Hymn
The first verse of the following hymn is said genuflecting.
 
 Ave, star of ocean,
 Child divine who barest,
 Mother, ever-virgin,
 Heaven's portal fairest.

 Taking that sweet Ave
 Erst by Gabriel spoken,
 Eva's name reversed,
 Be of peace the token.

 Break the sinners' fetters,
 Light to blind restoring,
 All our ills dispelling,
 Every boon imploring.

 Show thyself a mother
 In thy supplication;
 He will hear who chose thee
 At his incarnation.

 Maid all maids excelling,
 Passing meek and lowly,
 Win for sinners pardon,
 Make us chaste and holy.

 As we onward journey
 Aid our weak endeavour,
 Till we gaze on Jesus
 And rejoice forever.

 Father, Son, and Spirit,
 Three in One confessing,
 Give we equal glory
 Equal praise and blessing.
 Amen.

V. Hail, Mary, full of grace.
R. The Lord is with thee.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/embed/dE_s_3Y3Fj8[/youtube]

From the Sermons of Pope St Leo the Great.
2nd for Christmas.
 
The Almighty and merciful God, Whose nature is goodness, Whose will is power, and Whose work is mercy, did, at the very beginning of the world, as soon as the devil's hatred had mortally poisoned us with the venom of his envy, foretell those remedies which His mercy had foreordained for our healing. He bade the serpent know that there was to be a Seed of the woman Who should yet bruise the swelling of his pestilential head; this Seed was none other than the Christ to come in the flesh, that God and Man in one Person, Who, being born of a Virgin, should, by His undefiled birth, damn the seducer of man.

The devil rejoiced that by his fraud he had so deceived man as to make him lose the gifts of God, forfeit his privilege of eternal life, bring himself under the hard sentence of death, and find in his misery a certain comfort in the accomplice of his guilt; he rejoiced also that God, in His just anger, was changed towards man, whom He had made in such honour. But, dearly beloved brethren, that Unchangeable God, Whose Will cannot be divorced from His goodness, by His own secret counsel carried out in a mysterious way His original purpose of goodness, and man, who had been led into sin by the wicked craft of the devil, perished not to disappoint that gracious purpose of God.

Then therefore, dearly beloved brethren, the fulness of that time came, which God had appointed for our Redemption, our Lord Jesus Christ entered this lower world, came down from His heavenly throne, and, while He left not that glory which He hath with the Father before the world was, was incarnate by a new order and a new birth new, in that He Who is Invisible among His own, was made visible among us; He Who is Incomprehensible, willed to be comprehended; He Who is before the ages, began to be in time; the Lord of all shadowed the glory of His Majesty, and took upon Him the form of a servant; the Impassible God vouchsafed to become a man subject to suffering; and the Immortal laid Himself under the laws of death.

V. But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us.
R. Thanks be to God.