations of loving hearts, and promotes the desires of such faithful mothers: witness Samuel, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Andrea di Fiesole, and others. St. Bernard’s mother, worthy of such a son, was wont to take her new-born babes in her arms to offer them to Jesus Christ, thenceforward loving them with a reverential love, as a sacred deposit from God; and so entirely was her offering accepted, that all her seven children became Saints.

And when children begin to use their reason, fathers and mothers should take great pains to fill their hearts with the fear of God. This the good Queen Blanche did most earnestly by St. Louis, her son: witness her oft-repeated words, “My son, I would sooner see you die than guilty of a mortal sin;” words which sank so deeply into the saintly monarch’s heart, that he himself said there was no day on which they did not recur to his mind, and strengthen him in treading God’s ways.

We call races and generations Houses; and the Hebrews were wont to speak of the birth of children as “the building up of the house;” as it is written of the Jewish midwives in Egypt, that the Lord “made them houses;” whereby we learn that a good house is not reared so much by the accumulation of worldly goods, as by the bringing up of children in the ways of holiness and of God; and to this end no labor or trouble must be spared, for children are the crown of their parents. Thus it was that St. Monica steadfastly withstood St. Augustine’s evil propensities, and, following him across sea and land, he became more truly the child of her tears in the conversion of his soul, than the son of her body in his natural birth.

St. Paul assigns the charge of the household to the woman; and consequently some hold that the devotion of the family depends more upon the wife than the husband, who is more frequently absent, and has less influence in the house. Certainly King Solomon, in the Book of Proverbs, refers all household prosperity to the care and industry of that virtuous woman whom he describes.

We read in Genesis that Isaac “entreated the Lord for his wife, because she was barren; or as the Hebrews read it, he prayed “over against” her―on opposite sides of the place of prayer―and his prayer was granted.

That is the most fruitful union between husband and wife which is founded in devotion, to which they should mutually stimulate one another. There are certain fruits, like the quince, of so bitter a quality, that they are scarcely eatable, save when preserved; while others again, like cherries and apricots, are so delicate and soft, that they can only be kept by the same treatment.

So the wife must seek that her husband be sweetened with the sugar of devotion, for man without religion is a rude, rough animal; and the husband will desire to see his wife devout, as without it her frailty and weakness are liable to tarnish and injury. St. Paul says that “the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband;” because in so close a tie one may easily draw the other to what is good. And how great is the blessing on those faithful husbands and wives who confirm one another continually in the Fear of the Lord!

Moreover, each should have such forbearance towards the other, that they never grow angry, or fall into discussion and argument. The bee will not dwell in a spot where there is much loud noise or shouting, or echo; neither will God’s Holy Spirit dwell in a household where altercation and tumult, arguing and quarrelling, disturb the peace.

St. Gregory Nazianzen says that in his time married people were wont to celebrate the anniversary of their wedding, and it is a custom I should greatly approve, provided it were not a merely secular celebration; but if husbands and wives would go on that day to Confession and Communion, and commend their married life specially to God, renewing their resolution to promote mutual good by increased love and faithfulness, and thus take breath, so to say, and gather new vigor from the Lord to go on steadfastly in their vocation.

SERMON 17
St. Alphonsus Liguori
ON CHRISTMAS

The birth of Jesus Christ brought universal joy to the whole world. He was the Redeemer Who had been desired and sighed after for so many years; and therefore He was called the Desired of the nations, and the Desire of the eternal hills. Behold Him already come, and born in a little cave.

Let us consider that this day the Angel announces to us also the same great joy that he announced to the shepherds: “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, that shall be to all the people; for this day is born to you a Savior!” (Luke 2:10).

What rejoicing there is in a country when the heir is born to a king! But surely we ought to keep still greater festival when we see the Son of God born and come down from Heaven to visit us, urged to this by the tenderness of His mercy: “Through the bowels of the mercy of our God, in which the Orient from on high hath visited us!” (Luke 1:78).

We were lost; and behold Him Who came to save us: “He came down from Heaven for our salvation” (Symb. Nic.). Behold the Shepherd Who came to save His sheep from death by giving His life for their sake: “I am the good Shepherd; the good Shepherd gives his life for His sheep” (John 10:11). Behold the Lamb of God, Who came to sacrifice Himself, to obtain for us the divine favor, and to become our Deliverer, our Life, our Light, and even our Food in the most Holy Sacrament!

“I have gone astray like a sheep that is lost! Seek thy servant!” (Isaias 9:6). O Lord I am that sheep which, by following after my own pleasures and caprices, have miserably lost myself; but Thou, Who art at once the Shepherd and divine Lamb, art He Who came down from Heaven to save me by sacrificing Thyself as a victim on the Cross in satisfaction for my sins.

Behold, the Lamb of God; behold him who taketh away the sins of the world (Psalm 118:176). If, therefore, I desire to amend my life, what need I fear? Why should I not confide entirely in Thee, O my Savior, Who wert born on purpose to save me? “Behold, God is my Savior! I will put my trust in him and will not fear!” (Isaias 12:2).

What greater proof couldst Thou give me of Thy mercy, O my dearest Redeemer, to inspire me with confidence, than to give me Thyself? O my dear Infant, how grieved I am that I have offended Thee! I have made Thee weep in the stable of Bethlehem. But since Thou are come to seek me, I throw myself at Thy feet; and although I behold Thee afflicted and humbled, lying upon straw in the manger, I acknowledge Thee for my supreme King, and Sovereign.

I feel that Thy tender infant-cries invite me to love Thee, and demand my heart. Behold, my Jesus, I present it today at Thy feet; change it and inflame it, O Thou Who didst come into the world to inflame the hearts of men with Thy holy love.

St. Maximus says that for this reason amongst others, Christ chose to be laid in the manger where the animals were fed, to make us understand that He had become Man also to make Himself our Food: “In the manger, where the food of animals is placed, He allowed His limbs to be laid, thereby showing that His own body would be the eternal Food of men.” Besides this, He is born every day in the Blessed Sacrament in the hands of the Priest at holy Mass; the Altar is the Crib, and there we go to feed ourselves on His flesh.

Someone might desire to have the holy Infant in his arms, as the aged Simeon had; but Faith teaches us that, when we receive Communion, the same Jesus Who was in the manger of Bethlehem is not only in our arms, but in our breasts. He was born for this purpose, to give Himself entirely to us: “A child is born to us, a son is given to us!” (Isaias 9:6).

I hear Thee, O my Jesus, say to me in Thy manger: “Love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart!” (Isaias 12: 2). And I will answer: Ah, my Jesus, if I do not love Thee, Who art my Lord and my God, whom shall I love? Thou callest Thyself mine, because Thou wert born in order to give Thyself entirely to me; and shall I refuse to be Thine? No, my beloved Lord, I give myself entirely to Thee; and I love Thee with my whole heart! I love Thee, I love Thee, I love Thee! O sovereign Good, the one only Love of my soul! I beseech Thee accept me this day, and do not permit me evermore to cease to love Thee!

O Mary, my Queen, I pray thee, through that consolation which thou didst enjoy the first time thou didst behold thy new-born Son and didst give Him thy first kiss, beseech Him to accept me for His servant, and to enchain me forever to Himself by the gift of His holy love.

SERMON 18
Pope St. Leo the Great
ON THE EPIPHANY

I. The Epiphany a necessary sequel to the Nativity

After celebrating, only recently, the day on which Immaculate Virginity brought forth the Savior of mankind (December 25th)―the venerable feast of the Epiphany (January 6th) gives us continuance of joy, that the force of our exultation and the fervor of our Faith may not grow cool, in the midst of neighboring and kindred mysteries.

For it concerns all men’s salvation, that the infancy of the Mediator between God and men was already manifested to the whole world, while He was still detained in the tiny town.

For although He had chosen the Israelite nation, and one family out of that nation, from whom to assume the nature of all mankind, yet He was unwilling that the early days of His birth should be concealed within the narrow limits of His mother’s home: but desired to be soon recognized by all, seeing that He deigned to be born for all.

To three wise men, therefore, appeared a star of new splendor in the region of the East, which, being brighter and fairer than the other stars, might easily attract the eyes and minds of those that looked on it, so that at once that might be observed not to be meaningless, which had so unusual an appearance.

He therefore who gave the sign, gave to the beholders understanding of it, and caused inquiry to be made about that, of which He had thus caused understanding, and after inquiry made, offered Himself to be found.

II. Herod’s evil designs were fruitless. The wise men’s gifts were consciously symbolical

These three men follow the leading of the light above, and with steadfast gaze obeying the indications of the guiding splendor, are led to the recognition of the Truth by the brilliance of Grace, for they supposed that a king’s birth was notified in a human sense, and that it must be sought in a royal city.

Yet He who had taken a slave’s form, and had come not to judge, but to be judged, chose Bethlehem for His nativity, Jerusalem for His passion. But Herod, hearing that a prince of the Jews was born, suspected a successor, and was in great terror: and to compass the death of the Author of Salvation, pledged himself to a false homage.

