My beloved brethren and Fathers, today is a reason for spiritual joy and exaltation, because today we celebrate the birth of the ever-Virgin Mary, the Mother of God and the most fragrant blossom that ever burgeoned “from the root of Jesse”. We are celebrating the “birth of universal rejoicing”, which is “the doorway to all feasts and the prelude to the mystery of Christ”, according to Saint Andrew of Crete. The birth, which became the agent of the rebirth, remoulding, adornment and renewal of all things. Today, she is born who will bear, in time, in an unintelligible and extraordinary way, God the Word, the Creator and Saviour of the world, Who is outside time and pre-eternal. All the prefigurements, prototypes ...
