Nativity 23

Change of melody. Response: Praise to you from all. Praise to you from all. How can I, who am mortal, speak about the Life-Giver of all, who abandoned the height of his greatness and descended to lowliness? He increased all by his birth; he increased my feeble intellect, so that I might speak about your birth. It was not that I might diminish your greatness, but that I might proclaim your grace. Blessed is he who concealed and revealed in his accounts. It is a great wonder: the Son who dwelt entirely within a body. He dwelt entirely in it and sufficed for it; he dwelt in it without being confined. His entire will was in it; his entire limit was not in it. It is sufficient for my speaking that, while he dwelt entirely in a body, again he dwelt entirely in her. Blessed is he who is without limit, that he might be confined. Your greatness is hidden from me, but your grace is revealed before me. Let my Lord grant me rest from your greatness, and let me speak about your grace. Your grace was hung upon you and bent you toward our wickedness. Your grace made you lowly; your grace made you a physician. You folded, you unfolded your greatness. Blessed is the power that became small and great. Praise to him who was lowly while being high in his nature. He became, by his love, a firstborn for Mary, while he is the firstborn of divinity. He became, by name, a son for Joseph, while his begetter is the Most High. He became, by his will, a man, while he is God by his nature. Glorious is your will and your nature. Blessed is your praise, which put on a form. Also, my Lord, your birth became for her a mother of creatures, so that from the beginning she conceived her son for healing, that which gave birth to you.

Your mother gave birth to you in a bodily way, she gave birth to her in a spiritual way. All of you came to the one who gives birth, that she might give birth to the one who gives life to all in your likeness. Your birth became the birth-giver of all the blessed one who stooped, and to all the stooping one. He sowed hope for the life-giver of all; great was the hope in your birth. The high ones hoped a good hope for the seekers of life. The line that cut off their hope, with his hands he was cutting off, because he saw that the hope was great for him. Your birth became for the one without hope. The spring that hides hope, blessed hope that is the good news. The day of your birth is like you, tender and beloved. They did not see your infancy, and they loved it as at its time. On your day they see you, as the just one like you. When he is loved by everyone, behold, the churches rejoice in him. Your day desired, and the blessed one was desired, your day that was for our sake. Your day gave a gift that is not again for a father like it. He did not send seraphs to you, nor did cherubs descend to your side. Watchers did not come, suns, but in the firstborn who serves. He was able to suffice for the praises of the greatness that cannot be described. In a painted picture, a high one was cast, blessed one, that gave you all that was fitting. For that generation, your birth rejoiced, and for our generation, your day rejoiced. The blessedness of that generation that saw your birth and your day passed away. The blessedness of the later ones who see your birth only today is small. For even the near ones were divided; great is the blessedness of the later ones, who, when they did not see you, believed in you, blessed one. Your blessedness that was added to you.

The magi saw from afar, they proclaimed the books from near. The Hebrew showed his reading, and also Herod his command. The books showed interpretations, the magi showed offerings. It was a wonder that for the sake of one infant the houses ran with their books, and the Chaldeans with their offerings. Blessed is your birth that silenced all. The bosom of Mary was made ready, that it might suffice for you, my Lord, and contain you. Small was the whole creation, that it might hide your greatness. Earth and heaven were too small to be a type of the bosoms that hid your divinity. Small for you is the bosom of the earth, and great for you is the bosom of Mary. He dwelt in a bosom and healed by his bosom. He surrounded helpers with cunning, and they approached him with offerings. He put on garments in youth, and from them came forth victories. He put on the waters of baptism, and from them came forth the baptized. He put on coverings in death, and through them victories were shown. With his sufferings and his exaltations, blessed is he who surrounded his glory with his pain. All these changes that he sent and put on are a shame that he spread, that he might put on Adam. The glory that he had sent, he surrounded helpers with his leaves and put on garments instead of his skins. He became circumcised because of his iniquity, and guilty because of his death. He arose and raised him in glory. Blessed is he who descended, put on his garment, and ascended. When your birth sufficed for the members of Adam like Adam, or the great one who was an infant in your birth from the beginning of your mother.

The pure one who was baptized, your baptism washed away the filth of the side. The living one who was crucified, your death traded life for death. Your whole being was a vessel, all praise to your whole being from all.