Mother of God==================== Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam =============================== From: Luke 2:16-21 The Adoration of the Shepherds ------------------------------------------------------------------- And they (the shepherds) went with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they saw it they made known the saying which had been told them concerning this child; and all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. The Circumcision of Jesus -------------------------------------- And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angels before he was conceived in the womb. ******************************* The Son of God became incarnate in order to redeem and save all men; so it is very fitting that he be called Jesus, Savior. We confess this in the Creed: "For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven." "There were indeed many who were called by this name ......... But how much more appropriate it is to call by this name our Savior, who brought light, liberty and salvation, not to one people only, but to all men, of all ages--to men oppressed, not by famine, or Egyp tian or Babylonian bondage, but sitting in the shadow of death and fettered by the galling chains of sin and of the devil"