The wonder of Christmas morning

John Chrysostom preaching in Constantinople 

This year Christmas Day falls on a Sunday. We pray your Christmas is awesome this year. Here is an excerpt from a Christmas morning sermon about the 4th or 5th Century by John Chrysostom (c.349-407), Archbishop of Constantinople:

"What shall I say! And how shall I describe this Birth to you? For this wonder fills me with astonishment. The Ancient of Days has become an infant. He Who sits upon the sublime and heavenly Throne, now lies in a manger. And He Who cannot be touched, now lies subject to the hands of men. He Who has broken the bonds of sinners, is now bound by an infant's bands.

"Come, then, let us observe the Feast. Truly wondrous is the whole chronicle of the Nativity. For this day the ancient slavery is ended, the devil confounded, the demons take to flight, the power of death is broken, paradise is unlocked, the curse is taken away, sin is removed from us, error driven out, truth has been brought back.

"To Him, then, Who out of confusion has wrought a clear path, to Christ, to the Father, and to the Holy Ghost, we offer all praise, now and for ever. Amen." --John Chrysostom (c. 349-407), Archbishop of Constantinople, excerpt from his sermon, "Christmas Morning," The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers, M. F. Toal, ed., (Swedesboro, NJ: Preservation Press, 1996), 1:110-117.