By Saint Gregory The Wonder Worker.

She wrapped in swaddling-clothes Him who is covered with light as with a garment. She wrapped in swaddling-clothes Him who made every creature. She laid in a manger Him who sits above the cherubim, and is praised by myriads of angels. In the manger set apart for dumb brutes did the Logos of God repose, in order that He might impart to men, who are really irrational by free choice, the perceptions of true reason.

In the board from which cattle eat was laid the heavenly Bread, in order that He might provide participation in spiritual nourishment for men who live like the beasts of the earth. Nor was there even room for Him in the inn. He found no place, Who by His word established heaven and earth; “for though He was rich, for our sakes He became poor,” and showed extreme humiliation on behalf of the salvation of our nature, in His inherent goodness toward us.

He Who fulfilled the whole administration of unutterable mysteries of the economy in heaven in the bosom of the Father, and in the cave in the arms of the mother, reposed in the manger. Angelic choirs encircled Him, singing of glory in heaven and of peace upon earth.

In heaven He was seated at the right hand of the Father; and in the manger He rested, as it were, upon the cherubim. Even there was in truth His cherubic throne; there was His royal seat. Holy of the holy, and alone glorious upon the earth, and holier than the holy, was that wherein Christ our god rested.