Hi, I'm Steve Nichols, and thanks for joining me for another episode of Five Minutes in

Church History.

In a few days, we will be celebrating Christmas, and so we reached back into our archives and

found this episode on Christmas.

I hope you enjoy it as you celebrate Christmas with your friends and family.

Thanks so much for listening to Five Minutes in Church History.

Well, happy December 26th to you, the day after Christmas, as we have this episode of Five

Minutes in Church History on this episode, I thought I would share with you three theologians

who love Christmas.

The first one we come across is Dietrich Bonnefer.

He loved Christmas, gave many Christmas sermons.

One of them he gave actually was on Mary in the Advent, and here's what he says, surely

from now on, all generations will call me blessed, since Mary joyfully.

Well, what does it mean to call her blessed, Mary, this lowly-made servant?

It can only mean that we worship an amazement, the miracle that has been performed in her,

that we see in her how God regards and raises up the lowly.

To call Mary blessed does not mean to build altars to her, but rather it means to worship

with her the God who regards and chooses the lowly, who has done great things for me,

as Mary says.

And remember, it was Mary who said, holy is his name, Bonnefer concludes, to call Mary

blessed means to know with her that God's mercy is for those who fear him from generation

to generation.

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