God-bearer

The Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God

Readings: Numbers 6:22-27; Psalm 67; Galatians 4:4-7; Luke 2:16-21

When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of the woman (Galatians 4:4)

It is no coincidence that we celebrate today’s solemnity a week after Christmas. Both Christmas and today point to the same fact: the Word’s Incarnation - God was born of the woman. Jesus is true God and a true human being at the same time. Mary did not simply give birth to a baby, Jesus, who later assumed divinity, but gave birth to the baby Jesus who is fully God and human. Mary, therefore, may be uniquely called God-bearer.

Why does this matter, one may ask, that the child born of Mary is both human and divine from the very beginning of his life? It does matter, because God saved us by establishing a bond between what is divine and what is human. This living bond is Christ. He united in himself the two natures so that, as Paul tells us, 'we might receive adoption as sons' (Galatians 4:5).

A Christmas Puzzle

There are thirty books of the Bible in this paragraph. Can you find them? This is a most remarkable puzzle. It was found by a gentleman in an airplane seat pocket, on a flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu, keeping him occupied for hours. He enjoyed it so much, that he passed it on to some friends. One friend from Illinois worked on this while fishing from his john-boat. Another friend studied it while playing his banjo. Elaine Taylor, a columnist friend, was so intrigued by it she mentioned it in her weekly newspaper column. Another friend judges the job of solving this puzzle so involving, that she brews a cup of tea to help her nerves. There will be some names that are really easy to spot. That's a fact. Some people, however, will soon find themselves in a jam, especially since the books are not necessarily capitalized. Truthfully, from answers we get, we are forced to admit it usually takes a priest or scholar to see some of them at the worst. Research has shown that something in our genes is responsible for the difficulty we have in seeing the books in this paragraph. During a recent fund-raising event, which featured this puzzle, the Alpha Delta Phi-Lemonade booth set a new sales record. The local paper, The Chronicle, surveyed over 200 patrons who reported that this puzzle was one of the most difficult they had ever seen. As Daniel Humana humbly puts it, 'the books are all right here in plain view hidden from sight'. Those able to find all of them will hear great lamentations from those who have to be shown. One revelation that may help is that books called Timothy and Samuel may occur without their numbers. Also, keep in mind, that punctuation and spaces in the middle are normal. A chipper attitude will help you compete really well against those who claim to know the answers. Remember, there is no need for a mad exodus, there really are 30 books of the Bible lurking somewhere in this paragraph waiting to be found.

The Christmas Crib at Blackfriars, Oxford

Christmas Greetings

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father - John 1:14


The Dominican students at GODZDOGZ, along with the other members of the community at Blackfriars, Oxford, wish you a blessed Christmas, sharing the glory of Him who was in the beginning and is born in time, our life and grace, our light and truth.

Our joy and our grace

Christmas Eve

The Annunciation is the turning point in human history because it is the moment in which the Word became flesh in the womb of Mary. It is at once the fulfillment of Old Testament joy and the beginning of New Testament grace. These are the first words of the new testament according to Luke: 'hail, full of grace', 'rejoice, highly favoured one', 'chaire kecharitomene' - be joyful (chara) you who are full of grace (charis). It is not accidental that, apart from the Crucifixion, this is the gospel event most often represented in art. In this moment the greatest joys spoken of in the Hebrew scriptures are fulfilled as the new grace of the Christian reality comes to be.


What were the greatest joys spoken of in the Hebrew scriptures? One was the joy of a barren woman discovering that she was to have a child. Such was Sarah, the aged wife of Abraham, who bore Isaac, the child who ensured the fulfillment of God’s promises. Such were the mother of Samson, and Hannah the mother of Samuel, and Elizabeth the mother of John the Baptist. The prophets of Israel used this imagery of the barren place that comes to life, the dry and sterile land in which water appears and life flourishes (Isaiah 41). God saves by turning the dry places into fertile ground. Mary says to the angel, ‘how can this come about since I am a virgin?’ Here is a different kind of infertility, a conception even more extraordinary than those of Samuel, or John the Baptist. Here, without any violence or intrusion into His creation, God’s creative power brings into being the human nature that the eternal Son of God took to Himself.

Another great moment of joy is the joy of being in God’s presence. The most striking example of this is the dance of King David as he welcomed the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. His wife, watching from a window, was not amused that her husband should throw off his clothes to disgrace himself in front of the servants. David’s joy was unrestrained, however, a joy overflowing because God was in the midst of His people (2 Samuel 6). The prophets speak of this also. Zephaniah, for example, says ‘rejoice for the Lord is in your midst, your God, the Holy One of Israel’. He even goes as far as to speak of God dancing for joy in the presence of his people, the exact mirror image of David in the presence of the Ark (Zephaniah 3). The angel Gabriel says to Mary ‘rejoice because the Lord is in your midst’. God is with us in a new and remarkable way: how could we not be joyful?


