De Nativitat
The Humility of the Incarnation
The Son of God chose to be born in poverty and lowliness to destroy the power of sin.
In the ninth month after the Son of God was made flesh, He chose to be born of Our Lady Saint Mary, from whom He was born God and man, and without pain and without corruption of Our Lady Saint Mary.✦1 You should know, my son, that our Lady Saint Mary was a poor woman when it came to worldly riches; yet she was rich in virtues and born of honorable lineage. So, when it pleased the Son of God to be born, He was born in a poor place—the manger where the animals ate. If the sons of kings and great lords are born in palaces and chambers, in cloth of gold and silk, the Savior of the world was born in the stable, on the straw the beasts ate.✦2 Ah, my son—how scanty the cloths were that the Son of God was wrapped in, how few they were, and how few people served and tended him! Yet every human being is born into guilt and sin, and the Son of God was born to wipe out and destroy that guilt and sin.✦✦3
Contemplating the Holy Family
Reflecting on the relationship between Jesus and Mary invites us to contemplate their mutual love and the humanity of the Savior.
When you see a beautiful young woman, my son, dressed in rags, whose expression speaks of honesty as she carries her lovely child in her arms—also poorly dressed—think then of the Nativity of the Son of God, who was poorly dressed in the arms of Our Lady Saint Mary.4 Just like other children, the Son of God let Our Lady care for him, and his body grew little by little—even though his power and strength were greater than any other power or strength found in all of creation.5 Can you estimate how great the pain was?6 That was the bond between Jesus Christ and Our Lady—she who knew him as her son and as Lord of all the world, and Jesus Christ who knew his mother as the best, the noblest, and the most beautiful woman who ever was or ever will be.7
The Call to Serve the Savior
The purpose of human life is to love and serve the Son of God, lest we face the consequences of rejecting our Creator.
Beloved son, you were born and came into this world to honor and serve that Son of God of whom I speak to you, and so I urge you to love him and long to see him. If you don't love or serve him, you'll be acting against the very reason you came into the world, and you'll become a slave and captive to everlasting torments, to which you'll be sentenced by the just judgment of our Lord God.8
Read the original Latin
El nové mes quel Fill de Deu fo encarnat, volch náxer de nostra dona Sancta María, de la qual nasch Deu e home e sens dolor e sens corrupcio de nostra dona Sancta María.
Sapies, fill, que nostra dona Sancta María era pobra fembra d aqüestes riqueses temporals; mas rica era de vertuts, e nada fo d onrat linatge: e per assó, con plach al Fill de Deu que nasqués, nasch en pobre loch, so es a saber, en lo presepi on menjaven les besties.
Si los filis dels Reys e dels grans barons nexen en palaus e en cambres e en draps daur e de seda, lo Salvador del mon nasch en l estable e en la paya que les bestles menjaven.
¡Ah, fill, e con breus foren los draps on lo Fill de Deu fo enbolcat, e tan pocs foren aquests, e per tan poques persones fo servit e aministrat! E pero tots los homens qui nexen son nats en colpa e en peccats, e lo Fill de Deu nasch per dclir e destruir colpa e peccat.
Con vourás, fill, alcuna bella fembra jova, pobrament vestida, e son esguardament te significa honestat, e aquella portará son bell fill en son bras, vestit pobrament, adoncs cogita en la nativitat del Fill de Deu, qui en lo bras de nostra dona Sancta Maria era pobrament vestit.
Enaxi com los altres infants pochs, se lexava aministrar lo Fill de Deu a nostra dona, e poch a poch crexia son cors, jats se sia assó que son poder o sa vertut fos major que tot laltre poder e tota laltra vertut qui es en les creatures.
Aesma con dol? esguardament era aquell qui era entre Jhesu Christ e nostra dona, quil sabia son fill e senyor de tot lo mon, e Jhesu Christ qui sabia sa máre la mellor e la pus noble e la pus bella dona que anch fos ni será.
Amable fill, tu est nat e vengut en aquest mon per honrar e servir aquell Fill de Deu de que yot parle, per lo qual te monest que tu lams el desigs veer. On, si tu nol ames nel serveys, farás contra so per que est vengut en lo mon e serás servu e catiu de perdurables trebays, als quals serás jutjat per la dreturera sentencia de nostro Senyor Deu,
Scripture echoes
- ↩John.1.14 — And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
- ↩Luke.2.7 — And she gave birth to her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
- ↩Ps.51.5;Rom.5.12 — For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Rom.5.12 — Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and through sin death, and so death spread to all people, because all sinned—
- ↩1John.3.5 — And you know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and there is no sin in him.
Notes
- 1 ↩Catalan «sens corrupcio de nostra dona Sancta María» names the traditional doctrine that Mary's virginal integrity was preserved in childbirth, not moral corruption in a general sense.
- 2 ↩Source reading «bestles» is treated as «besties» (beasts/animals), matching the neighboring section's «les besties» and the nativity context.
- 3 ↩Source reading 'dclir' is treated as medieval Catalan 'delir' (to blot out / abolish), paired with 'destruir'.
- 4 ↩Source orthography vourás is read as veuràs ('you will see'); fembra jova = young woman; esguardament = look/bearing.
- 5 ↩Catalan «vertut» here is paired with «poder» (power) and ranges over strength, efficacious power, and virtue; rendered as “strength” to keep the creaturely-capacity contrast clear without collapsing it into moral virtue alone.
- 6 ↩Old Catalan Aesma is the pedagogical imperative of aesmar (“estimate/reckon”), well attested elsewhere in Doctrina pueril. con is read as com (“how”), as in nearby “con breus foren” (1.7.4). dol is taken as “pain/grief.” The clause is terse and interrogative; sense is rhetorical intensity before the mutual regard in s2.
- 7 ↩esguardament is rendered “regard” (mutual gaze/looking-upon), matching its use earlier in the chapter for a person’s look and bearing (1.7.5). quil = qui’l (“who…him”).
- 8 ↩perdurables trebays: Old Catalan trebays can mean labors, troubles, or torments; rendered as 'everlasting torments' for the eschatological judgment context.
Doctrine for Children — Opening companion
Rule yourself daily, not just on retreat
Chosen Portion turns the mirror into a daily practice — a short reading and examining question each morning before you lead anyone.
Chosen Portion makes the mirror daily: the ruler-formation questions this collection preserves become a two-minute morning examination in the app.
- A daily formation reading drawn from centuries of counsel to those in authority
- One pointed examination question a day — two minutes, before the meetings start
- Track your practice over weeks and watch the examined life become a habit