How happy had he been, if he had imitated the wise men’s faith, and turned to a pious use what he designed for deceit. What blind wickedness of foolish jealousy, to think you can overthrow the Divine plan by your frenzy.

The Lord of the world, who offers an eternal Kingdom, seeks not a temporal. Why do you attempt to change the unchangeable order of things ordained, and to forestall others in their crime? The death of Christ belongs not to your time.

The Gospel must be first set on foot, the Kingdom of God first preached, healings first given to the sick, wondrous acts first performed. Why do you wish yourself to have the blame of what will belong to another’s work, and why without being able to effect your wicked design, do you bring on yourself alone the charge of wishing the evil? You gain nothing and carry out nothing by this intriguing. He that was born voluntarily shall die of His own free will.

The Wise men, therefore, fulfill their desire, and come to the child, the Lord Jesus Christ, the same star going before them. They adore the Word in flesh, the Wisdom in infancy, the Power in weakness, the Lord of majesty in the reality of man: and by their gifts make open acknowledgment of what they believe in their hearts, that they may show forth the mystery of their faith and understanding.

The incense they offer to God, the myrrh to Man, the gold to the King, consciously paying honor to the Divine and human Nature in union: because while each substance had its own properties, there was no difference in the power of either.

III. The massacre of the innocents is in harmony with the Virgin’s conception, which again teaches us purity of life

And when the wise men had returned to their own land, and Jesus had been carried into Egypt at the Divine suggestion, Herod’s madness blazes out into fruitless schemes. He orders all the little ones in Bethlehem to be slain, and since he knows not which infant to fear, extends a general sentence against the age he suspects. But that which the wicked king removes from the world, Christ admits to Heaven: and on those for whom He had not yet spent His redeeming blood, He already bestows the dignity of martyrdom.

Lift your faithful hearts then, dearly-beloved, to the gracious blaze of eternal light, and in adoration of the mysteries dispensed for man’s salvation give your diligent heed to the things which have been wrought on your behalf.

Love the purity of a chaste life, because Christ is the Son of a virgin. “Abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul” (1 Peter 2:11), as the blessed Apostle, present in his words as we read, exhorts us, “In malice be ye children” (1 Corinthians 14:20), because the Lord of glory conformed Himself to the infancy of mortals.

Follow after humility which the Son of God deigned to teach His disciples. Put on the power of patience, in which you may be able to gain your souls; seeing that He who is the Redemption of all, is also the Strength of all.

“Set your minds on the things which are above, not on the things which are on the Earth” (Colossians 3:2). Walk firmly along the path of truth and life: let not earthly things hinder you for whom are prepared heavenly things through our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Ghost lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

SERMON 19
Anonymous Source
ON THE HOLY FAMILY

The Holy Family is the name given to the family unit of Jesus: The Divine Son of God, Jesus; His mother, the Virgin Mary; and his foster father, Joseph. We know very little about the life of the Holy Family through the canonical Gospels. The Gospels speak briefly of the early years of the Holy Family, including the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, the flight into Egypt, and the finding of Jesus in the temple. Various non-canonical works, including the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, try to fill in the blanks. However, even though these apocryphal works may contain some truth derived from oral tradition, they have been deemed unworthy of canonical status because of the way they present Jesus. But while the exact details of the day-to-day life of the Holy Family may be unknown, we can still learn a lot from the stories we do have.

Devotion to the Holy Family is a recent development, but one that naturally grows out of a love for Jesus and His family. Devotion to the Holy Family grew in popularity in the 17th century, and several religious congregations have been founded under this title. The Holy Family also started being portrayed in popular art of the period. On October 26th, 1921, the Congregation of Rites (under Pope Benedict XV) inserted the Feast of the Holy Family into the Latin Rite general calendar. Until then it had been celebrated regionally (see History below). Popes before and including Benedict XV (especially Leo XIII) promoted the feast as a way to counter the breakdown of the family unit.

The Feast of the Holy Family is not just about the Holy Family, but about our own families too. The main purpose of the feast is to present the Holy Family as the model for all Christian families, and for domestic life in general. Our family life becomes sanctified when we live the life of the Church within our homes. This is called the “domestic Church” or the “Church in miniature.” Saint John Chrysostom urged all Christians to make each home a “family church,” which sanctifies the family unit. Just how does one live out the Church in the family? The best way is by making Christ the center of family and individual life. Ways to do this include: reading Scripture regularly, praying daily, attending Mass at least on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation, imitating the actions of the Holy Family, going to confession frequently, and so forth, all done together as a family unit.

Saint Paul provides advice on family life in Colossians 3:12-21: “As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and never treat them harshly. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this is your acceptable duty in the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children, or they may lose heart.”

The Holy Family feast is a good time to remember the family unit and pray for our human and spiritual families. We can also use this feast as an opportunity to reflect on the value and sanctity of the family unit and to evaluate our own family life. What ways may it be improved? What would Jesus, Mary, and Joseph do? Finally, we can use this feast to ask ourselves what are we doing to promote the family within our own cultures, neighborhoods, and communities.

In 1643 Louis and Barbe d’Ailleboust came to Canada in order to devote their lives to the welfare of the natives there. After her husband had passed away, Barbe, with the assistance of the Jesuit Father Chaumonot, founded the Confraternity of the Holy Family. The confraternity and devotion to the Holy Family spread all over Canada and had the effect of promoting good morals. Monsignor Franois de Laval invited her to Quebec, and gave her the general management of the confraternity, which still exists today. In 1675, the now Bishop de Laval had a little book printed in Paris instructing the members of the confraternity as to virtuous practices. Bishop de Laval also established the feast of the Holy Family, and had a Mass and office drawn up that are proper to the Diocese of Quebec. The feast was later added in 1921 to the general calendar of the Western Rite as a way to counteract the breakdown of the family.

SERMON 20
St. Bernard of Clairvaux
HOMILY ON IMITATING THE OBEDIENCE & HUMILITY OF CHRIST

We read in the Gospel: “And He was subject unto them.”

Who was subject? And to whom? God to man! God, I repeat, to whom the Angels are subject, whom the Principalities and Powers do obey, was subject to Mary; and not only to Mary, but to Joseph also for Mary’s sake.

Marvel, therefore, both at God and man, and choose that which gives greater wonder, whether it be the most loving condescension of the Son, or the exceeding great dignity of his Mother.

Both amaze us, both are marvelous. That God should obey a woman is lowliness without parallel, that woman should rule over God, an elevation beyond comparison. In praise of virgins it is sung of them alone, that they follow the Lamb wheresoever He goes. Of what praise do you judge that woman to be worthy who is thus placed before the Lamb of God.

Learn, O man, to obey! Learn, O earth, to be subject! Learn, O dust, to submit! The Evangelist, speaking of your Creator, said: “And He was subject unto them.” And there is no doubt that this shows us that God was subject to Mary and Joseph.

Shame on you―you proud entities of dust and ashes! God abases Himself, and do you, O creature sprung from the earth, exalt yourself? God makes Himself subject to man, and do you, who are always so eager to lord it over men, set up yourself to lord it over your Creator? For as often soever as I desire pre-eminency over men, so often do I strive to excel God. For of him it was said: “And He was subject unto them.”

If you disdain, O man, to follow the example of man, at least you can follow your Creator without dishonor. If you cannot, perchance, follow Him wheresoever He goes, then at least to follow Him in this thing wherein He has emptied Himself, and made Himself of no reputation, for the sake of those such as you.

If you cannot enter upon the lofty paths of virginity, at least follow God by the most safe road of humility. If any turn aside from this straight way, though they be virgins, they do not follow the Lamb, if the truth be told, wheresoever He goes. The humble man, though stained with sin, follows the Lamb; the virgin, though proud, also follows; but neither of these two follow wheresoever He goes.

The former cannot attain unto the purity of the Lamb―for He is without spot; the latter deigns not to descend to His meekness, who was dumb, not before the shearer, but before the murderer. Yet the sinner, who follows in humility, has chosen a more saving way than the proud man who follows in virginity; for the humble one makes satisfaction, and is cleansed of his impurity, but the proud one’s chastity is stained by his pride.

SERMON 21
St. Alphonsus Liguori
ON THE GREATNESS AND LITTLENESS OF CHRIST

Plato says that love is the “loadstone of love.” Hence the proverb: “If you wish to be loved, love.” But, my Jesus, this rule, this Proverb holds good for others, holds good for all, but not for Thee! Thou art at a loss what further to do to show men the love Thou bearest them! And yet how many are there that love Thee? Alas, the greatest number, we may say nearly all, not only do not love Thee -- they offend Thee and despise Thee!

And shall we stand in the ranks of these heartless wretches? God has not deserved this at our hands -- that God, so good, so tender to us, Who, being great, has thought it fit to make Himself little in order to be loved by us.

To understand the immense love of God towards men in becoming Man and a feeble Child for our love, it would be necessary to comprehend His greatness. But what mind of man or Angel can conceive the Infinite greatness of God?

