Thursday, December 29 : Saint Leo the Great

The Christmas feast renews for us the holy infancy of Jesus, born of the Virgin Mary. And as we adore the birthday of the Savior we find that we are celebrating our own beginnings. For the birth of Christ is the origin of the people of Christ, and the birthday of the head us the birthday of the body. But, in the treasury of the Lord’s generosity what can we more suitable to honour the present feast than the peace first proclaimed by the angels’ chorus at the Lord’s nativity? (Lk 2,14) Peace it is that gives birth to the sons of God. Peace is nurse of love, the mother of unity, the repose of the blessed, and our eternal home. The real work and special blessing of peace is to join to God those whom it sets apart from this world. Let those, then, “who are born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God,” (Jn 1,13) offer to the Father the oneness of heart of peace-loving souls. Let all the members of adoption come together in the: first-born of the new creation, who “came to do not his own will but the will of him who sent him” (Jn 6,38). The grace of the Father has not adopted as his heirs those who art divided among themselves and at odds with each other, but those who are one in mind and heart. Remodeled according to the one image (cf. Heb 1,3; Gn 1,27), they should have a spirit in conformity with it. The birthday of the Lord is the birthday of peace. As the apostle Paul says, “He, Christ, is our peace” (Eph 2,14).

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team