MONTH 9 – Christ is Born!<\/p>\n
BIOLOGICAL REFLECTION<\/span> – Month Nine:\u00a0 The Birth of Christ!\u00a0 Now fully developed and ready for life outside the virginal womb of his Mother Mary, little Jesus comes into the world weighing 7 or 8 pounds, measuring about 20 inches long head to toe.\u00a0 As Baby Jesus feeds at the breast of Mary, we are reminded of our own beginning, as we observe in wonder the mysterious Love of the omnipotent God, who deigned to become human, submitting Himself in dependency to the care of His human mother and mankind, feeding us His very Self, the Eucharist, our Daily Bread.\u00a0 Yet Jesus, fully Divine, is also fully human. And so, modern science with ultrasound technology provides an amazing gift of blessing to the Church of the 21<\/span>st<\/span> Century, as we \u201cvirtually\u201d follow the human development of Christ from conception to birth.\u00a0 Along with intimately sharing in the ordinary marvels of life in the womb, we can now \u201cwitness\u201d and \u201cparticipate\u201d in Christ\u2019s conception (March 25), His Cardiophany, the first beat His Sacred Heart (April 15), and His birth (December 25).\u00a0 <\/span> THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION<\/span> \u2013 <\/span>Month Nine:\u00a0 The birth of Christ and the Octave of Christmas lead the faithful to reflect on these words of Blessed Pope John Paul II in his first encyclical \u201cRedemptor Hominis\u201d (par. 1.1-1.2): \u201cThrough the Incarnation God gave human life the dimension that he intended man to have from his first beginning; he has granted that dimension definitively\u00a0 – in the way that is peculiar to him alone, in keeping with his eternal love and mercy, with the full freedom of God\u2026\u201d \u00a0 That God the Creator submits to man His creature by becoming creature is a powerful reminder of God\u2019s gift of free will to mankind.\u00a0\u00a0 On this \u201cVia Gaudete\u201d pilgrimage, we observed that at the beginning of every human life, the heart begins beating 21 days after the day of conception, before the brain can even function. Then, after a few weeks of being fed by blood pumped from the heart, the brain takes control and the heart submits to the brain – until that very last heartbeat\u2026 when the body submits to the heart, signaling the beginning of Eternal life.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span> 2012 Ellen Marie Edmonds.\u00a0 For reprint permission, contact ellen@EmbracingDementia.com<\/a><\/p>\n
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