The LORD said to Moses : "Speak to Aaron and his sons and tell them: This is how you shall bless the Israelites. Say to them: The LORD bless you and keep you! The LORD let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you! The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace! So shall they invoke my name upon the Israelites, and I will bless them."

May God have pity on us and bless us; may he let his face shine upon us. So may your way be known upon earth; among all nations, your salvation. May the nations be glad and exult because you rule the peoples in equity; the nations on the earth you guide. May the peoples praise you, O God; may all the peoples praise you! May God bless us, and may all the ends of the earth fear him!

Brothers and sisters: When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to ransom those under the law, so that we might receive adoption. As proof that you are children, God sent the spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!" So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.

The shepherds went in haste to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child. All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds. And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them. When eight days were completed for his circumcision, he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

If the Apostle, servant of Christ, continues to bring forth his children through his care and ardent desire until Christ is formed in them (cf. Gal 4:19), how much more is this true of Christ's own mother! Paul fathered them by preaching the Word which regenerated them; Mary did it in a much holier and more divine way by generating the Word itself. I praise in Paul the mystery of preaching, but I admire and venerate more in Mary the mystery of generation. She who is the Virgin-Mother, she who glories in having borne the Only-begotten Son of the Father, embraces that same Only-begotten of hers in all her members and so can be truly called Mother of all in whom she recognizes her Christ to have been formed, or in whom she knows he is being formed. Then again, is it not true that her children seem to recognise her as their Mother by a kind of instinctive devotion which faith gives them as second nature, so that first and foremost in all their needs and dangers they run to call upon her name just as children run to their mother’s breast? Already we really dwell in the help of the Mother of the Most High; we do live in her protection, as if under the shadow of her wing. So I do not think it is absurd to think that it is indeed these children that the prophet is talking about when he makes this promise: “Your sons will live in you” (Is 62.5; LXX); without losing sight of the fact that this prophecy applies mainly to the Church. already we all dwell in the help of the Mother of the Most High; we do live in her protection (Ps. 90: 1, 4), as if under the shadow of her wing (Ps. 16:8). And afterwards in participating in her glory we shall be cherished as if in her bosom. Then a single cry of rejoicing and thanksgiving will be heard addressed to this Mother: : "The dwelling place of all of us who rejoice and are glad is in you" (cf. Ps 86:7; LXX) holy Mother of God.

Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that the antichrist was coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. Thus we know this is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not really of our number; if they had been, they would have remained with us. Their desertion shows that none of them was of our number. But you have the anointing that comes from the holy one, and you all have knowledge. I write to you not because you do not know the truth but because you do, and because every lie is alien to the truth.

Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all you lands. Sing to the LORD, bless his name; Announce his salvation day after day. Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice; let the sea and what fills it resound; let the plains be joyful and all that is in them. Then shall all the trees of the forest exult before the LORD. The LORD comes, he comes to rule the earth. He shall rule the world with justice and the peoples with his constancy.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. A man named John was sent from God. He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came to be through him, but the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him. But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man's decision but of God. And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth. John testified to him and cried out, saying, "This was he of whom I said, 'The one who is coming after me ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.'" From his fullness we have all received, grace in place of grace, because while the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. The only Son, God, who is at the Father's side, has revealed him.

If you claim to recognize [God] “by faith” and judge that “by faith” you are the son of God, then it follows that the incarnation of God also be “by faith”: no longer say that He “in reality” became man nor that he was brought into the world in a sensible way! But if he truly did become the son of man, then he actually made you the son of God; if it is not in appearance that he has become body, then we also do not become spirit in idea; as true as the Word was made flesh, it transforms us in an ineffable way and truly makes us children of God. Remaining immutable in his divinity, the Word became man by assuming flesh: preserving man immutable in his flesh and his soul, he made me entirely God; he took on my condemned flesh and clothed me with the entire divinity, because, baptized, I clothed Christ, not in a sensible way, certainly, but spiritually; and how will he not be God by grace and adoption, in feeling, knowledge and contemplation, who has been clothed by the Son of God? If it is unconsciously that the Word God became man, then that I too become God unconsciously, it is permitted, it is natural to suppose; but if it is knowingly, effectively and consciously that God took on the total human condition, I have become God entirely, through communion with God, sensibly and knowingly, not by essence but by participation. Just as, without change, God was born a man in a body and showed himself to all, so ineffably, spiritually, he begets me and makes me, while still man, become God.

I am writing to you, children, because your sins have been forgiven for his name's sake. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have conquered the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong and the word of God remains in you, and you have conquered the evil one. Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, sensual lust, enticement for the eyes, and a pretentious life, is not from the Father but is from the world. Yet the world and its enticement are passing away. But whoever does the will of God remains forever.

Give to the LORD, you families of nations, give to the LORD glory and praise; give to the LORD the glory due his name! Bring gifts and enter His courts. Worship the LORD in holy attire. Tremble before him, all the earth; Say among the nations: The LORD is king. He has made the world firm, not to be moved; he governs the peoples with equity.

There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived seven years with her husband after her marriage, and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple, but worshiped night and day with fasting and prayer. And coming forward at that very time, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem. When they had fulfilled all the prescriptions of the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.