UNBORN WORD of the day

“He was despised and rejected by men…” Isaiah 53:3

Joseph and Mary (and her unborn baby) approach the Inn at Bethlehem. Humanity is given yet another opportunity to shine, to welcome the poor and accept the pregnant woman in need. The door is shut in their faces. Their need goes unmet. Their prospects for this birth are not bright.

Yet overhead there is a star (Mt 2:2). In Heaven’s “off stage” stood “the angel of the Lord” and “a multitude of the heavenly host” (Lk 2:9-14) waiting impatiently, by Heaven’s standards. Humanity had fallen again in reaching out to God. But this time, God the Father would arrange a special reception for His Son. Beasts, angels and humans would be drawn to the manger in Bethlehem.

But for now, Joseph, Mary (and the Unborn Christ Child) are homeless. As Jesus would observe three decades later: “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head” (Mt 8:20). Joseph and Mary again exercise faith in Almighty God and trust in His Providential plan for their lives, even as they huddle together, looking this way and that, for some idea of where to go next.

The last day of Mary’s redemptive pregnancy is the first day of the rest of our salvation history. A revelation like no other is about to break upon humanity’s shoreline. A great manifestation is about to unfold on earth’s stage. From the hidden uncharted depths of the womb God will come to visit His people.

But not yet! Mary walks slowly, following Joseph’s lead. The sky is darkening now, but still there is that glimmer of a star on the horizon. At this point we can join our prayers with Mary and Joseph, for this Unborn Baby and all unborn babies.

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Under the Old Covenant God made His promises to the people of Israel. Then they waited. The prophets gave inspired prophecies. The people of Israel waited. Even in our own lives, we pray and wait for answers to our prayers. Promises, prophecies, prayers all lead us to the Messiah, to the Savior.

The Church’s Liturgical Year is a marvelous cycle of anticipation, celebration and reflection, focused on the life of Christ yet sweeping us along with that Life, through His many experiences. Today we wait for the humble birth of that baby Divine. The world is dedicated to distracting us, the devil is intent on minimalizing Christmas so that we celebrate it with mere token gestures that will hollow and weaken within seconds or minutes of these dutiful acknowledgments.

How should we wait then? Now is the time to intensify our prayer. The 270 days of that hallowed pregnancy have almost run their course. The redemptive pregnancy is about to break into earthly Revelation. In those days, Mary and Joseph were anticipating eagerly and praying with heightened frequency. This is the pattern for the Christian. Advent, like pregnancy, is about waiting on the Lord and praying. If the waiting gets more intense, so too the praying!

Surely we are at that point now. Soon, Joseph and Mary (and the Unborn Child within her) will be turned away from the inn at Bethlehem, experiencing rejection like many unborn children today. Tension is mounting for Unborn Jesus (and unborn children today). Why must human society reject this trinity of strangers in need, sending them off to the house of the beasts; a darkened cave stable?

For our part, we can welcome them into our hearts. Waiting is transformed by praying into welcoming. We know what to do.

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God has modeled our beginnings on the beginnings of His Son; and the tiny embryo … is infinitely precious in the mind of God, for such was once His Christ in the womb of Mary….

From all eternity the pattern of development of the embryonic Christ had been chosen as the pattern of development for all the sons of men. The Spirit was the architect of the flesh of Christ and is now the architect of the biological building which has its tender foundation on the mother’s placenta….

Over the waters of the amnion hovers the Spirit of God as once He hovered over the waters of the world in the primeval dawn of its creation. The love of God, the Spirit, breathes order … overshadowing with His wings the exquisite geometry of its growth.

Whole regiments of cells are marching at the whispered command of the Spirit; cells which are unconscious of the functions they will enjoy….

So the building progresses; so the windows of the senses are built; so the pattern of the embryonic Christ is followed. For the Spirit is the architect of His own Temple….

The Father creates. The Son is the Model. The Spirit is the Architect.

…. The unborn hands are clasped by the hands of the embryonic Christ.

At term the infant will have eyes like the eyes of the infant Christ, senses like the senses of Christ; ears, nose, the same humanity, the same reflexes.

From Neuroses and Sacraments by Alan Keenan, O.F.M.
Published by Sheed & Ward, 1950

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On one occasion, when Jesus was preaching the Gospel message as an adult, he encountered a lack of faith. He looked up to heaven and called out: “I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes; yea, Father, for such was thy gracious will” (Mt 11:25 26). This time, he did not employ children but babies to illustrate His point. Jesus Himself points towards infancy.

