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God showed his glory in the incarnation of his Son

Title page of Challoner’s Meditations or Considerations upon Christian Truths and Duties for Every Day of the Year

Today's Devotional

Consider first, that the almighty power of God shines forth in a glorious manner in the wonders wrought in the Incarnation. His infinite wisdom appears, in his uniting in the same person God and man, the creator and the creature, hitherto at an immense distance from each other, thus rendering to the Deity a homage of adoration, praise, and love, infinitely more glorious, than the homage of ten thousand worlds, though full of angels and men eternally employed in glorifying God.

Consider, secondly, the infinite goodness of God in this mystery, by which he has given his only Son to he our savior and great deliverer, and to make us happy for eternity. The divine justice too, is no less conspicuous in the Incarnation of the Son of God, since it required a satisfaction for sin, which nothing but the precious blood of our divine redeemer could discharge. No punishment to be inflicted in time or eternity for the sins of men, could demonstrate more clearly the dreadful rigor of divine justice than such an atonement.

Consider, thirdly, how very much the Incarnation of the Son of God, by reason of the infinite dignity of this God-man, has advanced the glory of his Father, since every motion of his heart gives, in effect, infinitely more glory to the Father, both in time and eternity, than all the adorations and praises of millions of angels.

Conclude to join the angels in hymns of perpetual praise to God, for having so wonderfully reconciled together in this mystery his own glory with your peace and salvation. 

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Contemplate the story of the Incarnation day-by-day throughout the season of Advent in our latest publication, The Grand Miracle. Based on the writings of C. S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, George MacDonald, Dorothy Sayers, and others, each day’s reading offers a fresh look at the birth of Christ through the eyes of a modern author. Scripture, prayer, and full-page contemplative images complete each entry. 28 days, 64 pages. Preview the Devotional here.

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About the author and the source

Richard Challoner (1691–1781) was an English Roman Catholic bishop who wrote devotional and apologetic works and revised the Douay-Rheims translation of the Bible. This devotional is condensed from an entry in his Meditations for Every Day.

Richard Challoner. Meditations for Every Day of the Year, abridged by the Rev. John Bell. Louisville: B. J. Webb and Brother, [c. 1800].

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