St. Ambrose says that to say God is greater than the heavens, than all kings, all Saints, all Angels, is to do an injury to God; just as it would be an injury to a prince to say that he was greater than a blade of grass, or a little fly. God is Greatness itself, and all greatness together is but the smallest atom of the greatness of God.

David, contemplating the divine greatness, and seeing that he could not and never would be able to comprehend it, could only say: O Lord, who is like to thee? (Psalm 34:10). O Lord, what greatness shall ever be found like Thine? And how in truth could David ever be able to comprehend it, since his understanding was but finite, and God’s greatness infinite? Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and of his greatness there is no end (Psalm 144:3). “Do I not fill Heaven and Earth, saith the Lord” (Jeremias 23:24). Thus all of us, according to our mode of understanding, are nothing but so many miserable little fishes, living in this immense ocean of the essence of God: In him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28).

What are we then in respect to God? And what are all men, all monarchs of Earth, and even all Saints and all Angels of Heaven, compared with the infinite greatness of God? We are all like, or even smaller than, a grain of sand in comparison with the rest of the earth: Behold, says the Prophet Isaias, the Gentiles are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the smallest grain of a balance; behold, the islands are as a little dust ... All nations are before him as if they had no being at all (Isaias 40:15, 17).

Now this God so great has become a little Infant; and for whom? A child is born to us (Isaias 9:6): for us He is born. And wherefore? St. Ambrose gives us the answer: “He is a little One, that you may be a perfect man; He is bound in swaddling-clothes, that you may be unbound from the fetters of death; He is on Earth, that you may be in Heaven.”

Behold, then, Immensity Whom the heavens cannot contain, become an Infant: see Him imprisoned in poor rags, and laid in a narrow, vile manger on a bundle of Straw, which was at once His only bed and pillow. “See,” says St. Bernard ― “see Power ruled, Wisdom instructed, Virtue sustained. God taking milk and weeping, yet comforting the afflicted!” A God Almighty so tightly wrapped in swathing-bands that He cannot stir! A God Who knows all things made mute and speechless! A God Who rules Heaven and earth needing to be carried in the arms! A God Who feeds all men and animals, Himself having need of a little milk to support Him! A God Who consoles the afflicted and is the joy of Paradise, Himself weeps and moans and has to be comforted by a creature!

For this, then, did the Eternal Word become Man. For this, moreover, He became an Infant. Little children are loved. To see them is to love them.

St. Peter Chrysologus writes: “How should our Lord come, Who wished to drive away fear and to seek love? What breast so savage as not to soften before such a Childhood as this? What hardness will it not subdue; what love does it not claim? Thus, therefore, He wished to be born Who willed to be loved and not feared.” The Saint would say that if our Redeemer had come in order to be feared and respected by men, He should have come as a full grown Man and with royal dignity, but because He came to gain our love He chose to come and to show Himself as an Infant, and the poorest of infants, born in a cold stable between two animals, laid in a manger on straw, without clothing or fire to warm His shivering little limbs: “thus would He be born Who willed to be loved and not feared.” Ah, my Lord! What was it that drew Thee from Heaven to be born in a stable? It was love, the love Thou bearest towards men. What took Thee from the right hand of Thy Father, where Thou sittest, and placed Thee in a manger? What snatched Thee from Thy throne above the stars, and made Thee to lie on a little straw? What changed Thy position from amidst the Angels, to be placed betwixt two beasts? It was all the work of love; Thou inflamest the Seraphim, and dost Thou not shiver with cold? Thou supportest the heavens, and must Thou be now carried in the arms? Thou providest food for men and beasts, and now dost Thou crave a little milk to sustain Thy life? Thou makest the Seraphim happy, and now dost Thou weep and moan? What has reduced Thee to such misery? Love has done it: “Thus would He be born Who willed to be loved and not feared.”

Love, then, love, O souls, exclaims St. Bernard, love now this little Child, for He is exceedingly to be loved. “Great is the Lord, and exceedingly to be praised. The Lord is little, and exceedingly to be loved.” Yes, says the Saint, this God, existing from eternity, is worthy of all praise and reverence for His greatness, as David has sung: “Great is the Lord and exceedingly to be praised!” (Psalm 144:3). But now that we behold Him become a little Infant, needing milk, and unable to move Himself, trembling with cold, moaning and weeping, looking for someone to take and warm and comfort Him! Ah, now indeed does He become the most cherished One of our hearts! “The Lord is little, and exceedingly to be loved!”

We ought to adore Him as our God, but our love ought to keep pace with our reverence towards a God so amiable, so loving.

St. Bonaventure reminds us that “a child finds its delights with other children, with flowers, and to be in the arms.” The Saint’s meaning is, that if we would please this divine Infant, we too must become children, simple and humble; we must bring to Him flowers of virtue, of meekness, of mortification, of charity; we must clasp Him in the arms of our love.

And, O man, adds St. Bernard, what more do you wait to see before you will give yourself wholly to God? See with what labor, with what ardent love, your Jesus has come down from Heaven to seek you. Hearken, how, though scarcely yet born, His wailings call to you as if He would say: O soul, it is thee I am seeking! For thee and to obtain thy love, I am come from Heaven to earth. “Having scarcely quitted the Virgin’s womb,” says the Saint, “He calls thy beloved soul after the manner of infants: Ah! Ah! my soul, my soul, I am seeking Thee! For thee I am making this pilgrimage!”

O God, even the very brutes, if we do them a kindness, if we give them some trifle, are so grateful for it; they come near us, they do our bidding after their own fashion, and they show gladness at our approach. And how comes it, then, that we are so ungrateful towards God, the same God Who has bestowed His whole Self upon us, Who has descended from Heaven to Earth, and has become an Infant to save us and to be loved by us.

“Come, let us love the Babe of Bethlehem!” is the enraptured cry of St. Francis. Let us love Jesus Christ Who has sought in the midst of such sufferings to attach our hearts to Him.

SERMON 22
St. Alphonsus Liguori
COME TO YOUR SAVIOR

Arise, all ye nobles and peasants! Mary invites all ― rich and poor, just and sinners, to enter the Cave of Bethlehem to adore, and to kiss the feet of her new-born Son.

Come then, all ye devout souls ― come in and see the Creator of Heaven and Earth on a little hay under the form of a little Infant; the power of God, as it were, annihilated, and the wisdom of God become mad, through excess of love!

I come, then, dear Jesus, to kiss Thy feet and offer Thee my heart.

Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy ... This day is born to you a Savior! And what tidings could be a greater joy to a race of poor exiles condemned to death, than to be told that their Savior was come, not only to deliver them from death, but to obtain for them liberty to return to their own country? And this is what the Angels announce to you: A Savior is born to you! Jesus Christ is born to you to deliver you from everlasting death, and to open Heaven to you, our true country from which we were banished because of our sins.

No sooner had Mary entered the cavern than she began to pray; and the hour of her delivery being come, behold she sees a great light, and feels in her heart a heavenly joy. She casts down her eyes ― and, O God, what does she see? An Infant so tender and beautiful that He fills her with love! But He trembles and cries and stretches out His arms to show that He desires that she should take Him up into her bosom. “I stretched forth My hands to seek the caresses of My Mother,” as Jesus said to St. Brigid. Mary calls Joseph. “Come Joseph, come and see, for the Son of God is now born.” The old man entered, and prostrating himself, wept for joy.

Mary, holding Him to her bosom, adores Him as her God, kissing His face as her Child. She then hastily seeks to cover Him and wraps Him up in swaddling clothes. But, O God, how hard and rough these clothes are! They are the clothes of the poor, and they are cold and damp, and in that cave there is no fire to warm them.

Let us arise and enter, the door is open. There are no satellites to say that this is not the hour. The Cave is open and without guards or doors, so that all may go in when they please to seek Him and to speak to Him, and even to embrace their Infant King if they love and desire Him.

Lord, I should not have dared to approach Thee seeing myself so deformed by sin; but since Thou, my Jesus, dost invite me so courteously, and dost call me so lovingly, I will not refuse. After having so many times turned my back upon Thee I will not add a fresh insult by refusing, out of distrust, this affectionate, this loving invitation. It is true my heart offended Thee at one time, but now it is penitent.

I confess that I have been a traitor, cruel and ungrateful, that it is I who have caused Thee to suffer so much and made Thee shed so many tears in the stable of Bethlehem, but Thy tears are my hope. I am a sinner, it is true, and I do not deserve to be pardoned, but I come before Thee, Who being God hast become a little Child to obtain pardon for me. Eternal Father, if I deserve hell, look upon the tears of Thy innocent Son. He asks Thee to pardon me this night, a night of joy, of pardon and salvation.

