The readings at the various Christmas Masses contain many powerful images. Sometimes, because we’ve heard them so often, we need to come at them with fresh eyes.

The feast of Christmas is something to sing about. If we really understood the wonder of this day, we couldn’t keep ourselves from singing! Maybe that’s why more songs have been written for this season than any other. Think about it: How many Thanksgiving songs do you know?

The Word was first, the Word present to God, God present to the Word. The Word was God, in readiness for God from day one.

In fifth grade our teacher let us have a Christmas party, complete with a grab bag gift exchange. That morning I spied a big package—the size and shape of a fun board game—wrapped in shiny paper and with a big glitzy bow on it. I knew I had to have it.

To say the “Word became flesh” is to say that human beings in all their earthiness are holy creatures—true children of God made in the very image of God. Consequently the work of human hands is equally graced.

Why is it that Christmas carols, the same ones we sing year after year, mean so much to us? I hear "Silent Night," and I think of setting up the creche in the family grocery store. I hear "O Holy Night," and I remember being thanked by an elderly couple from their window after going caroling through the neighborhood.

As we celebrate your salvation incarnate in Jesus Christ, we pray that the world may know the fullness of redemption begun with your Son.

Today is the nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to the flesh.