The Mystical Nativity (detail), Sandro Botticelli; 1500

I SINCERELY WISH all readers of this site a joyous Christmas. May you and your families be filled with confidence and hope today. May the astonishing and beautiful mysteries of the Incarnation, of God born as a helpless child, deepen and grow in splendor for you. “Fear not. for behold, I bring you good tidings of exceeding great joy, that shall be to all people.” Fear not, for God is truly with you.

‘On this the Day which the Lord hath made darkness decreases, light increases, and Night is driven back again. No, brethren, it is not by chance, nor by any created will, that this natural change begins on the day when he shows himself in the brightness of his coming, which is the spiritual Life of the world. It is Nature revealing, under this symbol, a secret to them whose eye is quick enough to see it; to them, I mean, who are able to appreciate this circumstance of our Saviour’s coming. Nature seems to me to say: Know, O Man! that under the things which I show thee Mysteries lie concealed. Hast thou not seen the night, that had grown so long, suddenly checked? Learn hence, that the black night of Sin, which had reached its height by the accumulation of every guilty device, is this day stopped in its course. Yes, from this day forward its duration shall be shortened, until at length there shall be naught but Light. Look, I pray thee, on the Sun; and see how his rays are stronger, and his position higher in the heavens: learn from that how the other Light, the Light of the Gospel, is now shedding itself over the whole earth.’

                         — St. Gregory of Nyssa, Homily On the Nativity

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