Let every soul, then, enter the Cave of Bethlehem. Behold and see that tender Infant, Who is weeping as He lies in the manger on that miserable straw. See how beautiful He is: look at the light which He sends forth, and the love which He breathes; those eyes send out arrows which wound the hearts that desire Him; the very stable, the very straw cry out, says St. Bernard, and tell you to love Him Who loves you; to love God Who is infinite Love, and Who came down from Heaven, and Made Himself a little Child, and became poor, to make you understand the love He bears you, and to gain your love by His sufferings.

Come and say to Him: “Ah, beautiful Infant! tell me whose Child art Thou?”

He replies: “My Mother is this pure and lovely Virgin who is standing by Me.”

“And Who is Thy Father?”

“My Father,” He says, “is God.”

“How is this? Thou art the Son of God, and art so poor; and why? Who will acknowledge Thee in such a condition? Who will respect Thee?”

“Ah,” replies Jesus, “holy Faith will make known Who I am, and will make Me loved by those whose souls I come to redeem and to inflame with My love.”

“I am not come”, says He, “to make Myself feared, but to make Myself loved; and therefore I wished to show Myself to you for the first time as a poor and humble Infant, that, seeing to what My love for you has reduced Me, you might love Me the more.”

“But tell me, my sweet Infant, why dost Thou turn Thine eyes on every side? What art Thou looking for? I hear Thee sigh; tell me wherefore are these sighs? O God! I see Thee weep; tell me wherefore dost Thou weep?”

“Yes”, replies Jesus, “I turn My eyes around; for I am seeking for some soul that desires Me. I sigh out of desire to see Myself near to a heart that burns for Me, as I burn with love for it. But I weep; and it is because I see but few souls, who seek Me and, wish to love Me.”

Come, then, O all ye devout souls. Jesus invites you to come and kiss His feet this night. The shepherds who came to visit Him in the stable of Bethlehem brought their gifts; you must also bring your gifts. What will you bring Him? The most acceptable present you can bring Him is that of a contrite and loving heart.

O Jesus, Thou must know that I am poor and that I have nothing to give Thee. I have nothing but my penitent heart. This I now offer Thee. Yes, O Infant, I repent of ever having offended Thee, and I hope for pardon from Thee. But the forgiveness of my sins alone is not sufficient for me. On this night Thou dost grant great spiritual graces; I also desire that Thou shouldst bestow a great grace on me ― it is, the grace to love Thee.

Now that I am about to approach Thy feet, inflame me wholly with Thy holy love, and bind me to Thee; but bind me so effectually that I may never more be separated from Thee. I love Thee, O my God, Who didst become a little Child for my sake; but I love Thee very little; I desire to love Thee very much, and Thou hast to enable me to do it. I come, then, to kiss Thy feet, and I offer Thee my heart; I leave it in Thy hands; I will have it no longer; do Thou change it and keep it forever; do not give it back to me again; for if Thou dost, I fear lest it should betray Thee afresh.

Most holy Mary, thou who art the Mother of this great Son, but who art also my Mother, it is to thee that I consecrate my poor heart; present it to Jesus and He will not refuse to receive it when presented by thee. Do thou, then, present it, and beg Him to accept it.

SERMON 23
St. Vincent Ferrer
THE EPIPHANY
Part 1 of 5

Matthew 2:1-12: “When Jesus therefore was born in Bethlehem of Juda, in the days of King Herod, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying: ‘Where is He that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the east, and are come to adore Him!’ And King Herod, hearing this, was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And assembling together all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where Christ should be born. But they said to him: ‘In Bethlehem of Juda. For so it is written by the prophet: “And thou Bethlehem the land of Juda art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come forth the Captain that shall rule My people Israel.”’

Then Herod, privately calling the wise men, learned diligently of them the time of the star which appeared to them. And sending them into Bethlehem, said: ‘Go and diligently inquire after the Child, and when you have found Him, bring me word again, that I also may come to adore Him!’ Who having heard the king, went their way; and behold the star which they had seen in the east, went before them, until it came and stood over where the child was. And seeing the star they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And entering into the house, they found the Child with Mary His Mother, and falling down they adored Him; and, opening their treasures, they offered Him gifts―gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having received an answer in sleep that they should not return to Herod, they went back another way into their country.”

“And falling down they adored Him” (Matthew 2:11).

Today’s feast is commonly called Epiphany or Appearance, which is the same. Because the Virgin Birth which had been hidden and secret, today was manifest to the nations. So the churchmen say and call this feast Epiphany, from “epi” which is “above” and “phanos” which is “appearance,” because the star appeared over the nations. In order that God should wish to give us sentiments of sweetness of this feast in our souls, let us salute the Virgin Mary, etc.

“And falling down they adored Him.” The assigned reading reveals to us in a few words the great and perfect reverence which the three kings of the east offered today to our Lord Jesus Christ, “falling down, etc.” Not only did they uncover their heads, nor were they content to bend their knees, but they folded their hands and arms, and even their whole body. “And falling down they adored Him” (Matthew 2:11).

Now to give us a reason for this adoration – for reason begets understanding, and authority confirms belief – I find in Sacred Scripture that for true, devout and perfect adoration two things are required: a reverent attitude of the interior mind, and a humble gesture of the outward body. As for the first, when man thinks of the infinite and incomprehensible majesty of God and his transcendent power, there comes a reverent trembling interiorly in the soul, and from this there follows exteriorly a humility in the body, joining the hands, genuflecting, or prostrating oneself in prayer to God. Divine adoration consists in these two.

To understand this reason, it must be understood that God created man in his substantial being different than other creatures. Man is a composite, substantially with respect to the soul, and materially with respect to the body. Not so the angels, who are only spiritual substances, nor the animals which are material substances. Because of this man is similar to the angels and animals, because he has both.

So God wishes to be worshipped by both: from the soul thinking of the majesty of God, and from the body through humble gestures. Just like a landowner who leases his field and vineyard for a certain assessment of use. He requires an accounting from both, otherwise he takes back to himself the whole commission. So God is with us. He gives us the vine, the soul which makes the heart drunk with the love of God, and the field of the body that it might bear the fruit of repentance and mercy. So from both he would have a reckoning of devout adoration. Of the angels he asks only spiritual adoration, reverential movements of the mind. Of the animals he asks only a reverential posture of the body, like the ox and ass when they adored Christ in the manger, because they could only bend their knees, but interiorly they had no thoughts. But from us God wishes both, namely the reverent motion of the mind, and bodily actions.

Christ said, “But the hour comes, and is now, when the true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father also seeks such to adore him. God is a spirit; and they who adore him, must adore him in spirit and in truth!” (John 4:23-24). Note, “the hour comes,” the time of the law of grace, “when the true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit” with respect to the soul, “and in truth” with respect to the body, because that is truth, when the body conforms and corresponds to the mind. And he gives a reason, saying, “God is a Spirit,” and so it is necessary to “adore him in spirit and in truth.”

Think of the miracle found in John 9, of the man born blind, given sight by Christ, to whom he says: “‘Do you believe in the Son of God?’ He answered, and said: ‘Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in Him?’ And Jesus said to him: ‘You have both seen Him; and it is He who is talking with you.’ And he said: ‘I believe, Lord. And falling down, he adored Him’“ (John 9:35-38). See the reverential interior movement in the soul and the external bodily gesture, because “falling down he adored Him.”

SERMON 24
St. Vincent Ferrer
THE EPIPHANY
Part 2 of 5

The three kings acted thus when they saw the Infant Jesus. Instantly there entered into their souls a movement of reverential fear from the presence of divine majesty. And so, “prostrating themselves they adored Him.”

Of these three kings I shall explain four points: First how they prepared themselves diligently. Second how they went forth courageously. Third how they sought him persistently. Fourth how they adored him profoundly.

And from the fourth point the theme speaks, “Falling down they adored him.”

DILIGENTLY PREPARED THEMSELVES
The first point is to tell how these three holy kings aptly prepared themselves. We need to know what God promised Abraham and the holy patriarchs, that he would send his son, born into this world of a virgin, true God and true man. About this he gave clear prophecies, not only to the Jews in Judea, but also to diverse parts of the world, as a sign that he would come not only to save the Jews, as they falsely believe, but also all those believing in him and obeying him.

He especially sent prophecies to the eastern regions – where there were great prophets and wise men – through the prophet Balaam saying: “I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not near. A star shall rise out of Jacob and a scepter shall spring up from Israel: and shall strike the chiefs of Moab” (Numbers 24:17). Note: “I shall see Him” ― Christ, whom he saw not in himself but through his successors; “I shall see Him, but not now” ― because from the text of the bible there were 1,500 years from Balaam to Christ.

But these three kings were from their own time [genere], and he gave them signs saying: “A star shall rise out of Jacob,” from the promised land, “and a scepter shall spring up from Israel,” the Messias King Savior, and he “shall strike the kings of Moab,” which is so interpreted. It [Moab] signifies the devil who is the father of sinners, to whom Christ said: “You are of your father the devil,” (John 8.44), “the kings of Moab,” i.e. of the devil or of Lucifer.

