On this Christmas night the Church celebrates the human birth of Jesus, the Son of God, Savior of the world, at Bethlehem. The Word begotten from all eternity by the Father in heaven, took our human nature in the womb of the Virgin Mary who really gave Him His body; and He was born in a manger. He who comes to share our human life is the Son of God before being the Son of Mary, but He is really both. The Mass at midnight strongly emphasizes this twofold aspect of divine greatness and human lowliness which constitutes the whole basis of the mystery of Christmas. The station at Rome is held at St. Mary Major’s in honor of our Lady and to venerate the crib from Bethlehem: beneath the high altar five pieces of worm-eaten wood, fragments of the manger which served our Savior for a cradle, have been the object of the veneration of the faithful for many centuries past.