HAPPY CHRISTMAS FROM STRATFORD AND LEONIE CALDECOTT

The Nativity is the bringing forth of the secret that Mary has cherished within her for nine months – the face that God has fashioned for himself in the womb of the world. This is nothing less than a re-making of the world, for the world as it existed before was perishing, falling into nothingness, whereas now it is united through this tiny child with the divine life of the Trinity.

Into relation with this child all people and things are being drawn, and in this relationship they will pass through death into a new existence. The seed of this life began to grow in the earth’s soil at the Annunciation, but now it shows itself above ground, at Epiphany it will be acknowledged by the Wise, and on the Cross it will spread its branches over the earth.

In the image of Madonna and Child is represented the drama of the human personality, coming to birth in the meeting of two gazes and of two smiles, the mother’s smile kindling the child’s, the child’s spontaneous smile evoking this sign of love from the enfolding cosmos.

The text is an extract from a meditation on the Rosary from www.secondspring.co.uk (mystagogy section).
The picture is a Maronite icon borrowed from www.maronite-heritage.com
And for Christmas reading we recommend the blog by Fr Mark Kirby at http://vultus.stblogs.org.

Meanwhile the long-awaited ninth issue of Second Spring, “The Genius of Woman”, is available from Thomas More College.