Saint Josemaria Escriva once quipped in reference to “spiritual childhood”: “Be little, very little. Don’t be more than two years old, three at the most.” This half serious, half playful advice is thought provoking. There almost seems to be a progression here that suggests we not only become like children, but especially like “little” children, if not outright babies! And if trusting dependence upon God our Father is baby like, then why not become as trusting as unborn babies?

Unborn Jesus was content to dwell serenely within the womb of His mother for nine months, trusting in God the Father and relying on both for His needs. In this He serves as an example for us. (Just as thirty years later He slept quietly in a boat during a turbulent and terrifying storm, so these two images show us how Jesus trusted God the Father during the everyday events of life, as unborn baby and adult.) This trusting attitude was tied to His complete confidence in the will of God the Father.

Unborn Jesus had been entrusted to His mother as every other unborn child is. Truly, in every unborn child within the womb we witness the epitome of entrusting one life to another. And every unborn child should enjoy complete security and peace within the womb of his or her mother, just as Jesus did. As Pope John Paul II observed, “The God of the Covenant has entrusted the life of every individual to his or her fellow human beings, brothers and sisters, according to the law of reciprocity in giving and receiving, of self giving and the acceptance of others. In the fullness of time, by taking flesh and giving his life for us, the Son of God showed what heights and depths this law of reciprocity can reach.”

From Unborn Jesus Our Hope

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As Jesus nears Bethlehem we can contemplate His life within Mary’s womb. Pride was the great sin of our first parents - but right at the beginning, in the womb, Jesus shows us the way of humility.

“We cannot contemplate this stage of Our Lord s life without being struck first of all by the humility and self-abasement of it, by the way in which in some sense He annihilated Himself that He might do His Father’s Will. St. Paul says : “He emptied Himself…. being made in the likeness of men” (Phil. 11.7) . He stripped Himself, robbed Himself of all that He possessed: Semetipsum exinanivit.

We know that Mary, His created Home, was chaste and pure, that no breath of sin had ever touched her, that the Holy Spirit Himself had overshadowed her and had undertaken the preparation and the adornment of the earthly Tabernacle of the Word ; but pure and holy though she was, Mary was only a creature and He was the Creator. He was God and she was one of the human race. His place was on the highest throne of Heaven and yet “He abhorred not the Virgin s womb” but there lived hidden from the sight of all, like any other infant and yet wholly unlike, because He had full possession of His faculties and intelligence.

In the manger He will be seen, and so will be loved, pitied and worshiped ; there will be many consolations which will go far to lessen and soften His humiliations, but here, He is alone, hidden ; His very existence not even suspected. He has annihilated Him self, made Himself nothing. He could have taken our nature, had He so wished, without all these humiliations ; why then did He despise not the Virgin’s womb?

Because this is to be His principle all through His life, He will love “unto the end”. He will leave nothing undone that He could possibly do. He came to do His Father’s Will and He will do it thoroughly. He will bear all the humiliations because He wants to be my Model and to teach me that there is only one way of learning humility.”

Mother St. Paul, Ortus Christi

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Imagine you are a scoundrel. C’mon…we are all scoundrels sometimes, even if just for a few minutes at a time.

Well anyway, imagine that there was a scoundrel who lived in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. A scoundrel who had a conscience…and his conscience bothered him a lot. This winter he was particularly nasty. One night an angel appeared to him in a dream and said to him “Go out to Bethlehem tomorrow night to the fields where the sheep graze and someone will speak to you there. They will direct you to a cave and God will meet you there.”

The next night he fearfully does as the angel commanded him, not sure if he would even live another day. He was terrified of meeting God face to face. The hours go by and he distracts himself making small talk with the local shepherds. It gets colder. Suddenly:

“An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, ‘Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased!’” (Luke 2:9-14)

They hurry towards the caves and find one aglow with soft light. They gather ‘round the entrance to the cave, the scoundrel hanging back in the shadows. No one is speaking. The scoundrel gets up his nerve and quietly moves forward into the light. He sees a man half kneeling, half crouching forward, and beside him a woman who is kneeling in prayer. ‘Where is God and where is the baby?’ he wonders. He moves closer, and suddenly he sees the baby lying there in the manger. He is given an inspiration; that God and the baby are One! The baby turns His head slightly and looks up at the scoundrel. Then in the depths of his soul the scoundrel hears the words: “Your sins are forgiven. Go in peace.”

Most of the words spoken that Silent Night were spoken in the depths of souls.