About this prophecy of Balaam, Chrysostom says, that his disciples and those who were of his kind, after his death wished to observe that star. And they ordained that certain ones of them would stand on the tall Mount Victory, to gaze at the heavens. There they would wash themselves, believing that by this their sins were forgiven, and they would pray saying, “O God of heaven, God of Israel, send the star,” and fulfill the prophecy,” (Cf. James of Voragine, Golden Legend). And so they divided up times [to watch] for themselves.

And on the night of the nativity, by divine providence, these three Kings of the East, great philosophers and astrologers, on Mount Victory saw the predicted star. And at the moment when Christ was born of the Virgin’s womb, the star appeared to them extremely bright, and low in the sky, nor did daylight dim its appearance.

St. John Chrysostom repeats the opinion that there was the image of a child in that star, with a cross on his forehead. Some say that the Magi wanted to adore the star. But Augustine says that the angel of the Lord told them that they should not adore the star, but that they should make their way to adore the newly born Creator.

Then the kings took counsel how they should travel, how they should prepare, and what they should bring to offer to him, saying, “He is a great king and powerful. We should offer him gold. And he is God and creator, because the stars serve him, so we shall offer him incense. And in this sign of the cross it is revealed that he is to die on a cross, and so we shall offer him bitter myrrh.” [Ecclesiastes] The Magi seeing the star, consulted each other. “This is the sign of a great king. Let us go and inquire of him and offer him gifts, gold, frankincense and myrrh.”

I believe, therefore, although it is not written, that the holy kings symbolized in their gifts what they believed about Christ. I believe that also [it was expressed] in their clothing, because the king who brought the gold, was clothed in a gold shirt, and the one who brought the incense, in a purple tunic, and the one with the myrrh, in a red scarf. See how they made themselves fit both in gifts as well as clothing.

Morally
I find in sacred scripture that God promised men two stars, one in the old law, namely that which appeared to the eastern kings, which prefigured the redemption of mankind. The second, and better, was promised in the new testament saying: “And he that shall overcome, and keep my works unto the end, ... I will give him the morning star,” (Rev 2:26,28). This signifies heavenly salvation. Note, he who shall conquer the devil through humility, the flesh through chastity, and the world through poverty, “and keep my works unto the end...I will give him the morning star,” i.e. the good angel guiding the soul to Christ. See how the angels in sacred scripture are called stars.

The reason is because just as the heavenly firmament is decorated and bedecked with stars, so the empyreal heaven is decorated and bedecked with angels, and so they are referred to as stars. Authority: “And the stars have given light in their watches, and rejoiced: They were called, and they said: Here we are: and with cheerfulness they have shined forth to him that made them,” (Baruch 3:34-36). Note “the stars,” i.e. angels, “stars have given light in their watches” i.e. to men who were keeping watch. David: “For he has given his angels charge over you; to keep you, commanded to his angels to keep you,” (Psalm 90:11). They bring to the understanding what ought to be believed, to the memory what is to be feared and remembered, and to the will what is to be hoped for, and to deeds, what is to be done. And when a man receives the light of their instruction, he rejoices.

And in the end, when a man is in the arms of death, God sends the morning star, i.e. an angel who leads the soul to Christ, just as that star led the kings to Christ. And so it happens that if this [Epiphany] star is corruptible, because it is immediately was changed back into the underlying material, once it had been observed and desired, how much more should we await that incorruptible star, by washing ourselves from all uncleanness and sins? First by washing our heart from anger, rancor and ill will; our mouths from blasphemies, lies and detractions; our hands from theft and extortion and the like; and the whole body from the corruptions of lust and carnal sins.

Note from the aforesaid evidence that this star which appeared brighter in the birth of Christ was not one of the heavenly stars, for five reasons, which St. Thomas gives III Pars, q. 36, a. 7. St. Thomas says, repeating the opinions of others, that the essence of this star most probably was of a new creation, not in the heaven, but in the atmosphere, which moved according to divine will. Augustine believed namely that it was not of the heavenly stars, because he says in his book Contra Faustum Book, 2, “Besides, this star was not one of those which from the beginning of the world continue in the course ordained by the Creator. Along with the new birth from the Virgin appeared a new star.” Chrysostom believes this too.

SERMON 25
St. Vincent Ferrer
THE EPIPHANY
Part 3 of 5

PROCEEDED WITH COURAGE
The second point is to declare how the three holy kings proceeded with courage, because from the head of the world, namely from the East, they came for thirteen days to Judea which is in the middle of the world. In fact, from what I have found in the text and in the Glosses of the doctors, having prepared themselves they immediately began their journey.

The star first rose ahead of them, showing them the way which they should take. So that when they had to climb a hill, first the star rose, and when they had to descend, it descended. When they had to cross a river, the star showed them the place to ford it. And when they were in a village in which they had to rest, the star would remain motionless over the hotel. Then when they were leaving the star would lead again and they would follow. Doesn’t this seem to you to be a great miracle? In this way they came to their destination, the Promised Land.

And on the next day when they were to enter the land of Judah, the star disappeared from their sight. Imagine the sadness they had, saying: “O woe! What is this? Has the star disappeared because of some sin of one of us? What should we do?” St. Thomas Aquinas says that they took counsel on what they should do. One said that they should return, because to seek a new king in a foreign land would be very dangerous. Others said that they should at least go into the city of Jerusalem: “Such a king ought to be born in a noble city, or at least they would know where he had been born, because there were great rabbis and professors there, so let us do what we can.” And they came to the city of Jerusalem.

And then was fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, saying: “Arise be enlightened, O Jerusalem: for your light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For behold darkness shall cover the earth, and a mist the people: but the Lord shall arise upon you, and his glory shall be seen upon you. And the Gentiles shall walk in your light, and kings in the brightness of your rising,” (Isaias 60:1-2). The gentles speak to the Jews as if to a person sleeping saying: “Arise” city of Jerusalem, “be enlightened,” with the brightness of the light of faith, “for your light is come,” the Christ. Note: “And the Gentiles shall walk in your light,” not just the Jews.

Morally
The kings, having lost their star, came to Jerusalem, so that they can be instructed there. So should we do when we lose the star of the grace of God. You know that the grace of God is called a star, signified by the star of the kings. Why? Because just as that star directed and led the kings to Christ in Judea, so the grace of God directs and leads and shows the way to paradise to those who have it. At a fork in the road it points out the way, to the right. O how many forks in the road there are in this world for those who chose not to go to Christ.

● First is of pride and vanity to the left; of sweetness and humility to the right. The star of the grace of God points to the right, the way of humility, which is the correct way, straight and good and without danger.
● Second is [the fork] of avarice and desire; and of mercy and liberality.
● Third is [the fork] of lust and carnal desires; and purity and innocence.
● Fourth is [the fork] of envy and malice on the left; and of benevolence and goodness on the right, which the star of grace makes clear.
● Fifth is of gluttony and voraciousness; and abstinence and moderation.
● Sixth is [the fork] of anger and brutality; and of peace and unity.
● Seventh is [the fork] of torpor and laziness; of diligence and industriousness.

In these the star of the grace of God directs us, also the star of the grace of God shows the way, ascending through the contemplative way and descending through the active way for works of mercy and piety. It also shows the crossing on the river of worldly delights, where many are drowned, submerged by food and drink and clothing, and tastes, etc.

So Blessed John says: “Let the anointing, which you have received from him, abide in you. And you have no need that any man teach you; but as his anointing teaches you of all things,” (1 John 2:27). Note: “the anointing,” Gloss, i.e. divine grace. But what must you do when the state of divine grace is lost, which is not lost but through mortal sin? I say you ought to do what those holy kings did, namely go to Jerusalem, i.e. to the church, to confess our sins, and so rediscover the star of the grace of God. Thus Christ said to Paul, who lost the star, “Go into the city, and there it shall be told you what you must do,” (Acts 9:7). Note, “the city” i.e. Damascus, which is translated “bloody” and signifies the Church, in which the Blood of Christ is consecrated and consumed.

SERMON 26
St. Vincent Ferrer
THE EPIPHANY
Part 4 of 5

SOUGHT HIM DISCREETLY
The third point is how these three holy kings sought Christ discreetly, the place of the birth of Christ, after they had been in the city of Jerusalem.

When the kings were near the city, think how there was a disturbance in the city, especially because Herod, who was a new king, and a foreigner to the people of Juda, feared for himself, and kept himself apart from them.

Think how Herod immediately sent for the kings to find out who they were, and whom they sought, and why they had come. The kings replied that they had come to seek the newly born king of the Jews.

You can imagine that someone warned them: “Do not tell, otherwise Herod would follow you.”
They did not deny the truth. “We have seen His star in the east, and have come to adore Him!” (Matthew 2:2).

St. John Chrysostom says: “Consider the devotion of the kings. They have not yet seen Christ, and they are prepared to die for Him.” Herod had asked why they had come. Think what fear and pain entered into his ear, especially because he was already afraid of this. And he had heard of the wonders which would happen at the birth of the Christ, on account of which he considered himself ruined and destroyed.

