The Twelve Days of Christmas-Day 5 (2)

Christ is here in the flesh: let us exult with fear and joy—with fear, because of our sins; with joy, because of the hope that he brings us. He who is without flesh becomes incarnate; The Word puts on a body; the Invisible is seen; he whom no hand can touch is handled; the Timeless has a beginning; the Son of God becomes Son of Man—Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever…For the sake of my flesh he takes flesh; for the sake of my soul he is united to the rational soul, purifying like by like…He shares in the poverty of my flesh, that I may share in the riches of his Godhead.

—Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 38