Some millions of years having passed since the creation of the world, when, in the beginning, God created heaven and earth; Some thousands of years from the salvation of man when the family of Noah survived the flood; About nineteen centuries after the promise was given to Abraham, the father of our faith; Many ages after Moses brought the people from bondage in Egypt; A thousand years from the anointing of David as King over the chosen people; In fulfillment of the times and years and months and days discerned by the vision of the prophets; In the course of secular history:  In the one hundred and ninety-third Olympiad; Seven and one half centuries from the founding of the city of Rome; In the twentieth year of the reign of the Emperor Octavian Augustus, while the whole world enjoyed a span of peace; In the sixth and final age of human achievement; Wishing to consecrate the whole world and all time by his blessed presence, Jesus Christ, eternal God, and Son of the eternal Father, conceived as man by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, after nine months of growth in the womb of his mother, Was born of the Virgin Mary and for our salvation became man in Bethlehem of Judah.  Now in our own times this marks the birthday of Our Lord Jesus Christ after the manner of all flesh.

Source:  Columba Kelly, O.S.B., “Proclamation of the Birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ,” St. Meinrad liturgical music.  Text and Music: © 1971, 1993 Saint Meinrad Archabbey; All Rights Reserved.  Quoted by permission.