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Joy was the hallmark of St. John the Baptist’s first meeting with the Lord at the Visitation (Luke 1:39-45). Since Mary had kept her secret to herself, the unborn John was the first human being to bear witness to the Messiah! Why did God choose an unborn baby? Indeed, and why not? No physical human eyes whether adult’s or child’s could have seen the one week old Unborn Jesus. And how did unborn John bear witness? With a joyful leap!

“When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. …For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.” Luke 1:41-44

There are many ways to preach the Gospel. The sheer joy and leap of this unborn baby is like the first Gospel sermon ever preached. John in his mother’s womb teaches us that, even without words, joy is a great way to introduce Christ to others. Let us spread joy: a joyful smile, a pleasant word, a cheerful disposition, a happy meeting, a merry gathering and even, if need be, a joyful leap. During the Advent and Christmas season we can imitate John and introduce others to Christ through our joy.

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In those days Mary arose and went with hast into the hill country, to a city of Judah. Luke 1:39

After receiving the Angel’s message Mary set out on a three to four day journey to visit her cousin Elizabeth. We are not told whether relatives or friends accompanied her. Perhaps she traveled with a caravan heading towards Jerusalem. But if she was traveling in a group for all or part of the journey, we will assume that she was not doing a lot of talking.

Rather she had hours upon hours to ponder in her heart all that had happened to her and the message that had been delivered to her. In the quiet of her thoughts and prayers a stream of realization flowed swiftly, carrying her along, and almost overflowing its banks. Father Faber presents the scene: “Like a new pulse of impetuous gladness, the Babe in Mary’s Bosom drives her forth. With swift step, as if the precipitate gracefulness of her walk were the outward sign of her inward joy, and she were beating time with her body to the music that was so jubilant within….”

Advent is a time to rediscover the joy of Christ’s coming into the world as our Savior. Like Mary let us capture moments of interior silence (even in days filled with activity). Let us ponder these things in our hearts to once again rediscover their true meaning.

God gives us this time of Advent to participate in Mary’s joy - the joy she felt when she found herself expecting the long awaited Messiah. For we too are expecting His joy and a renewal of His love at Christmas. Advent is a time to rediscover the saving power of the infant Christ born so long ago in Bethlehem – a time to regroup within ourselves and rediscover His presence in our souls.

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Today December 12th is the feastday of Our Lady of Guadalupe. It is not surprising that her feastday comes in this time of Advent because Our Lady of Guadalupe is truly the perfect Advent image.

Father Frank Pavone points out that “In the image, Our Lady is pregnant, carrying the Son of God in her womb. Her head is bowed in homage, indicating that she is not the Goddess, but rather the one who bears and at the same time worships the one true God.” Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Pro-life Movement

We know she was with child in this image because she wears a black belt which was the Aztec Maternity Belt.

On January 23, 1999 in a homily at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe John Paul II called the “Basilica of Guadalupe, the Marian heart of America”.

He went on to say:

“The Apostle Paul teaches us that in the fullness of time God sent his Son, born of a woman, to redeem us from sin and to make us his sons and daughters. Accordingly, we are no longer servants but children and heirs of God (cf. Gal 4:4-7).

Therefore, the Church must proclaim the Gospel of life and speak out with prophetic force against the culture of death. May the Continent of Hope also be the Continent of Life!

This is our cry: life with dignity for all! For all who have been conceived in their mother’s womb, for street children, for Guadalupe! To you we present this countless multitude of the faithful praying to God in America. You who have penetrated their hearts, visit and comfort the homes, parishes and Dioceses of the whole continent.

Grant that Christian families may exemplarily raise their children in the Church’s faith and in love of the Gospel, so that they will be the seed of apostolic vocations. Turn your gaze today upon young people and encourage them to walk with Jesus Christ.

O Lady and Mother of America!”

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Our Lord’s first words ‑ uttered from the womb ‑ are not recorded in any of the Gospels, but in the book of Hebrews. The first act of Jesus Christ after His Incarnation is a prayer offering Himself and His human body to the Father:

Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,

“Sacrifices and offerings thou hast not desired,
but a body hast thou prepared for me;
in burnt offerings and sin offerings
thou hast taken no pleasure.
Then I said, “Lo, I have come to do Thy will, O God,’
as it is written of me in the roll of the book.” (Heb 10:5‑7) (see link on sidebar for further explanation)

These words (foretold in Psalm 40) ‑ are the only words known to be spoken by Unborn Jesus (or by any unborn child for that matter). Pope Paul VI referred to this prayer as “the fundamental offering that the Incarnate Word made to the Father when He entered the world”. The point here is that this prayer was not offered prior to the Incarnation but rather after it had occurred.