About this the Evangelist Matthew writes: “[Herod] hearing this, was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him” (Matthew 2:3). But he hid his malice, feigning joy at the birth of Christ. And because the kings of the east had come in simplicity, and unarmed, he permitted them to enter the city and received them honorably.

Next, he said to them: “My lords, why have you come?”
They replied: “We seek the whereabouts of the One Who has been born king of the Jews.”
See what peril they placed themselves in.
Herod, dissimulating, said: “I have heard something of this, but I don’t know whether it is certain that He has been born.”
The kings replied: “It is certain, because we have seen His star in the east.”
Then Herod said: “And now, my lords, what do you wish?”
They responded: “We have come with gifts to adore Him.”
Then Herod, in a loud voice, eagerly asked of them the time when the star appeared to them. In private he asked them: “Tell me exactly the day and time of His birth. And I, with my masters, doctors and rabbis shall tell you of the place where he has been born, that we all might come to adore Him.”

O deceiver! With his other hand he already was readying the sword, that he might cut him down if he could. And gathering all the chief priests and the scribes he consulted them as to where the Christ would be born. They all agreed and responded it was in the city of Bethlehem according to the prophet Micheas: “And you, Bethlehem Ephrata, are a little one among the thousands of Juda―out of you shall He come forth to Me, He who is to be the ruler in Israel” (Micheas 5:2). Note “who is to be the ruler,” ruler in virtues, by the example of his behavior and preaching.

Then Herod informed the kings of the place, and sending them to Bethlehem said: “Go and diligently inquire after the child, and when you have found him, bring me word again, that I too may come to adore him” (Matthew 2:8). O betrayer! Enemy of the Church! Wicked Herod, why do you fear the Christ to come? He who rules [gives] the celestial kingdom does not seize a mortal kingdom. Thus the holy kings sought him discreetly and with great diligence.

Morally
The holy kings, before they came to Herod, were guided by a star, but after they had gone to King Herod, they turned again to Holy Scriptures to guide themselves, etc. Herod signifies the Antichrist, because just as Herod wishing to kill the Christ, killed the innocents, so the Antichrist wishing to destroy the Faith of Christ, shall kill Christians contradicting him. And that star signifies human science, logic, philosophy, laws, canons, by which we are now directed and ruled. But in the time of the Antichrist it shall be necessary to turn again to Sacred Scriptures, because the Antichrist shall not believe in logic, nor philosophy nor poetry nor laws, etc.

Only with Sacred Scripture shall we make a stand against him. Therefore how guilty are we now, because no one cares about the Bible. Laypeople give themselves to profitable sciences. And among religious, who ought to study sacred scripture, one devotes himself to Virgil, another to Ovid, another to Terence, and so for the others.

This is one sign, among others, of the nearness of the Antichrist. Because the Antichrist, to prove his error that he is the Messias and the son of God, etc., shall bring forth only the text of the Bible and the prophets. How do you defend yourself, to refute him, if you are ignorant of the Bible? About this there is a prophecy of Solomon saying: “When prophecy shall fail, the people shall be scattered!” (Proverbs 29:18). This prophecy speaks of the Old Testament. Christ speaks to all, saying: “Search the Scriptures, for you think in them to have life everlasting; and the same are they that give testimony of Me” (John 5:39).

SERMON 27
St. Vincent Ferrer
THE EPIPHANY
Part 5 of 5

ADORED HIM PROFOUNDLY
The fourth point is how they adored him profoundly. After they had received the instruction or permission to depart from Herod, and when they had come to Jerusalem’s gate, the star reappeared to them. O if one could express the joy which they had! And Matthew relates this. “And seeing the star they rejoiced with exceeding great joy” (Matthew 2:10).

We now know the reason why the star hid from them, so that by a double sign, the star and the Scriptures, they might be certified of the truth and would have a double testimony. And the star went before them as before.

When they were near Bethlehem, the judges and officials of Bethlehem, who had heard of their arrival, came to meet them saying: “What do you wish? And why do you come here?”
They replied: “Where is the One Who has been born King of the Jews? We have seen His star in the East and we come to adore Him.”
They said: “We know no other king but Herod.”

O liars!   That star illumined those three kings, and the sun, that is, Christ, was not able to illuminate them. Their sinfulness was blinding them, placing an obstacle on the night of the nativity, when light was shining. And the star was seen by all, as Maximus says in his sermon for today. “Rightly one star shone, the rays of which a faithless people were not able to hide, nor hide its truth; where the very heaven of the universe shone forth with a surreal light to the eyes of everyone.” Think when the Jews looked at the star, how it brought devotion to the good, and instilled terror on the wicked. How they wondered because it did not shine from very high up. The kings followed it and entered the city and finally came to the place where the child was.

The holy teachers tell us that the Virgin Mary was still in that cave with the child where she had given birth. And the Gloss says that Joseph, by divine providence, was not there at that time, lest he himself be thought to be the father of the child. When the Virgin Mary sensed that the army which she feared was coming, imagine how she hid the child in the manger and began sewing and knitting, praying, and her whole heart trembled.

The star stood above the place where the child was. And the kings were amazed when they did not see a palace there, or a noble house, and they looked at each other saying: “How is it that the star is not moving?” Maximus says that the star emitted new and brighter rays, which told the kings: “Here is the King whom you seek!” The kings dismounted from their horses and beasts, and one of them coming to the entrance of the cave lifted up the door-covering a little, and asked: “Who is here?” He saw the Virgin knitting and sewing. The other two kings approached, and when they saw the Virgin Mary, they immediately were seized with great devotion.

She said to them: “My lords, what do you seek?”
They asked: “Do you know where the One is Who has been born King of the Jews, because we wish to adore Him.”
The Virgin Mary did not say that she did not know, but she said: “Lords, the great ones, the rabbis and rectors of the city ought to know.”
She spoke the truth, and immediately the kings hearts were fully inflamed. And again going out they looked for the star. It was standing immediately overhead, and not moving. It was even more beautiful.

They returned to the Virgin and they said to her: “Have you a Son?”
She responded: “Yes, my lords.”
“How long is it since you gave birth?”
She replied” “Lords, today is the thirteenth day.”
The kings said: “Dear young woman, please show Him to us.”
Then the Virgin, knowing that they had come with good intentions, picked up the child from the manger, and held him out to them.
They said: “What is His Name?”
The Virgin Mary replied: “Jesus.”

In hearing the name they prostrated themselves and adored him saying, “O Savior, it is good that You have come. O Lord such is Your humility that You have wished to come in a stable of this miserable world. You who are infinite in divinity, are now confined in humanity. You, who are Creator, have become a creature. You who are immortally and invulnerably safe, have become vulnerable and mortal. O Lord this is such a grace!”
And weeping they kissed his feet. Then adoring the mother, they said: “O Chamber of Paradise, Temple of God, Chalice of the Holy Spirit! O Blessed, you have brought to us a Savior!”

The evangelist says that opening their treasures they gave him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Gold for a great king, frankincense for the true God, and bitter myrrh for one who would suffer. And so the prophecy of David was fulfilled of this day saying: “The kings of Tharsis and the islands shall offer presents. The kings of the Arabians and of Saba shall bring gifts. And all kings of the Earth shall adore Him! All nations shall serve Him!” (Psalm 71:10-11).

Note, they “shall serve Him,” namely for the good reward and remuneration which He gives to his servants. Otherwise one serves the world, which brings death to his servants and delivers his soul to the devil, for eternal punishment. But Christ gives grace to His servants in this world, and glory in the next. Therefore He is to be served, and so Christ said: “The Lord your God shall you adore, and Him only shall you serve!” (Matthew 4:10).

Then the holy kings prayed to God, that He might show them if they should return to Herod. But the Evangelist says, that “having received an answer in sleep,” from an angel, “that they should not return to Herod, they went back another way into their country” (Matthew 2:11).

Think a moment here, when Joseph came and saw such gold, incense and myrrh, how he rejoiced. But on the other hand he was saddened, that he was not judged worthy to be present for such a special event. St. Bernard says that they gave all of their gold out of love of God.

Morally
From the example of the kings we ought to offer the gold of our conversion. Such a person can say with David: “I have loved your commandments above gold and topaz,” which is a precious stone, “therefore was I directed to all Your commandments. I have hated all wicked ways!” (Psalm 118:127-128).

Second, the frankincense of devout prayer, saying: “Let my prayer be directed as incense [in Your sight]” (Psalm 140:2).

Third we should offer the myrrh of voluntary penance. And such a one can say: “You shall ... make me to live. Behold in peace is my bitterness most bitter: but You best delivered my soul that it should not perish!” (Isaias 38:16-17).

SERMON 28
St. Francis de Sales
THE PURIFICATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
Part 1 of 5

Sermon for the Feast of the Purification, February 2nd, 1620, concerning the voluntary subjection of Our Lord and His Blessed Mother to the laws of presentation and purification, their practice of humility, various sins of pride, the perfect obedience of Our Lord and His Mother, how we should practice humility and obedience, and the four conditions for praying well, in imitation of the prophet Simeon who held the Divine Infant in his arms.

