Christ is at the center of Ignatian spirituality. Much of the Spiritual Exercises consists of meditations on the gospel accounts of the life of Jesus. The first of these is a meditation on Jesus’ birth. In David Fleming’s paraphrase:
To be able to enter into the deep-down stillness of this night, to be able to see this very human baby with all the wonder which comes from eyes of faith, to watch how Mary and Joseph handle themselves, their own response to God at this time–these are the various aspects or focuses of the mystery to which I may find myself drawn.
There’s no better musical expression of this incarnational theology than the chorus “For Unto Us a Child Is Born” from Handel’s Messiah. Here it is performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and the Tenebrae choir, directed by Sir Colin Davis.
