more great church father stuff...
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. The Advent season is surely a time when,even if we are preoccupied with shopping and getting together with friends, we should take time to contemplate exactly what will happen on Christmas Day and what it means. +Gregory Nazianzen the Elder reminds us of how to properly celebrate the Incarnation the central event of human history.
+Symeon the New Theologian explains the purpose this way:
"The purpose of the incarnate economy of God the Word, which is proclaimed by all the divine scriptures and which we read but do not understand, is surely summed up by saying that He has shared in what was ours to let us share in what was His. The Son of God became the Son of Man in order to make us men the sons of God. By grace He lifts up our race to what He is by nature. He gives birth to us from on high in the Holy Spirit, and then straightway leads us into the kingdom of heaven; or rather, He gives us the grace to have this kingdom within us. We therefore have more than just the hope of entering here; we really possess it as we cry out: 'Our life is hidden with Christ in God'."