Lord, which we profess in the words of St. John, the Evangelist, where he says, "the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us" (John i. 14). This Word, namely, the only-begotten Son of God, who expresses the thought of the eternal Father, and who is come to reveal the will of that Father, has become flesh, that is to say, man, while His divinity dwelt unchanged within Him. Thus He was at one and the same time God and man-God from all eternity and man born in time. Such is the substance of what we are taught to believe in the third article of the Apostles' Creed.

In this union of the divine with the human is shown as well the love of God as the wisdom of the divine decree. In order to lift mankind up to heaven divinity came down to humanity. In order to create a new man God Himself is made man, that thus to grace a model should not be wanting.

As God revealed Himself to Adam, so did He again manifest Himself and make known to men, in a human way, His holy will. Thus we believe firmly, and profess openly, that the divinity of Christ is united with His sacred humanity.

Thus, when we say that God became man, we do not mean that the divinity was submerged in the humanity, nor that the divinity was changed into humanity. We do not here understand any transformation or even transubstantiation, but an assumption of human nature without any detriment to the divine nature. Hence in Christ there are two natures, not one only—namely, the divine nature, because He is God, and the human nature, because He is man. Each of these natures exists and dwells beside the other, and yet both are inseparably united, so that there are not two persons, but one only, and that one is divine.

This human nature the Son of God took from the

immaculate Virgin Mary, who had been selected by God from among all the maidens of Israel to be herself a miracle of divine grace. Descended from the family of David, of a royal race, but poor now by reason of the vicissitudes of life, she lived in retirement at Nazareth, under the protection of a simple carpenter named Joseph, whose only wealth and honors. were the title of just man given him by the Holy Scriptures (Matthew i. 19). She is the incomparably pure and stainless one, who from the moment of her conception was destined to be a vessel of divine mercy. For as it was not becoming that the soil from which the root of Jesse sprouted should ever be in the possession of the evil enemy, she was not indeed, like Jeremias and St. John, sanctified in her mother's womb, after she had been conceived, but, more than that, her body and soul were sanctified by the Holy Ghost in the very moment when that body and soul were first united. Thus there was never a moment in which she was tainted with sin. Rightfully, then, is she called the purest Virgin, because she at all times remained an incomparably pure Virgin, before as well as after the birth of her divine Child, Jesus Christ. For the body of Our Saviour was formed in the pure body of the Blessed Virgin out of her pure substance, by the power of the Holy Ghost, at the very moment that the Angel Gabriel spoke to her the words, "Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus: He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the most High (Luke i. 31, 32).

At this moment, and while the angel was announcing the sublime mystery, the Holy Spirit overshadowed her, as the same angel declared afterward to St. Joseph in his sleep in the following words, "Joseph, son of

David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost " (Matthew i. 20). This solemn moment, when the declaration was made by Gabriel of the Incarnation of the second person of the Blessed Trinity, we commemorate as the beginning of our salvation, as the rosy dawning of the coming day of brightness, and we praise and honor the Blessed Virgin as blessed among women, as the angel himself styled her when he said, "Hail full of grace, the Lord is with thee" (Luke i. 28).

For this purpose the Church has placed the festival of the angel's announcement to Mary on the 25th day of March, the birthday of Our Saviour falling on the 25th day of December, or nine months later.

Now, in the very moment when, by the power of the Holy Ghost, the body of Our Lord was formed out of the substance of the Blessed Virgin, and the eternal Father united a reasoning soul to that miraculously formed body, in that same moment the divinity became united to the humanity; and as thus the divinity was, as it were, born in the human frame of Mary, she became truly the Mother of God.

With right and truth is she called the Mother of God, for she bore, not an adopted Son of God, but His very Son, in whom dwelleth the fulness of the Godhead, and "of His fulness we all have received," according to St. John i. 16. Such is the teaching of the Catholic Church regarding the ineffable mystery of the Incarnation.

The Council of Trent says, "To reap from the mysteries abundant fruits of salvation the faithful should particularly call to their recollection, and frequently reflect, that it is God who assumed human flesh, but that the manner of its assumption transcends the limits of our comprehension, not to say of our powers of expression; finally that He vouchsafed to

become man in order that we mortals may become regenerated children of God. When to these subjects they shall have given mature consideration, let them, in the humility of faith, believe in and adore all the mysteries contained in this article, nor indulge a curious inquisitiveness by investigating and scrutinizing them,—an attempt scarcely ever unattended with danger" (4th Chapter, 7th Question).

Christ our Lord-may He be praised and adored for all eternity!—had therefore Mary for His veritable Mother, in so far as He was man, but as man He had no father, for St. Joseph, the virginal spouse of Mary, was only His foster-father. On account of his purity he was entrusted with the guardianship of the Blessed Virgin, who preserved untainted the lily of virginity both before and after the birth of Our Saviour. To him she was espoused, not as a wife, but that she might have in him, who was of the same chaste sentiments as herself, a protector for herself and a wise guardian for her divine Child on earth, one who would care for Jesus in His youth and at a time when, according to the sublime decrees of the ever adorable Trinity, He was not to appear as a miraculous personage, but was to pass His years in the character of an humble and obedient Child and an example to youth.*

The mystery of the Trinity was concealed from men, and hence Jesus was commonly considered to be the son of St. Joseph. But He was not such, for He held His human nature, by the power of the Holy Spirit, from Mary.

Thus were the words fulfilled that David puts in the mouth of the Messias when appearing spiritually be

*When Christ, later in life, spoke of His "brethren ” He did not use the word in the sense in which we use it, but in the sense of "kinsfolk," for the Hebrew word often means cousin.

fore him: "Sacrifice and oblation Thou didst not desire burnt-offering and sin-offering Thou didst not require. Then said I: Behold I come. In the head of the book it is written of Me that I should do Thy will. O my God, I have desired it" (Psalms xxxix. 7-9). The Son of God has come. Freely He became man that He might be able to suffer and to die for us, for as God He could neither suffer nor die. Thus did He fulfil the will of God, yielding to the charity of His divine heart, and made the atonement possible which could only be accomplished by the death of an innocent victim. In His holy life and death we are to find the source of our eternal life. In His humiliation lies our elevation, in His poverty our wealth. Therefore should we be grateful to the Lord, and be ever mindful of this grace-laden mystery, especially when the solemn tolling of the Angelus bell strikes upon our ear, coming as the invitation of our holy Mother, the Church, to salute the Blessed Virgin as the Mother of God, in the words of the angel-and then, in the inspired words of St. John, "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us," to adore her divine Son, Our Saviour. To these sentiments of praise, thanksgiving and adoration let us add Mary's words, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord," and with her let us consecrate, as a returngift to the infinite oblation of the Son of God, our hearts and minds, our bodies and our lives.

II. "BORN OF THE VIRGIN MARY."-THE LIFE OF JESUS CHRIST ON EARTH.

The Birth of Christ.

FOUR thousand and four years had elapsed since the creation; one thousand years had passed since the