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These are not my words. I swiped them, with permission and I am curious as to the thoughts of others. No prostelizing(sp), please. Just thoughts on the birth of Jesus, our namesake. Wrapped in swaddling cloths: 12-21-07 "She wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger." Luke 2:7 Archbishop Fulton Sheen is quoted “Jesus was the only person born to die” and it is interesting to note in the passage above that when the baby Jesus was born, he was not wrapped in a blanket or a shawl but in swaddling cloths. When Mary said "fiat" she was fulfilling the Old Testament prophesies of Isaiah, a savior would be born of a Virgin and in Isaiah 53:4-5: "Yet it was our infirmities that he bore, our suffering that he endured, while we thought of him as stricken, as one smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins, upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we were healed." When Jesus was born he was wrapped in his death cloth, swaddling cloth or shroud. "In the Middle East, people traveling long distances often met with many hardships and trials on their journeys. In the event of a death while traveling, the body could not continue to be transported for many days. For that reason, travelers wrapped a thin, gauzelike cloth around their waist many times. If someone died on the journey, the others would use this cloth, referred to as "swaddling clothes" to wrap the corpse in before burying them. When Jesus was born, there was no room in the Inn, and so Mary and Joseph used a nearby stable for Jesus' birth. With no other cloth to use, Jesus was probably wrapped in Joseph's "swaddling clothes", the cloth normally reserved for a person's death. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords came into this world in a lowly manger and was wrapped with burial clothes, in truth, He was born to die. To die for the sins of all mankind" (1). The Greek word that is used for "swaddling clothes" is the same Greek word that is used for "burial bandages." So the first clothing that was used to cover the baby Jesus was the same type of cloth that would be used for His body after His death on the cross. With the first clothing to cover the baby Jesus and being laid in a strangers manger gives us a glimpse of what is waiting for this child when he will suffer for us, be wrapped in, possible the same swaddling cloth, and laid in a strangers tomb at his death. The crib and the cross are connected from the very beginning. The late Archbishop Fulton Sheen wrote: "He was wrapped in swaddling bands in his birthplace. He was again laid in swaddling cloths in his tomb, clothes symbolic of the limitations imposed on His Divinity when He took a human form" ("The Life of Christ - the Early Years). Today we find Jesus present upon the Altar in the Holy Eucharist; and to think that His first Altar was a crib where he was laid to be sacrificed, and the second a Cross where He was scarified to redeem us from our sins. O God, who’s mighty Son was born in Bethlehem those days long ago, lead us to that same poor place, where Mary laid her tiny Child. And as we look on in wonder and praise, make us welcome him in all new life, see him in the poor, and care for his handiwork the earth, the sky and the sea. O God, bless us again in your great love. We pray for this through Christ our Lord. Amen. (2 - Prayer at the Christmas Manger) God Bless Richard (laymonk) MINUTE MEDITATION 12-21-07 (c) 2007 by Richard Huggins