Patristic Quote for the Day (#2)

(in honor of Fr. Alms' request for a Western Father!)

Almighty God, whose whole being is goodness, whose will is power, and whose every act is mercy, designated in the very beginning the remedy His good will had ordained for our redemption. Immediately after diabolical malice had stricken mankind with the poison of its envy, it was foretold to the serpent that the see of the woman by its own power would crush the pride of his wicked head. Christ, the fulfilment of this prophesy, as God and Man born of the Virgin, by an inviolate birth, would damn the tempter of mankind. When the fulness of time ordained for this redemption had come, our Lord Jesus Christ descended from His heavenly throne, though not abandoning His Father's glory, and came into this world. In the nature order His birth had no precedent; it was a new order because the Invisible had become visible; it was a new order because the Incomprehensible had willed to be comprehended; it was a new order that the Eternal should begin in time; that the Lord of the universe should permit the dignity of His majesty to be overshadowed and to assume the form of a servant; that God infinitely distant from all suffering, should deign to become man with all his sufferings; that the Immortal should humble Himself under the laws of death. - Pope St. Leo the Great, A Homily upon the Annunciation