Conclusion

Such were the first worshippers of Bethlehem, nine types of devotion shown to us there, full of spiritual loveliness and attraction: nine separate seas that image heaven in their own way, or form altogether one harmonious ocean of worship of the Incarnate Word. We may join ourselves, first to one, and then to another, of these nine choirs of first worshippers, and adore the Incarnate Word. How wonderful is the variety of devotion, more endless than the variations of light and shade, or the ever-shifting processions of the graceful clouds, or the never-twice-repeated tracery of the forest architecture, as endless apparently as the excellences of Him Who is the centre of all devotion! We may venture, not uninvited, into that dear sanctuary of Bethlehem, and be as heart to Mary or as thought to Joseph, as voice to John or as harps to the Angels, as sheep to the Shepherds or as incense to the Kings, as sweet sights to Simeon and to Anna, or as soft sighs to the Holy Innocents, or as a pen for Luke to write with, and to write of the Babe of Bethlehem. Is it not a beautiful sea of tranquillest devotion, with the spirit of Bethlehem settling down over the purple of its waters, like one of those silent sunsets which are so beautiful that it seems as if they ought to make music in the air?

- text taken from the book Bethlehem, by Father Frederick William Faber