A third great experience of joy in the Bible is the liberation of slaves. The defining moment in the history of the relationship between the Hebrews and their God is the crossing of the Red Sea. The Lord brought them out of the land of Egypt and led them from the place where they had been slaves to a place of freedom, a land flowing with milk and honey. This joy too is contained in the Annunciation, for the child who is to be born of Mary will be called Jesus (or Joshua). The name means 'the Lord saves' and the first Joshua was the one who finally led the people across the river Jordan and into the Promised Land. The child born of Mary is the new Joshua, saving his people from their sins and leading them into the Kingdom of God.

Joy that the barren is now fruitful. Joy that the Lord is in our midst. Joy that slavery is ended and freedom established. Add to these a final moment of great joy, that of the renewal of the covenant. The people sinned again and again, but just as often God offered a covenant to them and taught them to hope for salvation (Jeremiah 36; see also Isaiah 54). The new covenant whose first act is the annunciation to Mary is the one foretold by Jeremiah, an everlasting covenant sealing the everlasting love with which God loves us. This covenant will be sealed in the blood of the one born of Mary, in Mary's blood we might even say, the sword of His passion piercing her heart also.


The grace announced here is life in the presence of God, freedom in an enduring relationship of love with God. It is the moment in which the new creation begins. And here is a final, joyful wonder. In the first creation the only one to speak was God. ‘Let there be light’, God said, ‘and so it was’ (Genesis 1). But in the new creation a new grace appears as God enables His human creatures to participate in the work He is doing in them and for them. ‘Let what you have said be done to me’, Mary says. God makes it possible for us to reciprocate, to love Him in return. This is the most remarkable mystery of grace, that God who comes to save us gives us the saving victory. It is one of us – Mary’s Son, our Brother, Jesus Christ – who has achieved salvation for humanity. He is truly our joy and our grace.

O Emmanuel - God is with us

Readings: Malachi 3:1-4,23-24; Psalm 24; Luke 1:57-66


‘O Emmanuel, our king and our lawgiver, the hope of the nations and their Saviour: come and save us, Lord our God’. The prophet Isaiah wrote: ‘therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son and shall name him Emmanuel’ (7:14). Emmanuel means ‘God is with us’. In Matthew’s gospel (1:23) the Old Testament verse is obviously understood to be foretelling the birth of Christ. How might we understand the significance of this name of God’s anointed son?

The use of the name Emmanuel in this way by the gospel writer has the intention of guiding the hearer’s attention to the incarnation itself. How is God with us? God is with us in a human being who walked among us and underwent suffering similar to our own, unencumbered only by sin. God, in Christ, came to accompany us in our journey and struggles, not only in the spirit but in the reality of flesh and blood. Part of our struggle as human beings is the knowledge that we can only go so far in understanding and sharing the paths of our contemporaries: our love has its flaws and limitations. It is only God who can truly walk with all, for He came to share the space of each one of us for all time in Jesus, who blends human experience and divine perspective.



O Emmanuel, our King and lawgiver, for whom the nations wait, their Saviour: come to save us, Lord, our God.

O Rex gentium - Christ our cornerstone

Readings: 1 Samuel 1:24-28; Responsorial psalm: 1 Samuel 2:1,4-8; Luke 1:46-56

Any building whose foundation is unsound will fracture, become unstable and ultimately collapse, and buildings built on clay or marshy soil do not endure like those founded on solid rock. Hence, in 1 Peter 2:4-8, Christ is proclaimed as the cornerstone, echoing the prophet Isaiah who proclaimed that God was laying a “sure foundation” (Isaiah 28:16), and the permanence of this cornerstone is juxtaposed in today’s antiphon with the lowly clay from which we are fashioned. Because of Christ, we are no longer just transient clay bricks but “living stones” which are to be built into a “spiritual house” with Christ as the “head of the corner” (Psalm 118:2), thus giving the building permanence, strength and endurance.

A society which has rejected Christ – for example that of the proposed European Constitution – is one that cannot perdure and has no firm foundation, for “unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labour in vain” (Psalm 127:1). Built on the shifting soil of popular opinion rather than truth and permanent values, such a society cracks and crumbles. Today’s antiphon proclaims that Christ is the One whom all nations desire because he alone brings harmony and unity, just as the cornerstone unites two walls, making them stand as one.

As Christmas dawns and we recall again “the wonderful deeds of him who called [us] out of darkness into his marvellous light” (1 Peter 2:9), let us implore the Lord to craft us into his “living stones”, so that, built on the “precious cornerstone” of Christ and his Gospel truth, we may be united as “God’s own people”. Thus, may we, sharing in the “royal priesthood” of Christ our King and Redeemer, help reconcile and unite humanity, and endue society with the permanence and endurance of the Truth.

The photo above, taken by the author, is of the keystone in the lantern of Ely cathedral.




O King of the Nations, whom they desire, and the cornerstone, who join two together into one: come and save mankind, whom you formed from the clay.