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But now a change comes over the scene, which seems at first sight but little in keeping with the characteristic lowliness of Bethlehem. A cavalcade from the Far East comes up this way. The camel bells are tinkling. A retinue of attendants accompanies Three Kings of different Oriental tribes, who come with their various offerings to the new-born Babe. It is a history more romantic than romance itself would dare to be. Those swarthy men are among the wisest of the studious East. They represent the lore and science of their day. Yet have they done what the world would surely esteem the most foolish of actions. They were men whose science led them to God, men, we may be sure, of meditative habits, of ascetic lives, and of habitual prayer. The fragments of early tradition and the obscure records of ancient prophecies, belonging to their nations, have been to them as precious deposits which spoke of God and were filled with hidden truth. The corruption of the world which they, as Kings, might see from their elevation far and wide, pressed heavily upon their loving hearts. They too pined for a Redeemer, for some heavenly Visitant, for a new beginning of the world, for the coming of a Son of God, for one who should save them from their sins. Their tribes doubtless lived in close alliance; and they themselves were bound together by the ties of a friendship which the same pure yearnings after greater goodness and higher things cemented. Never yet had Kings more royal souls. In the dark blue of the lustrous sky there rose a new or hitherto unnoticed star. Its ap­parition could not escape the notice of these Oriental sages, who nightly watched the skies; for their science was also their theology. It was the star of which an ancient prophecy had spoken. Perhaps it drooped low toward earth, and wheeled a too swift course to be like one of the other stars. Perhaps it trailed a line of light after it, slowly, yet with visible movement, and so little above the horizon, or with such obvious downward slanting course, that it seemed as if it beckoned to them, as if an angel were bearing a lamp to light the feet of pilgrims, and timed his going to their slowness, and had not shot too far ahead during the bright day, but was found and welcomed each night as a faithful indicator pointing to the Cave of Bethlehem. How often God prefers to teach by night rather than by day! Meanwhile, doubtless, the instincts of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of these wise rulers drew them toward the star. They followed it as men follow a vocation, hardly seeing clearly at first that they are following a divine lead. Wild and romantic as the conduct of these wise enthusiasts seemed, they did not hesitate. After due counsel, they pronounced the luminous finger to be the star of the old prophecy, and therefore God was come. They left their homes, their state, and their affairs, and journeyed westward, they knew not whither, led nightly by the star that slipped onward in its silent groove. They were the representatives of the heathen world moving forward to the feet of the universal Savior. They came to the gates of Jerusalem; and there God did honor to his Church. He withdrew the guidance of the star, because now the better guidance of the synagogue was at their command. The oracles of the law pronounced that Beth­lehem was to be the birthplace of Messias; and the wise men passed onward to the humble village. Again the star shone out in the blue heavens, and slowly sank earthward over the Cave of Bethlehem; and presently the devout Kings were at the feet of Jesus. Fr. Faber  (Bethlehem)

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Joseph likewise draws near to adore. The earthly shadow of the Eternal Father rests softly on the Child. Joseph draws near, that most hidden of all God’s saints. His soul is an abyss nameless graces, of graces deeper than those from which ordinary virtues spring. We can give no name to the character of his sanctity. We cannot compare him with any other of saints of God. As his office was unshared, so was his grace. It followed the peculiarities of his office; it stood alone.

He stood to Jesus visibly in the place of the Eternal Father. The human soul of Jesus must have regarded him not only with the tenderest love but also with deep reverence and an inexplicable submission. Meek and gentle, blameless and loving as St. Joseph was, it is not possible to think of him without extreme awe, because of that identity with the Eternal Father which belongs to him We cannot describe his holiness, because we have no term of comparison. It was not only higher in degree than that of the saints but it was different in kind. But it was eminently hidden in God.

From “Bethlehem” by Father Faber

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At first God communicated his image to man; now woman communicates her image to God! His flesh is hardly a mother’s armful; yet by an astounding  miracle it is the food of all other flesh in the grand Sacrament of the altar.

It is our Lord’s body with which we have most to do on earth. It is his Body which is prominently worshipped rather than his Soul, in the Blessed Sacrament. It is his pre-eminently which is trusted to our keeping, and which abidingly among us in tabernacles made with hands.

It is his Body which we ourselves spiritually are; for his Church is truly his Body, and it is this which makes the condition of schism so blighted and forlorn. He touches us by his Body, feeds us by his Body, makes us one by his Body, yea, makes us his Body, it is the Hand both of his Soul and of his Divinity, the Hand to baptize, the Hand to confirm, to absolve, to communicate, to anoint, to marry, to ordain, the Hand that touches and does the miracles, that takes hold and lifts up, that points the way and leads on, that strikes those who deal over-lightly with it and that heals so often with the compassionate roughness of its  blow. That Infant Body is shrouding its glory, as we gaze it; but that is no trial to our faith. We see the glory for all it makes itself invisible.

Fr. F.W. Faber (Bethlehem)

Mary, the Mother of God, Immaculate, or rather the “Immaculate Conception” itself, as she deigned to call herself at Lourdes.  We know what “mother” means. But we cannot grasp with our  minds and our limited brains what “Mother of God” means. Only  God comprehends perfectly what the “Immaculate” means.   She is God’s. She belongs to God in a perfect way although she is a finite creature. Moreover she is not only a “handmaid”, “a daughter”, “a property”, “a possession”, etc., but also Mother of God!  Here one is seized with giddiness…she is almost above God, as a mother is above her sons who must respect her. The Immaculate is Spouse of the Holy Spirit in an unspeakable way…she has the same Son as the heavenly Father has. What an ineffable  mystery!