In her book Ortus Christi, Mother St. Paul links this fundamental offering of Christ to our prayer.

“What was the essence of His prayer (during those nine months)? What was it which lay behind all? It was the intention. And what was that? We have meditated on it many times: “Behold I come to do Thy Will O my God.”

Naturally there are many different ways of doing that Will, and many different degrees in the perfection with which it is done; and that is why we are quite safe in picturing to ourselves Jesus in the womb of His mother forgetting no single detail; or perhaps a truer picture would be a union with His Father so perfect that there was no need to talk about what was so evident.

Now let us apply this to myself and I will find that instead of being discouraging , it is most encouraging, instead of making my prayers harder it will make them far easier.

What is the intention in my prayers? Is it not to please God and to do His Will? …Now let me see how this works out in practice. I pay a visit to our Lord, perhaps I am too tired to think about Him, I may even sleep in His Presence; perhaps I am so busy that I find it impossible to keep away distracting thoughts…the time is up and I go, thinking, perhaps, what is the good of paying Him a visit like that?

There is great good even in that visit which all the same might have been so much more perfect. What was my intention in paying it? Certainly to please Him. Then I have pleased Him. It was a pleasure to Him to see me come in and sit with Him, even though I was occupied with my own concerns most of the time. We are too much taken up with asking how we say our prayers, but the important question is why do we say them.

To go and sit in His presence because He is lonely or because I am tired and I would rather sit with Him than anyone else is prayer even if I say nothing. What God is doing for me is of far more importance to my soul than what I am doing for God; and all the time that I am there, whether I am thinking of Him or not, He is impressing His image on my soul…”

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Umbert the Unborn

(POSTED WITH PERMISSION FROM THE ARTIST*)

Throughout human history there has only been one redemptive pregnancy. Eve’s first pregnancy, with Cain, was a prototypical pregnancy, but was not a redemptive pregnancy. When Abraham’s wife Sarah was pregnant with Isaac it was a pregnancy of promise and destiny, but not redemptive. When famous mothers or mothers of famous children were pregnant their pregnancies were perhaps remarkable or noteworthy, but not redemptive. And when your mother was pregnant with you, it was a very special pregnancy, but not redemptive. Only the pregnancy of Mary of Nazareth was, in every sense of the word, Redemptive: a pregnancy which Christians can discover by faith, and in our present age must discover.

Right from the start, and providentially so, the Incarnation and the redemptive pregnancy of Mary the mother of Unborn Jesus are filled with hope from on high. A hushed whisper of hope for undeserving humanity. Hope for every family. Hope for every mother. Hope for every unborn child.

Many unborn children today have few friends. Enter Unborn
Jesus, the best friend of each unborn child. Now that the unborn are fiercely persecuted and disdained, the first unborn child comes to be identified with them completely, in every possible way. And He calls out to the Church to be discovered, understood and loved. Does God love unborn children? Unborn Jesus answered that question for nine months and forever.

From Unborn Jesus Our Hope

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*We would like to thank Gary Cangemi for permitting us to use his wonderful cartoon.

Adoration of the Mystic Lamb by Jan van Eyck*

Mother St. Paul gives a wonderful summation of how God prepared His people and our world to receive the Messiah. She ends the reflection with a beautiful prayer.

“The desired of all the nations shall come” Haggai 2:7 (Douay-Rheims)

“Ever since God at the time of man’s fall had made His great promise concerning the Woman and her Seed, He that was to come had been to the nations “their desired One,” That promise had been carefully cherished, handed on from father to son till Moses came and recorded it in the book of Genesis ; and though of necessity one nation had to be selected to which the Woman and her Seed were to belong, yet the promise was given to all nations and all claimed their share in it.

The chosen nation through whom all the others were to be blessed was Abraham’s. Through him and his seed the great promise was to be fulfilled (Gen. 12:3) The time was hinted at in the patriarch Jacob’s blessing to Judah : “The sceptre shall not be taken away from Judah, nor a ruler from his thigh, till He come that is to be sent and He shall be the expectation of nations” (Gen.49:10).

