{"id":2034,"date":"2014-12-25T10:00:57","date_gmt":"2014-12-25T14:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/?p=2034"},"modified":"2014-12-28T17:22:58","modified_gmt":"2014-12-28T21:22:58","slug":"the-nativity-of-our-lord-an-unfathomable-mystery-20141225","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/?p=2034","title":{"rendered":"The Nativity of Our Lord &#8211; An Unfathomable Mystery &#8212; 20141225"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/nativity-icon.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2035\" src=\"http:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/nativity-icon.png\" alt=\"nativity-icon\" width=\"460\" height=\"307\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/nativity-icon.png 460w, https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/nativity-icon-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/nativity-icon-449x300.png 449w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 460px) 100vw, 460px\" \/><\/a>The greatest and most profound mystery of the Christian faith is the mystery of the Incarnation of God in the Person of Jesus Christ. The eternal God becomes man and does not cease to be God. \u201cAnd the Word\u201d, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity, \u201cwas made flesh and dwelt amongst us\u201d says St. John the Evangelist. Christ\u2019s nativity is truly the cradle of our faith. Only by faith can this unfathomable mystery be accepted and proclaimed.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The holy Fathers of the Eastern Church accepted the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word of God with profound faith and great piety and saw in this wondrous event God\u2019s manifestation of His presence with us and in us. By becoming a human, God revealed that this earthly existence is given to us in order to provide us with the opportunities to spiritually grow and transform our potential to be partakers of divine nature into reality.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Eastern Church celebrates the Birth of Christ not as a past event but, rather, as an on-going miracle that is expressed in our own existence. We declare, Christ IS Born to indicate that we believe that through us God is making His presence known to His world at this present moment, in this present time. Let us celebrate God\u2019s Presence With Us!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The greatest and most profound mystery of the Christian faith is the mystery of the Incarnation of God in the Person of Jesus Christ. The eternal God becomes man and does not cease to be God. \u201cAnd the Word\u201d, the &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/?p=2034\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-the-liturgy-of-the-day"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2034"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2037,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2034\/revisions\/2037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}