Excerpts from St. Augustine’s Christmas Day sermons

“God became a human being, so that in one person you could have both something to see and something to believe.” — St. Augustine, Sermon 126

“O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise” (Psalm 51:15); of that Lord through whom all things were made (John 1:3); and who was Himself made among all things; who is the revealer of the Father, creator of His mother; the Son of God from the Father without mother, the Son of man from His mother without father… The Word Who is God before all time became flesh at the appointed time. The maker of the sun was made under the sun. He Who fills the world lays in a manger, great in the form of God but tiny in the form of a servant; this was in such a way that neither was His greatness diminished by His tininess, nor was His tininess overcome by His greatness.” — St. Augustine, Sermon 187

“He lies in a manger, but He holds the whole world in His hands; He sucks His mother’s breasts, but feeds the angels; He is swaddled in rags, but clothes us in immortality; He is suckled, but also worshiped; He could find no room in the inn, but makes a temple for Himself in the hearts of believers. It was in order, you see, that weakness might become strong, that strength became weak. Let us therefore rather wonder at, than make light of His birth in the flesh, and there recognize the lowliness on our behalf of such loftiness.” — St. Augustine, Sermon 190

“He so loved us that for our sake He was made man in time, through Whom all times were made; was in the world less in years than His servants, though older than the world itself in His eternity; was made man, Who made man; was created of a mother, whom He created; was carried by hands which He formed; nursed at the breasts which He had filled; cried in the manger in wordless infancy, He the Word without Whom all human eloquence is mute.” — St. Augustine, Sermon 188

“He who was God was made man by taking on what He was not, not by losing what He was... Let Christ, therefore, lift you up by that which is human in Him; let Him lead you by that which is God—man; let Him guide you through to that which is God.” — St. Augustine, on 1 John, 23, 61