Christmas Eve:  Isaiah 9:2-7 Psalm 96 Titus 2:11-14 Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)
Christmas Day:  Isaiah 52:7-10 Psalm 98 Hebrews 1:1-4 (5-12) John 1:1-14

Click for complete Advent calendar (Cycle B) and guidance on using the lectionary.

“Christ is born to us today, in order that he might appear to the whole world through us.”
-Thomas Merton

Christmas Eve signals the beginning of the Feast of the Nativity—the celebration of God with us. Advent is coming to a close as we experience the culmination of this waiting time. We pass from Christmas Eve to Christmas Day celebrating the Incarnation—God with us in the flesh!—a celebration that will continue for twelve more days, until the Feast of the Epiphany.

For much of the world, the Christmas season is over at the end of Christmas Day and there is nothing left to do but dig out, clean up, and make our post-season exchanges and returns. But for Christians, the celebration is just beginning. God with us! In the flesh! Elevating every aspect of our human existence as a place of spiritual possibility and divine visitation! This is the best thing that’s ever happened to us; it is the gift that keeps on giving.

Thanks be to God.

Good is the flesh that the Word has become,

good is the birthing, the milk in the breast,
 good is the feeding, caressing and rest,
 good is the body for knowing the world,

Good is the flesh that the Word has become.

Good is the body for knowing the world,

sensing the sunlight, the tug of the ground,
feeling, perceiving, within and around,
good is the body, from cradle to grave,

Good is the flesh that the Word has become.

Good is the body, from cradle to grave,

growing and aging, arousing, impaired,
happy in clothing, or lovingly bared,
good is the pleasure of God in our flesh,

Good is the flesh that the Word has become.

Good is the pleasure of God in our flesh,

longing in all, as in Jesus, to dwell,
glad of embracing, and tasting, and smell,
good is the body, for good and for God,

Good is the flesh that the Word has become.

Brian Wren, Good Is the Flesh
© 1989 Hope Publishing Company, Carol Stream, IL.