“And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph; and the virgin’s name was Mary. … And the angel said unto her, ‘Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. he shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end’.” St. Luke, chapter 1.
the poor in Bethlehem and here
“There are many who become inflamed with unreal devotion when they hear of such poverty of the Christ-child. They are almost filled with wrath against the citizens of Bethlehem; they condemn their blindness and ingratitude and are of the opinion, that had they been there, they would have rendered outstanding service to the Lord and his mother and they would not have stood for such miserable treatment. But they do not look around themselves to see how many of their immediate neighbors there are who could use their help and whom they are neglecting and leaving exactly as they are. … It is a plain lie and deception for you to think you would have done a lot of good for Christ, if you do not do it for these people. Had you been in Bethlehem, you would have paid just as little attention to him as did the others.”
Martin Luther. “Sermon on the Gospel for Christmas Eve.” Luther’s Works. Volume 52. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1974, page 26.
Christmas angels
“Disregard the fantastic notions of the worldly-wise teachers concerning them; here the angels are pictured so well that they cannot be pictured any better. Even their hearts and thoughts may be discovered here. In the first place, by joyfully proclaiming in their song the honor of God, they indicate that they are full of light and fire. They recognize that all things are God’s and only God’s; they do not attribute anything to themselves, but with great fervor they bring honor to whom it belongs. Hence, if you wish to think of a humble, pure, obedient, joyful heart that praises God, then think of the angels.”
Martin Luther. “Sermon on the Gospel for Christmas Eve.” Luther’s Works. Volume 52. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1974, pages 29-30.
the shepherds again
“Love of one’s neighbor and renunciation of self. The shepherds demonstrate this by leaving their sheep and by proceeding, not to the high and mighty lords in Jerusalem, not to the town councillors at Bethlehem, but to the lowly people in the stable. They present themselves to the lowly and are ready and willing to serve and to do what was expected of them. Had they not had faith, they would not have left their property lying around, especially as the angels had not commanded them to do so. For they did this out of their own free will and following their own counsel, as the text says. They talked about it among themselves and they came in haste, even though the angel did not command, admonish, or advise them to do so. All he did was to indicate what they would find; he left it up to their free will whether they wanted to go and look. Love operates in exactly the same manner.”
Martin Luther. “Sermon on the Gospel for the Early Christmas Service.” Luther’s Works. Volume 52. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1974, page 35.
the shepherds represent the lowly
“‘You cannot serve God and mammon at the same time.’ The shepherds indicate this in that they are found in the field under the sky, and not in houses; thus they do not cling or cleave to temporal goods. In addition, they are in the field at night, despised and not recognized by the world which sleeps during the might and likes to strut and be seen during the day. But the poor shepherds are up and working during the night. They represent all the lowly ones who lead a poor, despised, unostentatious life on earth and live under the open sky, subject to God. They are ready to receive the gospel.”
Martin Luther. “Sermon on the Gospel for Christmas Eve.” Luther’s Works. Volume 52. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1974, page 25.
who preaches properly
“Listen again: ‘For to you is born a Savior, Christ the Lord, at Bethlehem in the town of David.’ See there what the gospel is: a joyous sermon concerning Christ, our Savior. He who preaches him properly, preaches the gospel and nothing but joy. What greater joy may a heart know than that Christ is given him as his very own? He does not just say: ‘Christ is born,’ but he appropriates Christ’s birth for us and says: ‘Your Savior.’ Thus the gospel does not merely teach the story and accounts of Christ, but personalizes them and gives them to all who believe in it, which is also (as mentioned above) the right and real nature of the gospel. … If there were something else to preach, then the evangelical angel and angelic evangelist would have touched on it.”
Martin Luther. “Sermon on the Gospel for Christmas Eve.” Luther’s Works. Volume 52. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1974, page 21.
came and saw and said
speaking of the shepherds at Bethlehem, “Luke reports that they not only came and saw, but that they also proclaimed–not only to Mary and Joseph but also to everyone–the news concerning the child and the message they had heard in the field. Do you not think that there were many people who considered them fools and bereft of their senses because they dared, as uncouth and unschooled lay people to speak of the angels’ song and message? How would they be received today…? But the shepherds, filled with faith and joy, were happy for the sake of God to be considered foolish in the sight of man. A Christian does the same; for God’s word must be considered foolishness and error in the world.”
Martin Luther. “Sermon on the Gospel for the Early Christmas Service.” Luther’s Works. Volume 52. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1974, page 37.
Gloria in excelsis Deo!
“Ah, we poor people, to be so cold and sluggish in the face of the great joy that has clearly been prepared for us! This great benefaction exceeds by far all the other works o creation; and yet our faith in it is found to be so weak, although it is preached and sung to us by angels, who are heavenly theologians and who were so glad for our sake! their song is very, very beautiful and describes the entire Christian religion. For giving glory to God in the highest heaven is the supreme worship. This they wish and bring us in Christ.”
Martin Luther. from his “Table Talk,” Weimar edition 4, No. 4201; What Luther Says compiled by Ewald M. Plass, St. Louis: Concordia, 1986, #459.
silence in the cloister of your heart
“The temptations have multiplied; discernment and renunciation have become more necessary than ever. We [Carthusians] have chosen to dedicate our life to the search for God in silence and solitude. Both things must be defended by clear choices, otherwise soon not much of either will be left. Our vocation is very uncommon, but does not every person need a bit of silence and solitude if he wants to be able to stay in contact with his heart? We have a cloister and a Rule that protect us. Someone who lives in the world must find his own cloister and his own rule; this is not something obvious!”
Dom Dysmas de Lassus, the Father General of the Carthusian Order at Grande Chartreuse, quoted in: Sarah, Robert Cardinal with Nicolas Diat. The Power of Silence Against the Dictatorship of Noise. Translated by Michael J. Miller. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2017, p. 229.
primal urge to pilgrimage
“The ‘sacred journey’ has origins in prehistoric religious cultures and myths. Man instinctively regards himself as a wanderer and wayfarer, and it is second nature for him to go on pilgrimage in search of a privileged and holy place, a center and source of indefectible life. This hope is built into his psychology, and whether he acts it out or simply dreams it, his heart seeks to return to a mythical source, a place of ‘origin,’ the ‘home’ where the ancestors came from, the mountain where the ancient fathers were in direct communication with heaven, the place of the creation of the world, paradise itself, with its sacred tree of life.”
Merton, Thomas. “From Pilgrimage to Crusade.” (1964) in Selected Essays. Edited with an introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2013, p. 186.
Pathology: the Study of a Path 