God speaks as He acts and acts as He speaks. (Psalm 33:9; 148:5). In this He shows us that we must not be satisfied with speaking well, but we must adjust our deeds to our proposals and our works to our words if we want to be pleasing to Him. With God every word is act. He desires that, in the same way, our words should be immediately followed by action and the carrying out of our good resolutions.

When the ancients would represent a man of integrity they used as a symbol a peach upon which they laid a peach leaf, because the peach has the form of a heart and the leaf of the peach the form of a tongue. This signifies that the man of integrity and virtue has not only a tongue in order to say many good things, but that since this tongue is laid upon his heart, he speaks only according to the wishes of his heart. That is to say, he says only those words which first spring from his heart, which immediately urges him to the accomplishment and effects of his words.

For the same reason the four animals had not only wings with which to fly, but also hands under them (Ezechiel 1:5-8) to help us understand that we ought not to be satisfied in having wings in order to fly to Heaven by holy desires and considerations, if, along with these, we have not also hands which lead us to works and the execution of our desires. It is certain that good desires and holy resolutions alone will not take us to Paradise unless they are accompanied by effects conformable to them.

To confirm this truth Our Lord comes to the Temple today to be offered to God His Father, subjecting Himself to the observance of the Law which He had formerly given to Moses, written on stone tablets (Exodus 24:12; 34:1; 2 Corinthians 3:7), In this Law there was a great number of particular observances to which our Divine Master and Our Lady were in no way obliged. Being King and Monarch of the whole earth, indeed of Heaven, of earth, and of all that they contain, the Savior could not be subject to any law or commandment.

Nevertheless, because He was to be placed before our eyes as a sovereign and incomparable model to which we ought to conform ourselves in all things insofar as the weakness of our nature would permit, He chose to observe the Law and to subject Himself to it. His most blessed Mother followed His example, as we see in the Gospel of today (Luke 2:22-38), which proposes to us the Purification of Our Lady and the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple.

On this subject I will make three considerations, which I will not dwell upon but only touch on in passing, leaving them for you to ruminate in your mind, as “clean animals” (Leviticus 11:2-3,47) do, to make a good and healthy digestion. The first consideration is on the example that our Divine Savior and the glorious Virgin give us of a profound and true humility; the second, on obedience which is engrafted on humility; and the third, on the excellent method that they teach us for praying well.

First, what greater and more profound humility could be imagined than that which Our Lord and Our Lady practice in coming to the Temple: The One comes to be offered there the same as other children of sinful men, while the other comes to be purified! It is certain that Our Lord could not be obliged to this ceremony, since He was purity itself, and it referred only to sinners.

As to Our Lady, what need had she to be purified? She neither was nor could be blemished, having received so excellent a grace from the time of her Conception that the cherubim’s and seraphim’s is in no way comparable to it. For if indeed God prevented them with His grace from their creation to forestall their falling into sin, nevertheless they were not confirmed in grace from that moment in such a way that they could no longer deviate from it. But they were so afterwards, in virtue of the choice they made to avail themselves of this first grace and by the voluntary submission of their free will.

But Our Lady was prevented with the grace of God and confirmed in it at the very moment of her Conception in such a way that she could not deviate from it nor sin. Nevertheless both the Child and the Mother, notwithstanding their incomparable purity, come today to present themselves in the Temple as if they were sinners like the rest of men. O act of incomparable humility!

The greater the dignity of the persons who humble themselves, the more estimable is the act of humility they make. O God! How great are Our Lord and Our Lady who is His Mother! What a beautiful consideration, the most useful and profitable that could be made, is that of the humility that the Savior so dearly loved! It seems that it was His beloved, and that He descended from Heaven to earth only for the love of it (Luke 1:48). It is the greatest of all the purely moral virtues, for I am not speaking here of the love of God and of charity. Charity is not only a particular virtue but also a general one, which permeates all the others, and they receive their splendor from it. But as to particular virtues, there is none so great nor so necessary as humility.

Our Lord so cherished humility that He preferred to die rather than abandon its practice. He Himself said: “There is no greater love than this; to lay down one’s life” for the thing loved. (John 15:13). Now He truly gave His life for this virtue, for in dying He made the most excellent and most supreme act of humility that could ever be imagined.

The Apostle St. Paul, to make us conceive in some degree the love our Savior had for this holy virtue, says that “he humbled himself, obediently accepting even death, death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8), as if to say: My Master did not humble Himself for a time only or for some particular actions, but to death, that is to say, from the moment of His conception, and then during the whole course of His life, to death; and not only until then, but He willed to practice it even in dying. And enhancing the greatness of this humility, the Apostle adds: “even death on a cross” — a death more ignominious and full of abjection than any other kind of death.

By this divine example we are taught that we must not be satisfied with practicing humility in some particular actions or for a time only, but always and on every occasion: not only to death, but to the mortification of ourselves. In this way we humble the love of our own esteem and the esteem of our self-love. We must not amuse ourselves with the practice of a certain humility of demeanor and words which consists in saying that we are nothing and in making many exterior reverences and humiliations, which are anything but true humility. For humility, in order to be true, should not only make us know but also acknowledge that we are true nothings who do not deserve to live. It makes us docile, tractable and submissive to everyone, observing by this means that precept of the Savior which orders us to renounce ourselves if we would follow Him (Matthew 16:24).

There are some who greatly deceive themselves in thinking that the practice of humility is proper only to novices and beginners, and that as soon as they have made a little progress in the way of God they can easily relax in this practice. In fact, esteeming themselves already sufficiently wise, they turn into fools instead (Romans 1:22). Do they not see that Our Lord humbled Himself even to death, that is to say, during the whole course of His life?

Oh, how this Divine Master of our souls knew well that His example was necessary for us! He had no need of abasing Himself. Nevertheless He desired to persevere in doing this because the necessity was in us! Oh, how extremely necessary is perseverance in this matter, for how many have there been who, having begun very well in the practice of humility, have been lost through lack of perseverance. Our Lord did not say: “He who begins,” but “he who holds out till the end” in humility will escape death (Matthew 10:22; 24:13).

SERMON 29
St. Francis de Sales
THE PURIFICATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
Part 2 of 5

What made the angels sin except a lack of humility? Although their sin was one of disobedience, nevertheless to consider it in its origin it was pride which made them disobey.

The miserable Lucifer began to look at and contemplate himself. Then he went on to admire and delight in his beauty, after which he said: “I will not serve,” and thus he threw off the yoke of holy submission (Isaias 14:13-14; Jeremias 2:20). He had good reason to look at himself and consider his excellent nature, but not to delight in it and take empty pride in it.

There is no evil at all in considering oneself in order to glorify God for the gifts that He has given us, provided that we do not pass on to vanity and self-complacency. There is a maxim of the philosophers which has been approved as good by Christian Doctors: “Know thyself” – that is to say, know the excellence of your soul in order not to disparage nor despise it. However, we must always remain within the terms and limits of a holy and loving acknowledgement before God, on whom we depend and who made us what we are (Psalm 100:3).

Our first parents and all others who have sinned have almost all been moved to do so through pride. Our Lord, as a good and loving Doctor of our souls, takes evil in its root, and in place of pride He plants first the beautiful and useful plant of most holy humility. This virtue is so much the more necessary as its contrary vice is more general among all people. We have seen how pride was found among the angels and how the lack of humility was the reason for their being lost forever. See how, among men, some, having begun well, are miserably lost through lack of perseverance in this virtue.

What did not King Saul do at the beginning of his reign? Scripture says that he had the innocence of a child of one year. However, he was perverted to such a degree through his pride that he merited to be condemned by God. What humility did not Judas evince while living in the company of Our Lord? And yet see what pride he had when dying. Being unwilling to humble himself and perform the acts of penitence, which presuppose a very great and true humility, he despaired of obtaining pardon (Matthew 27:4-5). It is an insupportable pride to be unwilling to abase oneself before the Divine Mercy, from which we ought to expect all our good and all our happiness.

In short, this is the evil common among all people. That is why we can never preach enough and impress upon their minds the necessity of perseverance in the practice of the most holy and most lovable virtue of humility. For this purpose Our Lord and Our Lady come today to take upon themselves the mark of sinners — they who could not sin. They subject themselves to the Law which was made neither for the One nor the other. Great humility to abase oneself thus!

The humility practiced by little people is no great thing, nor is it an abasement of much importance in comparison with that of giants. Cats, rats and other such animals which almost crawl on the earth have no great difficulty in rising again when they have fallen or dropped to the ground. But elephants, once they have lowered themselves or fallen, have very great trouble and difficulty in rising and getting back on their feet.

Likewise, it is no great thing to see us abase and humble ourselves — the likes of us who are only nothings and deserve only abjection and humiliation. But the humiliations of our dear Savior and the sacred Virgin, who are like giants of incomparable magnificence and eminence, are of inestimable value. From the moment they first humbled themselves they persevered during the whole course of their lives and never desired to rise again; for Our Lord — and His most blessed Mother in imitation of Him — “humbled himself, obediently accepting even death, death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8).

