Christmas Day

I shall begin with the First of these, his Incarnation, as most proper for this Solemn Time, which hath for many Ages been set apart for the commemoration of the Nativity and Incarnation of our B. Saviour: The Word was made flesh, that is, he who is personally called the Word, and whom the Evangelist St. John had so fully described in the beginning of this Gospel, he became Flesh, that is, assumed our Nature and became Man; So that by the Word's being made or becoming flesh the Evangelist did not intend that he assumed only a human Body without a Soul, and was united only to a human Body, which was the Heresy of Apollinaris, and his Followers, but that he became Man, that is, assumed the whole human Nature, Body and Soul. And it is likewise very probable that the Evangelist did purposely choose the word flesh, which signifies the frail and mortal part of Man, to denote to us that the Son of God did assume our Nature with all its infirmities, and became subject to the common frailty and mortality of human Nature ...

And it shall be to stir us up to a thankful acknowledgement of the great love of God to Mankind in the Mystery of our Redemption by the Incarnation of the Word, the only begotten Son of God: That he should deign to have such a regard to us in our low condition, and to take our Case so much to heart as to think of redeeming and saving Mankind from that depth of misery into which we had plunged our selves; and to do this in so wonderful and astonishing a manner: That God should employ his eternal and only begotten Son, who had been with him from all Eternity, partaker of his Happiness and Glory, and was God of God, to save the Sons of men by so infinite and amazing a condescension: That God should vouchsafe to become man, to reconcile man to God: That he should come down from Heaven to Earth, to raise us from Earth to Heaven: That he should assume our vile and frail and mortal nature, that he might clothe us with glory and honour and immortality.

From a 1679 Christmastide sermon - Sermon I - by John Tillotson, then Dean of Canterbury, preached at the Church of St. Lawrence Jewry, London.

The painting is 'Church in the Valley,Winter' by contemporary artist Vanessa Bowman.

After a short break for the festive season, laudable Practice will return on 1st January, the Year of Our Lord 2021.

Merry Christmas.