Nativity in Art

The Nativity in Art

The Nativity of Jesus has been a major subject of Christian art since the 4th century. The artistic depictions of the Nativity or birth of Jesus, celebrated at Christmas, are based on the narratives in the Bible, in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, and further elaborated by written, oral and artistic tradition.

The Nativity has been depicted in many different media, both pictorial and sculptural. Pictorial forms include murals, panel paintings, manuscript illuminations, stained glass windows and oil paintings. Sculptural representations of the Nativity include architectural features such as capitals and door lintels and free standing sculptures.

Free-standing sculptures of the Nativity often take the form of a "Creche". The scale of the figures may range from miniature to life-sized. These Nativity Scenes probably derived from acted nativity scenes in Rome, and Saint Francis of Assisi gave the tradition a great boost by encouraging their use. This tradition continues to this day, with many small Nativity Scenes being made from porcelain, plaster, plastic or cardboard for display in the home.

Nativity and Annunciation to the Shepherds from the Bamberg Apocalypse, 1000-20 A.D.

(Source: Wikipedia, Nativity of Jesus in Art, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nativity_of_Jesus_in_art)

God With Us!

The virgin will be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.

Gaudete!

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Let your forbearance be known to all, for the Lord is near at hand; have no anxiety about anything, but in all things, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God. Lord, you have blessed your land; you have turned away the captivity of Jacob.

Psalm 51

 

Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had sinned with Bethsabee. 3 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your great mercy. And according to the multitude of your tender mercies blot out my iniquity. 4 Wash me yet more from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. 5 For I know my iniquity, and my sin is always before me. 6 To you only have I sinned, and have done evilbefore you: that you may be justified in your words, and may overcome when you are judged. 7 For behold I was conceived ininiquities; and in sins did my mother conceive me. 8 For behold you have lovedtruth: the uncertain and hidden things of your wisdom you have made manifest to me. 9 You shall sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed: you shall wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow. 10 To my hearing you shall give joy and gladness: and the bones that have been humbled shall rejoice. 11 Turn away your face from mysins, and blot out all my iniquities. 12 Create a clean heart in me, O God: and renew a right spirit within my bowels. 13 Cast me not away from your face; and take not yourholy spirit from me. 14 Restore unto me thejoy of your salvation, and strengthen me with a perfect spirit. 15 I will teach the unjust your ways: and the wicked shall be converted to you. 16 Deliver me from blood, O God, you God of my salvation: and my tongue shall extol your justice. 17 O Lord, you will open my lips: and my mouth shall declare your praise. 18 For if you had desired sacrifice, I would indeed have given it: with burnt offerings you will not be delighted. 19 A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit: a contrite and humbled heart, O God, you will not despise. 20 Deal favourably, O Lord, in your good will with Sion; that the walls of Jerusalem may be built up. 21 Then shall you accept thesacrifice of justice, oblations and whole burnt offerings: then shall they lay calves upon your altar.

Hail Full of Grace!

In the Constitution Ineffabilis Deus of 8 December, 1854, Pius IX pronounced and defined that the Blessed Virgin Mary "in the first instance of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin." [1]

St. Bernadette was the daughter of François Soubirous, a miller, and his wife Louise, a laundress, and was the eldest of five children who survived infancy. Bernadette's impoverished family lived in a single unheated room. On 11 February 1858, Bernadette, then aged 14, was out gathering firewood and bones with her sister and a friend at the grotto of Massabielle outside Lourdes, when she had an experience that completely changed her life and the town of Lourdes where she had lived. It was on this day that Bernadette claimed she had the first of 18 visions of what she termed "a small young lady" standing in a niche in the rock. 

During one of her visions, she asked the woman her name but the lady just smiled back. She repeated the question three more times and finally heard the lady say, "I am the Immaculate Conception" Four years earlier, Pope Pius IX had defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.  Her parents, teachers and priests all later testified that she had never previously heard the expression 'immaculate conception' from them. [2]

Full of Grace…

Source 1, Source 2 

Reading for the Day

Comfort, give comfort to my people,
says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her
that her service is at an end,
her guilt is expiated;
Indeed, she has received from the hand of the LORD
double for all her sins.
A voice cries out:
In the desert prepare the way of the LORD!
Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!
Every valley shall be filled in,
every mountain and hill shall be made low;
The rugged land shall be made a plain,
the rough country, a broad valley.
Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,
and all people shall see it together;
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
A voice says, “Cry out!”
I answer, “What shall I cry out?”
“All flesh is grass,
and all their glory like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower wilts,
when the breath of the LORD blows upon it.
So then, the people is the grass.
Though the grass withers and the flower wilts,
the word of our God stands forever.”
Go up onto a high mountain,
Zion, herald of glad tidings;
Cry out at the top of your voice,
Jerusalem, herald of good news!
Fear not to cry out
and say to the cities of Judah:
Here is your God!
Here comes with power
the Lord GOD,
who rules by his strong arm;
Here is his reward with him,
his recompense before him.
Like a shepherd he feeds his flock;
in his arms he gathers the lambs,
Carrying them in his bosom,
and leading the ewes with care.
Source

Ἀνδρέας

 

Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who heard John and followed Jesus.  He first found his own brother Simon and told him, "We have found the Messiah" (which is translated Anointed).  Then he brought him to Jesus.

Source