Today we offer a sermon from Saint Bernard of Clairvaux. The citation is found at the end of the essay. I have been praying in each rosary for all of you who have so kind as to read these poor posts (and reposts!) and have been patient with me as I struggle to rebuild the site. This work is all I have to offer you and I wish it could me more! God Bless you all and grant you a very blessed Christmas !
On the Miraculous Nature of the Nativity
A Sermon for the Eve of the Nativity
The custom of our Order does not demand a sermon to-day; but as tomorrow we shall be engaged longer than usual in the celebration of the Masses, and the short remaining time will not allow of a long sermon, I thought it would not be out of place to prepare your hearts to-day for so great a festival. It is the more permissible as the mystery of this day is so profound and so incomprehensible.
It is a fountain of life whose waters can never be exhausted—waters that flow the more plentifully the more freely they are drawn. I know, too, how great are your sufferings and tribulations for Christ’s sake, and glad should I be that your comfort might also abound through Him.
Worldly consolation is what I am neither willing nor permitted to offer. Such a consolation is both useless and valueless—yea, it is a thing to be dreaded, for it is a true hindrance to the consolation which is from heaven. For this reason He Who is the delight and glory of the angels is become the salvation and the consolation of all who suffer.
He Who is glorious and transcendent in His own city, and beatifies its citizens by His presence, became little and humble, when in exile, that He might rejoice the exiles. He Who in the highest heavens is the glory of the Father became, as a Child on earth, “peace to men of good will.” A Little One is given to little ones, that the Great One may be given to the great, and that those whom the Little One justifies, the Great and Mighty One may afterwards magnify and render glorious.
Hence, without doubt, St. Paul, the vessel of election, pours out to us the treasures which he had received from the fullness of this Child. For Christ, though a Child, is full of grace and truth. “In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead corporally.” Hence, I repeat, St. Paul utters that good word which you have heard so often during these past days: “Rejoice in the Lord always: again I say, Rejoice.”