The house or family which was to have the joy of realizing the promise was David’s; the place where the Woman was to bring forth her Seed was Bethlehem. Here “she that travaileth shall bring forth” and here”shall He come. . that is to be the Ruler in Israel” (Mich. 2.3). Each subsequent prophecy or promise developed and enlarged the original one given in Eden…

O King of nations, as I look back through the ages
and see the Child and His Mother so clearly set forth in promise and prophecy, in type and example, when I think of Your plans for the redemption of the world, made from all eternity and gradually unfolding as the fullness of time approached, when I think of the nations all desiring Your coming, when I think of the intense desire of Your loving Heart, there is one thing that seems to jar and to be out of harmony with the rest, and that is the lamentable want of desire in my own heart ! The time is very short now, the Child with His Mother are already on the way to Bethlehem. Oh ! Let me multiply my Acts of Desire that my little King when He comes may be indeed my “desired One” too.“

 

Mother St. Paul, Ortus Christi

*In this beautiful painting are Jewish prophets and pagan writers all who waited for the Messiah. We also see women and men who were martyred for the faith, the Twelve Apostles as well as Popes, and Bishops and Priests – all surrounding the desire of their hearts – the Mystic Lamb, Jesus.

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“God does not come in the thunder, but in the April breeze. Because he does not shout but only whispers, the soul must be careful not to neglect the visitation.” Archbishop Fulton Sheen, Lift Up Your Hearts.

When God first came to us it was in the most hidden, silent and ordinary way; first in his mother’s womb and then, as a baby in a manger. In the Old Testament God prepared His people for this hidden way.

“There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.” Isaiah: 11: 1

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.” Isaiah 7 13-14

“The LORD has created a new thing upon the earth: the woman must encompass the man with devotion.” Jeremiah 31:22

“But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from old, from ancient days…” Micah 5: 2

Recall also how the prophet Elijah sought God in a cave on Mount Horeb (I Kings 19:9‑13). God made Himself known to Elijah not in power and might, but rather in “a still small voice” which Elijah heard from within the cave. So, too, here in this Bethlehem cave, amidst the hushed prayers and whisperings of humans and angels alike, soon would come a little cry of newborn Divinity, muffled so as not to frighten any away - “a still small voice”.

Let us listen to the ‘whisper’ of Christ in the womb. Let us quiet ourselves so we can hear the still, small voice in the manger. It is in such quiet events that God normally speaks to us.

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Sistine Chapel Ceiling: The Prophet Isaiah
Michelangelo Buonarroti

Many Bible scholars explain that chapters 7‑12 of Isaiah form a distinct section ‑ the Book of Immanuel ‑ in which we find repeated references to the Messiah. But within this “Book of Immanuel”, there are a number of references to the Messiah as a baby and small child. This unique prophetic perspective on the Child Messiah is fascinating, and should be of great interest to our modern world. Let’s consider some of these verses:

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:14

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called ‘Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace’…. “Isaiah 9:6

“The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.” Isaiah 11:6

Isaiah, under the influence of the Spirit of God, focuses on a ‘child’ (a son) who is the Messiah and more, he is Immanuel (God with us), Mighty God and Prince of Peace. And in some real way, this ‘little child shall lead’ us. Not by mere coincidence has the Church come to love these prophetic passages with a tender passion. The Church sees the incarnational mystery revealed here in beauty, hope and peace.

Now if Isaiah was attracted by this ‘child’, can you imagine how Mary (after she had conceived the Son of God) felt as she recalled the words: “…the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and name him Immanuel”. For Mary was the virgin chosen by God to fulfill this prophecy and her unborn baby was the promised One. But all Christians should share in that same prophetic joy and anticipation at hearing “to us a child is born” and “to us a son is given”. To us Unborn Jesus was sent as a sign of hope ‑ and for every vulnerable unborn child: He is their only Hope.

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It was one of the lesser known prophets that actually named names in his prophecy:

“But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
who are little to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to be ruler in Israel,
whose origin is from of old,
from ancient days.” Micah 5:2

Bethlehem! The name means “house of bread”. God pulled out all the stops when He inspired this prophecy. There is a long prophetic line - a “bread line” - straight through the history of the Jewish people which culminates in the birth of Jesus “the Bread of Life”, in Bethlehem “the house of Bread”. Let’s take a look.

First there was Melchizedek, the priest king of Salem, way back in the time of Abraham (Gen 14:13-24). He brought out bread and wine as an offering, and in the name of “God Most High, maker of heaven and earth” blessed Abraham.

Then there was the unleavened bread of the Passover (Exodus 12) which the people were instructed to prepare and eat (with the lamb). And this has been celebrated every year, just as Jesus celebrated it with His apostles on the night before He died.

