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In the account of the Annunciation we see, in the three stages of the dialogue with the angel, Mary (the believing Zion, and therefore the type of the Church) initiated into her own particular form of service… Each successive revelation of the divine mystery is occasioned by a fresh demand on Mary and her assent to it: the Trinity emerges in the context of her obedience…
Hans Urs Von Balthasar
The Word Made Flesh: Explorations in Theology Vol 1, 197
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Here, in time, we are celebrating the eternal birth which God the Father bore and bears unceasingly in eternity, because this same birth is now born in time, in human nature. St. Augustine says, “What does it avail me that this birth is always happening, if it does not happen in me? That it should happen in me is what matters.” May the God who has been born again as man assist us to this birth…
Meister Eckhart, Sermon 1
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According to St Ignatius, we are supposed to look at the life of the Lord without whitewashing it, without romantic phrases, and without a debilitating humanism. In the meditation on his birth, we should be able to see this point clearly: At his birth, the incarnate Word begins his death march and everything that is mentioned in the history of his birth is an early announcement of his end in utter poverty, weakness, and death.
Karl Rahner, Spiritual Exercises, 148
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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.
St Augustine, Sermon 184
Beautiful words and drawings for now and to rest with. Thank you and Merry Christmas.
Thank you. The incarnation is a grand mystery that boggles my mind.