Homilies

Contents

Reading pages: 1–5 · 6

1. 1A chronological fragment dates Christ's birth to 25 December in Augustus's forty-second year and places his coming in the sixth millennium, matching the six days of creation.
2. 2Mark's third hour is the hour of Pilate's sentence, John's sixth the hour of the crucifixion itself, with the scourging, mocking and second hearing in between.
3. 4A festal homily on Mary: Gabriel's greeting reverses Eve's grief, the magi adore without prying, and the preacher answers the denial of John 9:29 with the prophecies of Christ.
4. 5A second homily on Mary gathers the prophets' titles for her (ark, burning bush, closed gate, sealed fountain) and reads Isaiah 7:14 and the annunciation as a virginal conception and birth.
5. 6A homily on the Presentation explains that the purification offering was for humanity, not for the Virgin, and expounds Simeon, his song and his prophecy of the sword; the scan then runs into the opening of a homily on Andrew.