Remember the Manna! The people asked, “What is it?” Moses answered: “It is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat” (Ex 16:11-16). (The Lord told Moses he would “rain bread from heaven” for the people to collect daily.) A portion of this wafer-like bread was apparently to be kept in the ark of the covenant (Ex 16:31-34). In subsequent centuries during Temple worship flour offerings were routinely made in the form of unleavened cake/bread kneaded with oil.

When Micah made his prophecy about Bethlehem, no one could have imagined how its fulfillment would also embody the fullness of Israelite worship and sacrifice. The fulfillment came with the birth of the baby Jesus in Bethlehem. But Christ continued its fulfillment in various ways throughout His life: the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, the teaching of the Lord’s Prayer (”give us this day our daily bread”), His sermon in John 6 (note His sermon rejected in Jn 6:66), the Last Supper, and after His resurrection in Emmaus when He revealed Himself through the blessing of the bread and again when He prepares a meal on the beach for His apostles of cooked fish and bread (Jn 21:9-14) and was revealed to them through this.

So Micah’s prophecy is truly Eucharistic. The Church continues in its worship today the fulfillment of the Bethlehem miracle (and keeps a portion of the wafer-like Eucharist in the tabernacle). Join this “bread line” and participate in the daily fulfillment of prophecy.

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How appropriate that the first prophecy about the Messiah was spoken by God Himself while Adam and Eve stood dumbfounded in the Garden of Eden. But was it a spiritual slight to humanity that it wasn’t spoken to humans but rather to the serpent?

“I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your seed and her seed;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.” Gen 3:15

Four lines and four participants: “I” of course is God, “you” is the serpent (see Gen 3:14),”he” (also “his” and “her seed”) is the Messiah and “the woman” is the mother of the Messiah.

The point is that here we have God, right in the Garden of Eden, making a specific, definitive and hopeful promise to all of humanity using biological language “her seed”. Shall we understand this term as her ovum fertilized or as her male child delivered? Either way, it is a powerful promise. Notice that it is “her seed” and not “his seed”.

Yet throughout the Bible we read about male descendants, as in Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus. Remember the King James Version? “Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob” and on and on. But here God directs us to the woman’s descendant. This is a tender prophecy spoken at a sad time when God has just discovered the rebellion of the first two parents. Already He knows it is Mary who will be the faithful and loving mother to His only begotten Son and His reference to “her seed” is pointed. In fact, He will preserve her specially for this unique office as ‘Mother of (the) Lord’ (see Lk 1:43).

We learn here of God’s merciful ‘impatience’. As soon as our first parents rebel against His Beautiful and Holy Will, God immediately reveals this wonderful plan for humanity centered around one Person, a Savior, Who will be born of that special woman deep in human history, beneath the Christmas star, with witnesses ‘round about: beasts and peasants, angels and kings.

And the ‘sign’, as the angels put it (Lk 2:12): it’s how His mother wraps Him up in swaddling cloths to keep Him warm after nursing Him and then lays her baby down in a manger to sleep.

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Disclaimer: While Xtreme prayer is very beneficial, participating in Xtreme Sports can be hazardous to your health.

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Next time your kid starts ooohhing and aaahhing about the guy leaping off a bridge with a parachute or jumping over ten sixteen wheelers on a dirt bike, you can chime in with your own examples of Xtreme Prayer!!! Read on.

Back in the day - the Gospel day - Jesus gave us some examples of Xtreme Prayer:

Remember the parable of the widow and the unrighteous judge? The widow bothered the judge constantly seeking justice and finally he found in her favor just to get rid of her (LK 18:1-8). Remember the father who brought his son to the apostles to have an unclean spirit cast out, but they were unable to do so? Jesus explained: “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting” (Mk 9:16-29). We are also told that Jesus often spent “all night” praying (for example Lk 6:12). That was Xtreme Prayer then.

Here are some examples of Xtreme Prayer now:

Maintain your daily prayer regime during the most distracted season of them all!!!

Praying at the Mall - no seriously, PRAYING AT THE MALL!!!!!!!

Sit alone in a room and sincerely sing five or more (religious) Christmas carols.

Spend MORE than one hour in prayer.

Go to Church twice on the same day!!

Pray two or more Novenas at the same time.

Pray two or more litanies on the same day.

Pray MORE than five decades of the rosary on the same day.

You get the idea. You don’t need an expensive helmet for any of these (except maybe the Mall suggestion). Isn’t it amazing how free and accessible God is, anytime, anywhere, you choose the words…