But the likes of us miserable creatures who, like rats, cats and other such animals, only crawl and drag ourselves along the ground, as soon as we have abased and humbled ourselves in some trifling circumstance, immediately rise up again, become haughty, and seek to be esteemed something good.

We are impurity itself and we desire that others believe us to be pure and holy. Great folly—greater indeed than can be expressed! Our Lady, who never sinned, nevertheless was willing to be accounted a sinner. Consider, please, a daughter of Eve: how ambitious she is for honor and to be esteemed. Indeed, although this evil is general among men, it nevertheless seems that this sex is more inclined to it than the other.

Our glorious Mistress was by no means a daughter of Eve according to the spirit, but only according to blood: For she was never anything but extremely humble and lowly, as she herself says in her sacred canticle; The Lord has looked upon His servant in her lowliness. That is why all nations shall call me blessed (Luke 1:48).

I know well that she meant that God had looked upon her littleness and her lowliness but it is precisely in this that we recognize still more her profound and sincere humility. Listen to her, please, as she always depreciates herself, and particularly when the angel announces to her that she is to be the Mother of the Son of God: I am, she says, His servant (Luke 1:38).

Therefore, to conclude this first point (for we must be brief since this subject comes up so often), we are taught by our Divine Master of the esteem that we ought to have for most holy humility, which has always been His “well-beloved.” Moreover, it is the basis and foundation of the whole edifice of our perfection. This can neither stand nor be raised higher except by means of the practice of a profound, sincere and true acknowledgement of our littleness and stupidity. This practice leads us to a true humiliation and contempt of ourselves.

SERMON 30
St. Francis de Sales
THE PURIFICATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
Part 3 of 5

Let us go on to the second point. The humility of our Divine Savior and His most blessed Mother was always accompanied by a perfect power over both of them that they would rather have died, and even by death on a cross, than fail to obey. Our Lord died on the Cross through obedience. And Our Lady — what remarkable acts of obedience did she not make at the very hour of the death of her Son, who was the Heart of her heart? In no way whatever did she resist the will of the Heavenly Father, but rather remained firm and constant at the foot of the Cross (John 19:25), completely submissive to the divine good pleasure.

We can use the same words of St. Paul for obedience as we have for humility: Our Lord became obedient to death, even to death on a Cross (Philippians 2:8). He never did anything throughout His entire life except through obedience, which He Himself made known to us when He said: “It is not to do My own will that I have come down from Heaven, but to do the will of Him who sent Me” (John 6:38). Therefore, always and in all things He looked to the will of His Heavenly Father in order to follow it, and not for a time, but always and even unto death.

As to Our Lady, examine and consider the whole course of her life. You will find there nothing but obedience. She so esteemed this virtue that, although she had made a vow of virginity, she nevertheless submitted herself to the command that was given her to marry. Ever afterwards she persevered in obedience, as we see today, since she comes to the Temple to obey the law of purification, even though there was no necessity for her to observe it, nor her Son either, as we have already mentioned in the first point. Her obedience was purely voluntary. It was not less for being voluntary and unnecessary.

She so dearly loved this virtue, which her sacred Son had engrafted as a divine graft on the trunk of holy humility, that she recommended no other. We do not find in the Gospel that she spoke except at the marriage feast of Cana in Galilee, when she said: “Do whatever my Son tells you” (John 2:5), thus preaching the observance of obedience. This virtue is the inseparable companion of humility. One is never found without the other, for humility makes us submit to obedience.

Our Lady and sacred Mistress was not afraid of disobeying, because she was in no way obliged to the Law, which was not made for her or for her Son. Rather, she feared the shadow of disobedience. For though she, being all pure, had no need of being purified, if she had not come to the Temple to offer Our Lord and to be purified, there could have been found those who would wish to investigate her life in order to find out why she had not done as the rest of women.

Thus she comes today to the Temple to remove all suspicion from men who might have wondered about her. She comes also to show us that we ought not to be satisfied with avoiding sin, but that we must avoid even the shadow of sin. Neither must we stop at the resolution we make not to commit such and such a sin; rather, we must fly even from the occasions which could serve as a temptation to fall into it.

She also teaches us not to be satisfied with the testimony of a good conscience, but to take care to remove every suspicion in others that will make them disedified by us or by our conduct. I say this for certain people who, being resolved not to commit some sins, are not careful enough to avoid the suggestion they give that they would willingly commit them if they dared.

Oh, how this example of most holy obedience that Our Lord and Our Lady give us should incite us to submit ourselves absolutely and without any reserve to the observance of all that is commanded us, and, not satisfied with that, to observe also the things which are counseled in order to make us more pleasing to the Divine Goodness! My God!

Is it such a great thing to see us obey, we who are born only to serve, since the Supreme King to whom all things should be subject (Psalm 119:91) was pleased to subject Himself to obedience? Let us then meditate on this sacred example that the Savior and the glorious Virgin give us, and learn to submit ourselves — to make ourselves docile, pliable and easy to turn in any direction through most holy obedience; and not for a time nor for certain particular acts, but always, during the whole course of our life, even unto death.

SERMON 31
St. Francis de Sales
THE PURIFICATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
Part 4 of 5

In the third place let us consider in today’s Gospel how we can observe an excellent way to pray well. Many greatly deceive themselves, believing that so many things are necessary, so many methods needed to pray well.

We see some who are very anxious to research all possible means of finding a certain skill that to them seems necessary in order to know how to pray well. They ceaselessly analyze their prayer minutely, prying into it to see if they can make it as they desire. Some think they must not cough or stir for fear God’s Spirit will withdraw — very great folly indeed, as if God’s Spirit were so delicate that He depended on the method or the countenance of those who pray!

I am not saying that we must not use methods which are taught. But we ought not to attach ourselves to them. Nor ought we to esteem them so much that we place all our confidence in them, as do those who think that provided they always make their considerations before the affections, all is well. It is very good to make considerations, but it is not good to attach oneself so much to one method or another that we think that all depends on our effort.

There is only one thing necessary to pray well, and that is to have our Lord in our arms. When we do this our prayer is always made well, whatever method we follow. There is no other technique, and without this our prayers will be worth nothing — nor will God receive them. For the Divine Master has Himself said: “No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).

Prayer is nothing else but an “elevation of our mind to God,” which we in no way can bring about by ourselves. But when we have our Savior in our arms everything becomes easy for us. Consider, please, the holy man Simeon and how well he prayed when he had Our Lord in his arms. “Now,” he said, “You can let Your servant go in peace,” since he has seen his salvation and his God (Luke 2:29-30). It would be a horrible wickedness to wish to exclude Our Lord Jesus Christ from our prayer and to think that we could make it well without His assistance, for it is a sure fact that we cannot be pleasing to the Eternal Father except when He regards us through His Son, our Savior (Psalm 84:10; Romans 8:29).

And this is true not only of men but also of angels, for although He is not their Redeemer, He is nevertheless their Savior, and they have been confirmed in grace by Him. Just as when we look at something through a red or violet glass everything we see is of that color, so the Eternal Father, looking at us through the beauty and goodness of His most blessed Son, finds us beautiful and good as He desires us to be. But without this artifice we are only ugliness and deformity itself.

I have said that prayer is “an elevation to God.” It is true, for although in going to God we meet the angels or the saints on our way, we do not raise our mind to them nor do we address our prayers to them, as the heretics have unfairly suggested. We simply ask them to join their prayers to ours in order to make of them a holy fusion, so that by this sacred mingling ours might be better received by the Divine Goodness. God always finds them agreeable if we bring along with us His dear Benjamin, as the children of Jacob did when they went to see their brother Joseph in Egypt (Genesis 43:15). If we do not take Him with us, we will receive the same punishment with which Joseph threatened his brothers, that is, that never again would they be admitted to his presence, and they would receive nothing from him, if they did not bring their little brother to him (Genesis 42:20; 43:3).

Our dear little brother is this blessed Baby that Our Lady carries to the Temple today and whom she hands over — either she personally or through St. Joseph — to the good old man Simeon. It is more likely that it was St. Joseph rather than the sacred Virgin. There are two reasons for this. First, it was the fathers who came to offer their children, having a greater role here than even the mothers. The other reason is that women were not yet purified and dared not approach the altar where the offerings were made (Leviticus 12:4).

However that may be, it does not matter much. It is enough that St. Simeon received this very blessed Baby into his arms, either from Our Lady or St. Joseph. Oh, how happy are they who go to the Temple ready to receive the grace of receiving from this divine Mother — or from her dear spouse — Our Lord and Master! Having Him in our arms we desire nothing more and can well sing this divine canticle: Now You can dismiss Your servant in peace, O my God, because my soul is fully satisfied, possessing all that is most desirable either in Heaven or on Earth (Psalm 73:25).