St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe

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Ave Maria Meditations Encore

He chose his Mother … When we reflect upon the joy which it is to ourselves to think of Mary, to brood upon her supernatural loveliness, and to study the greatness of her gifts and the surpassing purity of her virtues, we shall get such faint idea, as lies within our compass, of the unspeakable gladness which it must have been to the Word to have chosen Mary, and to have created her through that very choice.

He must choose a Mother who shall be worthy of being the Mother of God, a Mother suitable to that tremendous mystery of the Hypostatic Union, a Mother fitted to minister that marvelous Body out of her own heart’s blood, and to be herself for months the tabernacle of that most heavenly Soul. All God’s works are in proportion. When he appoints to an office, his appointment is marked by extreme fitness. He ele­vates nature to the level of his own purposes. He enables it to compass the most supernatural destinies by fulfilling it with the most incredible graces. There was no accident about his choice of Mary.

She was not merely the holiest of living women on earth at the time when he resolved to come. She was not a mere tool, an instrument for the passing necessity of the hour, to be used, and flung aside, and lie indistinguishable in the crowd, when her use was gone. This is not God’s way. He does not deal thus with the least of his elect. His whole revelation of himself renders such a supposition as impossible as it would be profane. There is nothing accidental or of mere ornament in the works of the Most High. His operations have no excrescences, no extrinsic appendages. God does not use his creatures. They enter into his purposes, and are an integral part of them; and every part of a divine work is one of that work’s perfections. This is a characteristic of divine working, that every thing about it is a special perfection.

Mary thus lies high up in the very fountain-head of creation. She was the choice of God himself, and he chose her to be his Mother. She was the gate by which the Creator entered into his own creation. She ministered to him in a way and for an end unlike those of any other creature whatsoever. What then must have been her beauty, what her holiness, what her privileges, what her exaltation! To depreciate them is to depreciate the wisdom and the goodness of God!

When we have said that Mary was the Word’s eternal choice, we have said that which already involves all the doctrine of the Church about her, and all the homage of Christians to her. When we consider the Word’s desire to assume a created nature, when we ponder his choice of a human nature, when we reflect on his further choice of his Soul and Body, and add to all these con­siderations the remembrance of his immense love, we can see how his goodness would exult in the choice of his Mother, whom to love exceedingly was to become one of his chief graces, one of the greatest of all his human perfections. All possible creatures were before him, out of which to choose the creature that was to come nearest him, the creature that was to love him, and to have a natural right to love him, best of all, and the creature to whom duty as well as preference was to bind him to love with the in­tensest love. Then, out of all he chose Mary.

What more can be said? She fulfilled his idea, or rather she did not so much suit his idea, but she was herself the idea, and his idea of her was the cause of her creation. The whole theology of Mary lies in this eternal and efficacious choice of her in the Bosom of the Father.

+Father Frederick William Faber “Bethlehem”

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(As we approach Christmas) whom shall we ask to go with us on our journey? Who shall be to us the doctor of the Sacred Infancy? Surely Saint Joseph, so near to the infant Jesus, so dear His sinless Mother! If ever a saint was penetrated with the spirit of Bethlehem, doubtless it was he. Before the toil of the public ministry began, before the shadows of the passion had begun to thicken palpably on the horizon, Saint Joseph had finished his vocation. He belonged to Bethlehem and Nazareth; and God took him when Nazareth was ending.

The spirit of the Sacred Infancy is as it were his whole sanctification. No one can tell us more than he of the young Mother’s heart and of the Heart of the Divine Child. So we must entreat him to go with us and to help our prayers for light and to surround us with the atmosphere of his own meek and meditative spirit; and we too must remember his presence even when we do not mention him, so that our very thoughts and words may unawares be impregnated with his fragrant soul.

(We see) Saint Joseph kneeling by the Child in the cave of Bethlehem. Let us draw near and kneel there with him.

Fr. Frederick Faber from the book “Bethlehem”

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He chose His Mother. When we reflect upon the joy which it is to ourselves to think of Mary, to brood upon her supernatural loveliness and to study of the greatness of her gifts and the surpassing purity of her virtues, we shall get such a faint idea as lies within our compass of the unspeakable gladness which it must have been to the Word to have chosen Mary and to have created her through that very choice.

He must choose a mother who shall be worthy of being the Mother of God, a mother suitable to that tremendous mystery of the Hypostatic Union, a mother fitted to minister that marvelous Body out of her own heart’s blood, and to be herself for months the tabernacle of that most heavenly Soul.

All God’s works are in proportion. When He appoints an office, His appointment is marked by extreme fitness. He elevates nature to the level of His own purposes. He enables it to compass the most supernatural destinies by filling it with the most incredible graces.  There was no accident about His choice of Mary.  She was not merely the holiest of living women on earth at the time when He resolved to come. She was not a mere tool, an instrument for the passing necessity of the hour to be used and flung aside. That is not God’s way. There is nothing accidental or of mere ornament in the works of the Most High.

She was the choice of God Himself and He chose her to be His Mother. She was the gate by which the creator entered into His own creation. She ministered to Him in a way and for an end unlike those of any other creature whatsoever. What then must have been her beauty, what her holiness, what her privileges, what her exultation! To depreciate them is to depreciate the wisdom and the goodness of God.

+Fr. F.W. Faber

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